How following the Rule of Rescue may challenge fairness and justice considerations when dealing with limited resources during a pandemic. This post originally appeared on the website for the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota and is reposted here with permission from the author. As a public health researcher, I am deeply invested in promoting and protecting equity. In disaster
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by Heather Krasna and JP Leider The Biden Administration’s announcement that they will spend $7.4 billion on the public health workforce is big news for the woefully underfunded, short-staffed, overstretched, and burned out public health professionals working in our nation’s local, state, tribal, territorial (and even federal) health departments. There could be thousands of new hires in public health. While
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by Jonathon P. Leider, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Debra DeBruin, and Nneka Sederstrom Recent announcements at the state and federal level reflect good news about expanded eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines. Three weeks ago, the Minnesota Department of Health released its updated vaccine guidance about the staging and expected timing of COVID-19 vaccine. President Biden recently said he now expects all adults to
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by Emily Johnson and JP Leider Minnesota, like much of the United States, is in the midst of a COVID surge. While previous surges have stressed our resources, article after article after article highlights that our health care systems are at a breaking point. As the vaccine rollout is being discussed and (hopefully) soon finalized nationwide, it is worth revisiting
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In recent decades, public health has become politicized – both the governmental enterprise and the core concepts. There is partisan and ideological disagreement about the role of government, and this has translated pretty directly into disparate views on the role of public health in society. This gap has widened over the last 40 years. The General Social Survey, conducted since
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Literally every single day, in my newsfeed or in my email, new COVID-related papers show up. Most are clinical trials. The topics are varied and various, from all walks of life, across all sectors. We are seeing science work in real time. Papers are being put into preprint servers, some are published, some are retracted. New studies update what the
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by Mac McCullough, JP Leider, Beth Resnick, David Bishai City and county governments play a major role in the funding and provision of a broad array of health, public safety, and social services in their communities. Although there is substantial federal and state spending in support of local activities, local governments are a main source of government spending in the
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by JP Leider and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field Minnesota has been in the news in recent months, for all the wrong reasons. The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in the midst of a seemingly uncontrollable COVID-19 pandemic again shone a light on the tremendous disparities and inequities present in the state. The governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, noted
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Before 2020, before COVID, I think I may be received two or three media calls, ever, on public health funding. At this point, I and colleagues have published a couple dozen articles on the dearth of and underinvestment in public health funding. But not a lot of media interest. Now, admittedly, that’s maybe more a reflection on my work than
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Source It’s 10 pm. Do you know where your public health workforce is? These next 6 to 8 weeks are likely to represent the midnight hour of the first wave of COVID-19. Models differ, significantly, but as states begin to reopen, we know that thousands of more deaths are on the way. When this pandemic started as several outbreaks across
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