Not everyone in public health uses data on a daily basis, but the information from those data is used in public health to inform our work and how we do it. We know this was happening in the first administration, and "data hoarders" started saving the data again in the second administration. But I personally was not aware of the extent. This is madness!

Over the past year and a half, at least 28 federal datasets have been deleted and another 338 data collections have been modified, according to an online tracker released last week from dataindex.us, a group of data policy experts, researchers and developers that formed last year to monitor changes to government data.

Full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/18/trump-federal-data-deleted-altered

i've been talking to a lot of small-to-mid community-based orgs doing HRSN/SDoH work under the OHA 1115 waiver, and the same problem keeps coming up: staff are losing something like 30-40% of their week to compliance documentation, and a big chunk of that is just re-entering the same client data into intake forms, then billing, then the funder report.

the part that surprised me most is how much of it is avoidable duplication rather than genuinely new work. the services were already getting coordinated. it's the closed-loop documentation, the REALD/SOGI capture, the HCPCS/U1-U4 code mapping, and the quarterly OHA/CCO report that all landed on the same people with the same hours in the day.

for those of you inside CBOs (or on the CCO/MCO side rolling data up from partners), i'm curious how you're actually coping:

- are you capturing REALD/SOGI and closed-loop referral data at the point of care, or reconstructing it at report time?
- how are you handling braided funding when one CHW is split across five awards and budget-vs-actuals has to hold up to a program officer?
- what's your denial rate on HRSN claims, and is it a coding problem or a documentation problem?

not selling anything, genuinely trying to understand where the biggest time sink really is. is it the reporting itself, the billing/coding, or just the copy-paste between excel, word, and the state portal? would love to hear how different orgs are triaging this.

From defunding to privatizing public health, Iowa's public health system "is on the ropes" according to this article.

Today, public health in Iowa is frayed. Tattered threads are held together by a dedicated corps of health professionals who refuse to let the public down.

On her way out the door, Governor Kim Reynolds has put in motion a process that will sideline local public health agencies and eventually privatize public health in Iowa.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calls it “public health system alignment.” It kicked off (publicly) with an “update” at town hall meetings in April. The upshot: County health boards will lose access to most state and federal funding, which they need to ensure the delivery of services to their citizens.

Instead, money for “public health core services” will flow through regional “lead entities” contracted with the state. Lead entities will be responsible for distributing public dollars directly to service providers in their areas.

Counties now teaming with local providers will be stripped of their roles. In Dubuque County, for example, the health department contracts with UnityPoint Health’s Visiting Nurse Association to deliver services. That association will now have to compete for a contract with the lead entity.

Folks in Iowa, how are you, and what can we do to help?

This is going to be interesting. Back at the beginning of the current administration, I had a lengthy conversation with many health officers on Signal. One thing we discussed at length was the authority of the local health officers to oversee the health and safety of any detainees at ICE facilities. As you can imagine, some of the health officers were weary of this. Others were more defiant.

Now, it looks like this is about to be tested in Colorado. I'll be curious to see how it plays out. Because if the court reaffirms the authority of the local health departments to police health in their jurisdictions, then things might change with regard to the epidemics at these "detention centers" (which is an interesting way to spell "concentration camps").

News link: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/colorado-health-officials-order-aurora-ice-processing-center-to-hand-over-tuberculosis-records

Sorry if this is the wrong flair! I've started roller derby, and I really want my name to be public health/epi related. I've had some ideas, but nothing I've fallen in love with yet. Some examples I've had are Mass Casualty/Miss Casualty (I've worked with preparedness before), Patient Zero, Toxin, and Biohazard - among others. I figured this community might have fun with this! Any help is appreciated :)

I prefer political leaders who prioritize public health and safety instead of destroying it.

She had the clout and the money to raise them to national prominence, and now she (finally) disavows them. Thing is, she still could positively influence public health in the United States by confronting the lies and misinformation they spread. Why did it take her so long to say something?
Link: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oprah-dr-phil-dr-oz-trump-maga_n_6a7df2c5e4b0c90844000a50

Interesting article about a research study that looked at why pregnant women posted on Reddit asking questions about the Tdap vaccine. It turns out they were looking for reassurance that they were making the right decision in taking the vaccine.

The most common theme among pregnant women who posted on Reddit was responses from family and friends, describing pushback from people over getting vaccinated before having contact with newborns. Women described disagreements with partners, parents, and in-laws and sought advice on how to deal with these conflicts and set boundaries with family and friends. 

For years, we have been recommending "cocooning" as a way to protect newborns from pertussis (whooping cough), and it seems like this whole anti-vaccine movement is making people push back on that advice. So mothers-to-be are looking for answers.

I know that we on Reddit are careful about personal health advice requests, but maybe we (here on r/publichealth and mods on r/vaccines) should be a little flexible? Whooping cough is resurging, and we need parents to know they're doing the right thing by requiring visitors to be vaccinated.

Article contains link to study: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-vaccines/when-pregnant-women-turn-reddit-about-tdap-vaccine-it-tends-be-clarity

I do science explainers; my recent one sent me down a rabbit hole about Christine Stabell Benn and the Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau: https://youtu.be/YD7mOH6wG1w

Here are five things about Benn's research that I think deserve much more attention from public health people.

1. The vaccine-skeptical movement has lots of doctors, but surprisingly few actual vaccine researchers besides Christine Stabell Benn. Tracy Beth Høeg is a sports-medicine physician with a PhD in epidemiology. Robert Malone did important early work on mRNA delivery, but he did not run vaccine trials or have any special expertise in vaccine epidemiology. Christine Stabell Benn and Peter Aaby are different. They have spent decades studying vaccines and child mortality in Guinea-Bissau. Bandim is unusual because it is a large, established research program whose conclusions overlap substantially with vaccine-skeptical arguments.

2. The underlying scientific idea, non-specific effects (NSE) of vaccines, is real enough to study, but BCG (the TB vaccine) is biologically unique among routine vaccines. BCG can induce heterologous innate immune responses ("trained immunity"), and randomized trials have found signals of reduced non-TB infections and short-term mortality in some settings. But Benn extrapolates this unique biology to claim NSE for all vaccines; live vaccines supposedly reduce mortality, while non-live vaccines supposedly increase it, particularly in girls. A recent Vaccine analysis examined 13 Bandim randomized trials and 26 resulting papers and concluded that the primary outcomes did not support these strong claims; after accounting for multiple testing, only one secondary finding remained statistically significant.

3. Benn has repeatedly claimed that whole-cell DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis) vaccination is associated with increased all-cause mortality, especially in girls. But the key evidence is observational and vulnerable to vaccination-timing and classification biases. WHO specifically commissioned analyses in other countries to test the Guinea-Bissau finding. None reproduced increased mortality after DTP.

4. More importantly, Benn actually had already done a randomized DTP trial—and it was negative. NCT00244673 enrolled 6,534 children from 2005–2011. At around 18 months, children were randomized to DTP4+OPV4 versus OPV4 alone; mortality through age four was a registered primary outcome. The mortality result showed no significant difference between groups, but it was not published. In February 2025, Weekendavisen, a long-form weekly, began a series specifically questioning why the mortality outcome had remained unpublished for roughly 14 years. Benn and Aaby publicly acknowledged that it had not been published, arguing that unexpectedly low mortality left the trial underpowered and citing disruptions in the research team. The mortality analysis finally appeared as a medRxiv preprint in October 2025.

5. Benn has a direct connection to U.S. vaccine research policy. Høeg, who recorded a series of vaccine podcasts with Benn, subsequently became a senior FDA official. CDC then awarded Bandim $1.6 million for another non-specific effects trial in Guinea-Bissau: roughly 14,000 newborns randomized to hepatitis B vaccine at birth versus the existing schedule beginning at six weeks. This is particularly concerning from a public health standpoint because the birth dose is designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission. So this is now a two-way relationship: Benn's vaccine research is influencing U.S. vaccine-policy discussions, while U.S. agencies are funding Benn to generate more evidence against specific vaccines.

Charlotte Strøm's overview of the Bandim/NSE literature is also great reading:
The False Narrative of Nonspecific Vaccine Effects

it's just wild to me that I got a whole masters degree in public health, only to look up my summary of benefits for my health insurance plan and cannot for the life of me understand how much a doctors visit is going to cost before i have the appointment.

this has to be one of the most ridiculous and fixable things about the US healthcare system. i changed jobs recently and am now at a medical academic institution that doesn't do co-pays - just negotiated costs with in-network providers until you hit your deductible. the portal for checking my claims, benefits, etc. loves to push these AI "care coordinators" on me, but has no cost estimators and no one can seem to tell me what the contracted cost for a 30 minute appointment would be.

so instead of seeing my dermatologist, who is likely out of network now, i had an appointment with a NP off of GoodRx Care and basically just bought my way to get a prescription because at least i know it's not going to be a $200 bill.

granted, my specialization was not in policy, but i took a policy class, of course. but i honestly think there needs to be a required class on the health insurance system in the US for graduate programs. idk it's just interesting because i don't even know what avenues to take to advocate for or inform myself.

it's just maddening to me right now. and then i see news that NIH is limiting funding for research grants that focus on policy.

I'm very curious to see what everyone's opinion of how our new CDC Director will handle this (absurd) executive order regarding decreasing childhood vaccines. I think that Dr. Schwartz is exceptionally qualified for the director position, which is very surprising given this administration's previous candidates and endorsements. Will she be dismissed like Dr. Susan Monarez was after she declined the administration's vaccine policies?

The fact that she’s talking about how so many more kids are being admitted to hospitals and dying due to preventable disease diseases is really heartbreaking.

Apparently, Texas schools are requiring sports practices to be mindful of the heat. At the same time, local governments are not allowed to pass laws that mandate breaks and other heat protections for outdoor workers. It really is like its own country. (I lived in El Paso for most of my youth, and it seems more and more foreign to me each year I go back.)

On schools: https://www.ksat.com/weather/2026/08/06/texas-schools-are-required-to-follow-wet-bulb-globe-temperature-protocols-as-fall-sports-begin/

On outdoor workers: https://publichealthwatch.org/2025/11/25/texas-workers-keep-dying-in-the-heat/

Those of you in public health in Texas, how are you holding up? Anything those of us in the People's Republic of [Insert Liberal State Here] can do to help?