John Auerbach

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Hiding Our Heads in the Sand - Why the US is Unprepared for Pandemics and Disasters

A new report from the Trust for America's Health minces no words. President and CEO John Auerbach charges: COVID-19 has shined a harsh spotlight on the country's lack of preparedness for dealing with threats to Americans' well-being. Years of cutting funding for public health and emergency preparedness programs has left the nation with a smaller-than-necessary public health workforce, limited testing capacity, an insufficient national stockpile, and archaic disease tracking systems - in summary, twentieth-century tools for dealing with twenty-first-century challenges.

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New Report Finds Nation's Public Health Emergencies Are Increasing While State Emergency Preparedness Levels face Challenges

Press Release | Trust for America’s Health | February 12, 2019

The report takes an annual snapshot of states' public health and emergency readiness. Authored by TFAH since 2003, it...highlights pressing needs for additional action particularly as weather- related and other public health emergencies become more frequent...It identifies specific action-steps that if taken would improve the jurisdiction's overall level of emergency preparedness, including dedicated funding for health security initiatives, modernizing and supporting technologies and innovations within public health programs, and building multisectoral collaboration and leadership.

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Ready or Not: New Report on Protecting the Public's Health

The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) released its 2019 edition of what it hopes will be an annual report, Ready or Not: Protecting the Public's Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism last February. The ground-breaking report warns about key global challenges ahead, like the risk of a flu pandemic; the impact of weather pattern changes due to climate change; the dangers of antimicrobial resistance, and others, and tries to offer advice on how to prepare for them.

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TFAH: Persistent Underfunding of America's Public Health System Makes the Nation Vulnerable to Disasters and Puts Lives at Risk

Press Release | Trust for America’s Health | April 24, 2019

Chronic underfunding of the nation's public health infrastructure has left the nation vulnerable to serious health and safety risks, according to a new report released today by Trust for America's Health...The federal government, primarily through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides critical support for the nation's public health infrastructure including by funding a substantial portion of state and local public health programs. But, between Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 - Fiscal Year 2019, the CDC's budget fell by 10 percent when adjusted for inflation. Cuts to the CDC budget have direct impacts on state and local public health departments' budgets.

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