Americans are losing a vast array of people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy. Gone are specialists who were confronting a measles outbreak in Ohio, workers who drove a van to schools in North Carolina to offer vaccinations and a program that provided free tests to sick people in Tennessee.
00:29three of our units but I directly oversee operations for two sprinter vans just like the one you see behind us so these are vans that have been upfitted for clinical services and we provide things like immunizations and HIV and STI testing screening in the community.
00:59For those of us working on public health we're always vigilant we're always watching and doing our best to mitigate to prevent mitigate disease in our community and it feels like you're fighting an uphill battle.
01:11Our mobile units have really allowed us to get out into community and reach more people. We're at the schools, we're at different community events, health fairs, weekends like in the summer and the fall where we're having all of these festivals and you know
01:41we've had our mobile units for us to be present in the community to provide education to provide vaccines so that they have definitely been instrumental in us reaching the masses.
01:50at the end of the day when you don't have the funding you can't keep the people employed so that's that is hard to see people really great public health workers.
01:57you know, and so you want to see the work that they're doing continue.
02:22You want to see the work that they're doing continue.
02:26But also it really creates some uncertainty for the rest of us
02:30of how can we keep this important work going.
02:34The governmental public health system, the federal, the state,
02:54and the local arm, is the core system that keeps communities safe
02:59and healthy and well and thriving in lots of cases.
03:05And if any part of that starts to shift,
03:08we could see direct and immediate impacts
03:11to the health of people on the ground.
03:17In other cases, for example, in Texas,
03:24the small county would probably basically
03:27consist of vaccination, immunization services.
03:30So we have to shift the narrative a bit in order for it to resonate.
03:38Nobody wants to go swim in a community pool
03:40and come out of it with a rash or a disease from it.
03:43Nobody wants to walk out their door and take a fresh breath of air
03:47and start wheezing.
03:49These are the things that we do behind the scenes.
03:57Oftentimes, we get short-term money to deal with whatever the problem of the day is.
04:10And then when the problem of the day starts to go away, the money goes away with it.
04:26They, the money goes away with it.
04:32I'm elected by the people of District 6. Thank you.
04:35Sign and scale for the charity fee.
04:39So that for me...
04:40That program was started by the health systems essentially,
04:43and so it's there to some of our nonprofit clinics.
04:47They provide us data and expertise.
04:49If you pull a resource, then something's not happening, which is often the case.
04:53And I think this is why us and local public health and I think even our state partners
04:58hear us with this, is that we really need to make sure we have strong infrastructure
05:03that's flexible to just address health.
05:05We have a lot of emerging health threats that we are, you know, and those that are unknown, I mean, you know, there's the question of what's to come, you know, COVID.
05:12Five years ago, COVID wasn't a thing.
05:13So we didn't talk about it, but it went from not being a thing to the third leading cause
05:17of death in our community.
05:18So we have a lot of emerging health threats that we are, you know, and those that are unknown,
05:23I mean, you know, there's the question of what's to come, you know, COVID.
05:25Five years ago, COVID wasn't a thing.
05:26So we didn't talk about it, but it went from not being a thing to the third leading cause of death in our community.
05:33As an example of how quickly health can be impacted in the community.
05:39And so we have to be prepared for the things that we know are coming and we have a lot of those on the long list of infections that are currently we're not winning on.
05:56And then the things that are potentially to come that we have to be prepared for.
06:02And if we don't have the infrastructure, we can't build it in real time.
