Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Sound Off On Florida Plan To Curb Vaccines, A Move Cheered On By Residents
News Service of Florida: Activists, Doctors Clash Over Florida's Proposal To Repeal Four School Vaccine Requirements
The Florida Department of Health heard hours of public comment from parents’ rights advocates and health care professionals on Thursday about the agency’s move to repeal four vaccines required to enroll in state schools. (Goni-Lessan, 10/8)
State efforts on homelessness and poverty —
ProPublica: Maricopa County’s Housing Hub Is A Dead End For Homeless Families
A decade ago, nonprofit leaders in Arizona’s most populous county boasted that they had created the Amazon of homeless service systems. Families in crisis would no longer have to contact a dozen agencies in search of shelter or housing. A single system could point them to help. But for all the hype, this system has become a dead end for many families. A 2023 evaluation found 94% of people who were assessed for housing help by the system didn’t receive it. And that didn’t account for parents who were unable to connect with a worker to see if they qualified for assistance. Families say it hasn’t improved. (Santa Cruz, 10/9)
AP: Audit: Errors Led To $13M+ In Improper Homeless Spending In Hawaii
In a rush to stem an accelerating homelessness crisis, Gov. Josh Green’s administration put its signature program to address the issue in the hands of a small nonprofit ill-equipped to properly account for tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer money it was spending, overseen by a state agency equally incapable of controlling expenditures. The result was that the state Office of Housing and Homelessness Solutions made at least $13.7 million in unauthorized or questionable expenditures to its handpicked contractor, the nonprofit HomeAid Hawaiʻi, State Auditor Les Kondo found in a 58-page report on the governor’s kauhale initiative released Wednesday. (Yerton, 10/8)
Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Gets Funding To Help Low Income Families
Wyoming is receiving $2.4 million dollars to continue a home visit program aimed at improving the health and well being of low income parents with young children. (Beck, 10/8)
Politico: DeSantis Calls For Accountability Over Leaked Hope Florida Report
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday called for the prosecution of the people behind a leaked grand jury report that was sharply critical of the Hope Florida scandal, a day after an appeals court ruled the report should never have been issued. In a press conference at the Greater Miami Expressway Agency, DeSantis spoke and took questions for about an hour, arguing that the scandal had been a “hoax” and defending the staffers and officials who’d been named in the report, saying their reputations had been improperly harmed. Wednesday’s ruling, by a three-judge panel on the 1st District Court of Appeal, ordered the report to be expunged from public record. (Leonard and Fineout, 10/8)
Also —
Cardinal News: Community Teams Work To Aid Virginia First Responders So They Can Focus On What's Needed Most
Jim McPheeters of Fairfax County remembers working outside on a hot, summer day when he began to feel the onset of a heart attack — symptoms he was able to identify because of his role on Fairfax’s Community Emergency Response Team. (Stephenson, 10/9)
KFF Health News: ‘We Are Seen As Disposable’: Rural Residents Fight A Proposed Gas Pipeline
Despite being in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, this rural county of roughly 85,000 people is still brimming with red foxes, coyotes, white-tailed deer, and wild turkeys. But in recent months, Enbridge Gas North Carolina’s proposed plans for a natural gas pipeline have exposed how population growth, here and across the nation, is driving a divide between wealthy newcomers and longtime residents. (Clasen-Kelly, 10/9)
