Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership

The Road Goes On Forever I had the pleasure of hearing from friend of SAPHL Heather Lanthorn last week on effective communication on vaccines and it really gave me the language I needed to adequately frame how we think about ...

How do we build lasting change in public health?

It's not about short-term wins. It’s about “laying tracks of trust.”
At SAPHL, we strive to honor the memory of public health champions by embedding these practices into our work every day.

saphl.substack.com/p/the-road-g...

Way, Way Down in the Weeds A little bit about State Directed Payments

It feels a bit strange to talk about something like SDP's while we're in the midst of a shutdown. But this tells an important story about how quiet, complicated programs find ways to prop up our broken health care. It also tells us what we can expect in the future.

open.substack.com/pub/saphl/p/...

Foodborne Illness, the CDC, and a lack of Coordination and Leadership The Value of a Team and an Organizational Team

I wrote this before the news broke yesterday about Monarez's firing and the leadership resignations. It still remains true today and in case it isn't obvious, we're headed towards catastrophe.

saphl.substack.com/p/foodborne-...

This can and should be a priority for everyone - if you haven't, you should be asking your school district about what they're doing to make sure they're both following state law and protecting the health of our children and our community.

Despite having 6 cases of Measles so far this year - we have more than 9000 kindergartners who we're letting fall between the cracks despite it being mandatory for school.

But one really, really important point to draw out from this data is that while exemptions are climbing - that's not the whole story. 4.8% of kindergartners in Georgia have an exemption while only 86.8% are up-to-date on their MMR. The other 8.4% just aren't meeting the vaccine requirements.

Vaccination Coverage and Exemptions among Kindergartners View national and state-level school vaccination coverage and exemption estimates.

The CDC published their annual numbers on vaccination rates and unsurprisingly they've continued to decline across the South. Georgia now also has the lowest vaccination rate of any state in the South.

www.cdc.gov/schoolvaxvie...

TennCare and the ACA Subsidies A health care lifeline for Tennesseans

What Medicaid cuts and the ACA subsidy act lapse will look like in Tennessee: open.substack.com/pub/saphl/p/...

Unraveling Our Safety Net Millions across the Southeast are about to lose their health insurance.

Read the first in our series on what Medicaid cuts and the ACA subsidy lapse will look like in the South: open.substack.com/pub/saphl/p/...

Just the perfect example of why we need more advocacy to lawmakers around public health. Public health professionals have spent far too much time avoiding "political" topics until our entire profession became one.

“Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak, experts warn that whooping cough and other preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and Trump’s ...

Hard to express what a big deal these numbers are. This is just as bad as measles and getting half the attention.

www.propublica.org/article/whoo...

Where We've Come From How Public Health Changes Lives

A big part of my family hails from Hazard, Kentucky. Hazard tells us how far we’ve come—and where we’re losing ground. This public health week, I'll be thinking a lot about how we can do better by communities like Hazard.

open.substack.com/pub/saphl/p/...

Absolutely reprehensible and will be particularly devastating for small, rural health departments who have no other ways to absorb these new costs now that the federal government isn't covering it.

In most cases, these staff are specifically supporting programs that Congress specifically appropriated money for and that there aren't folks waiting in the wings to back fill this work. Cuts in everything from miner safety to TB prevention are going to make us a less healthy, less safe society.

On friday, the legislative session will wrap up in Georgia. There are *still* no plans to deal with the massive cuts and costs being passed down to state government. Guess we're just going to wing it till they come back next year?

10,000 Federal Health Dept. Workers to Be Laid Off Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a major restructuring of the department, which now employs about 82,000 people.

If RFK Jr. really follows through on narrowing the scope of the CDC to preparing and preventing infectious disease outbreaks, states better be ready to pick up an enormous amount of work in their place.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/u...

State legislatures are walking into a disaster if they don't start making plans now.

Putting $880 Billion in Potential Federal Medicaid Cuts in Context of State Budgets and Coverage | KFF This brief explores the magnitude of the potential federal Medicaid funding cuts under the House budget resolution. This brief puts the $880 billion in cuts in context by comparing the size of the cut...

Extremely important information from @kff.org on what these Medicaid cuts will look like at the state level. The four state we work in - TN, NC, SC, and GA - stand to lose more than $6 billion!

www.kff.org/medicaid/iss...

Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership | Support Public Health Join the Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership in advancing health outcomes across the South. Advocate, donate, or get involved today.

So consider donating or getting involved today!
saphl.org

We’ve seen firsthand the importance and dedication of public health professionals, leaders, and advocates who work to improve their communities, often within systems that are underfunded and understaffed. We hope to be the support they need.

Together, we can change this. With your help, SAPHL will build the infrastructure needed to safeguard communities from preventable disease and worsening health disparities.

Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership | Support Public Health Join the Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership in advancing health outcomes across the South. Advocate, donate, or get involved today.

We’re excited to announce the launch of the Southern Alliance for Public Health Leadership (SAPHL.org), an organization tackling some of the South’s most pressing public health challenges: declining vaccination rates, rising infant and maternal mortality, and inadequate access to quality care.

Half of the new cases in the US in 2024 were in the South. Acros the south - even when there was funding - there were thousands of newly diagnosed cases of HIV. These cuts will make Americans less healthy and less safe.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Weighing Major Cuts to Funding for Domestic HIV Prevention The plans could be announced as soon as within a day, people familiar with the matter said, if the administration goes ahead.

This will be absolutely devastating for public health in the South.

www.wsj.com/health/healt...

Screenshot of a poster that reads ADVOCACY ALERT CDC HIV Prevention Funding is at Risk! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention is facing severe funding cuts within the next 48-72 hours. These cuts threaten essential programs that provide HIV prevention, treatment, and education to our community-putting countless lives at risk. Call your U.S. Senators and Representatives and urge them to say NO to CDC HIV funding cuts! & U.S. Capitol Switchboard Senate: 202-224-3121 House: 202-225-3121

They won’t stop until they’ve destroyed the entire US Public Health infrastructure. Please call your representatives.

Unvaccinated New Mexico Resident Dies of Suspected Measles The patient tested positive for the infection, but state health officials could not confirm that it was the cause of death.

A second death from measles after a decade with none.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/h...