AAPHP News, Volume 2 Issue 22 - November 7, 2001
News Items
1. Save the date! Our Annual meeting will take place
in the afternoon on Friday, Feb 22nd at the Adams Mark San Antonio
Riverwalk. In San Antonio, Texas. The meeting will be during a break in the
educational portion of Preventive Medicine 2002 http://www.acpm.org
2. Preparing for the Legal Aspects of BioTerrorism: Model Emergency Public Health
Legislation http://www.law.georgetown.edu/topics/info.html
(submitted by Marcel Salive)
3. The CDC Responds: Coping with Bioterrorism-- The Role of the Laboratorian
November 9th Satellite and web http://www.phppo.cdc.gov/phtn/default.asp
In addition the CDC plans weekly programs on these dates: Nov 16, 2001 -- Rebroadcast
Nov 19, 2001, Nov 29, 2001-- Rebroadcast Dec 3, 2001, Dec 6, 2001 --Rebroadcast
Dec 10, 2001, Dec 13, 2001 --Rebroadcast Dec 17, 2001. Check the above website
for full details as they become available.
4. Recommended by Kim Buttery http://encarta.msn.com/guide/bioterrorism.asp
5. Minutes of our Nov 1, 2001 board meeting. See Item 5 below.
6. Donald A. Henderson, M.D., was named to serve as director of a newly created
Office of Public Health Preparedness, which will coordinate national response
to public health emergencies.
http://www.os.dhhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20011101a.html
7. APHA action alert - PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND OUR ROLE IN NATIONAL
SECURITY See Item 7 below for details
AAPHP News is sent to members whenever we receive several items of potential
interest. Send information for this newsletter to the editor Virginia Dato MD
MPH at vmdato@pitt.edu . Please forward this newsletter
to physicians who may be interested in joining. A membership application form
can be found on
our web page http://www.aaphp.org.
Item 5 AAPHP BOARD MINUTES
The AAPHP Board of Trustees convened by teleconference on November 1, 2001 at
1:30 p.m. EST. Present were Ginny Dato, Marcel Salive, Joel Nitzkin, Kathleen
Acree, Arvind Goyal, Dave Cundiff, Camille Dillard, Mary Ellen Bradshaw, Doug
Mack, and Peter Rumm. John Poundstone, Marc Safran, Liz Safran and Jonathan
Weisbuch were unable to attend.
We had an excellent program at APHA, but attendance was very sparse. Several
AAPHP leaders and members had to stay home -- not so much because of their fear
of bioterrorism, but because of the public's fear. Members
thanked Ginny Dato and Marc Safran for organizing an excellent educational program.
Arvind Goyal asked whether we should continue to coordinate our meetings with
those of APHA. We have perceived this as advantageous in the past, based on
a perception that many public health physicians are likely to
attend APHA meetings. However, many public health physicians find APHA less
and less relevant, and some public health departments place special restrictions
on the numbers who may attend the APHA meetings. We need more information in
order to make a decision for 2002.
APHA has changed its schedule for next year so that APHA's own sessions will run from Sun-Wed rather than from Mon-Thu. We will try to get more information about how APHA intends to implement this change, and what sessions will be held when.
Mary Ellen reviewed a proposed revision of a resolution on Boards of Health.
Discussion centered around the wording that would apply to the powers of Boards
of Health: "strong and effective" or "strong, independent,
and effective"? Members discussed the wording of this resolution, and made
several suggestions. The revised resolution will be submitted on our behalf.
A motion to this effect passed unanimously, with no abstentions.
We discussed the smallpox vaccine resolution that AAPHP submitted to APHA's
Annual Meeting. After addition of a clause about newer vaccine technologies,
the APHA Epidemiology Section co-sponsored the resolution. We
have not received confirmation of this resolution's passage, but it appears
likely that it has passed. After discussion, we decided to wait until after
we receive the AMA's report on bioterrorism and introduce any new material as
an amendment to that report. We will thus not introduce this as a separate AMA
resolution. Dave will circulate a copy to the Board.
We will request AAPHP representation to the U.S. DHHS working groups on bioterrorism
preparedness and response. Peter Rumm will draft a letter. Ann Fingar has resigned
as AAPHP Secretary due to overwhelming job
responsibilities as a State Epidemiologist. We discussed how to fill these responsibilities.
Mary Ellen Bradshaw will explore these possibilities as the chair of our Nominating
Committee.
At the October membership meeting in Atlanta, members voted in principle to approve the NCCHC proposal for providing staff services to AAPHP. Mary Ellen, Jonathan, and Doug will be at the NCCHC meeting in Albuquerque from November 11-14, and they will be in touch with Ginny from that meeting.
Joel will work with the tapes of the October meeting and write up minutes of that meeting. Dave will write up the conference calls as best he can. Camille may be able to serve as Secretary after 2002-01-01.
Marcel Salive will represent us at a 2001-12-04 forum on Bioterrorism, Disease Surveillance, and Homeland Defense in Washington DC. Mary Ellen suggested that Doug Campos-Outcalt may also want to attend.
Kim Buttery has placed the Job Market listings on our Web site. We need volunteers to abstract listings from journals. Joel is recruiting abstractors from the preventive medicine residency directors' group.
ACPM has endorsed several aspects of our job market initiative as ACPM policy. ACPM appears likely to terminate its current Job Finder contract soon, in order to allow ACPM to work more closely with AAPHP's initiative.
We will request that AMA send a letter to states and many local jurisdiction,
endorsing the hiring of a qualified Public Health physician to lead each public
health department. The letter will offer Joel Nitzkin as
an unpaid consultant (unless travel is required) to jurisdictions wishing to
hire qualified health officers.
Marcel announced the availability of a "Model state emergency powers act" through Larry Gostin's institute at Georgetown University. Dave will E-mail this Web page to the Board. It may be good for the E-news as well.
Item 7 From the APHA Affiliate list serve
"The following is a reactivated Action Alert to get funding for state and
local health departments. It is now timely to call both Congress and the President.
If you have already called the President once about this, THANK
YOU, but feel free to call again, because he has not yet done what you've asked.
Congress is now reachable, and they need to hear from you too. We made some
initial progress following your calls two weeks ago, but are
losing some ground again. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! Sarah Lister, Director of Congressional
Affairs, sarah.lister@apha.org
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APHA ACTION ALERT (REACTIVATED NOV 6, 2001)
Please call the White House and Congress and urge support for public
health funding. Pres. Bush: 202-456-1414
Congress (2 Sens, I Rep) 202-225-3121 (ask for the district where you are REGISTERED TO VOTE)
Keep your message short. A receptionist will record your call.
Your message:
· Support funding for public health: We need $1 billion for state and
local public health departments IMMEDIATELY!!!!
· Don't take funds from health departments to build the drug stockpile.
· Make public health a full partner in the Office of Homeland Security.
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Backgrounder:
PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND OUR ROLE IN NATIONAL SECURITY
CALL THE WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS TO VOICE YOUR OPINION.
This week, two critical issues are under discussion in Washington in response
to the events of Sept 11th and ongoing bioterrorist attacks:
· Funding for preparedness and response
· Organizing the new Office of Homeland Security
Funding: APHA supports a proposal to provide funding for state and local public
health infrastructure programs such as workforce staffing and training, laboratory
capacity, and surveillance and other information systems at state and local
health departments.
The Administration proposes to increase spending for state and local public
health programs by $300 million this year. But state health departments tell
us that just paying their bills for responding to immediate anthrax threats
and actual exposures unfolding now will cost $250 million.
We need $1 billion for state and local public health departments immediately!!!
The Administration proposes $650 million this year for the National Pharmaceutical
stockpile, more than twice the amount it proposes for state and local public
health infrastructure. While the stockpile is important, i ts cost is driven
by a single brand-name drug. There are ways to build an effective stockpile
more cheaply, and these must be explored. The stockpile need not be funded at
the expense of basic state and local public health
capacity.
We support strong funding for state and local public health capacity. These basic improvements will still be needed even if terrorist attacks stop.
Office of Homeland Security: The new office, headed by Tom Ridge, is intended
to coordinate the efforts of dozens of agencies. For public health to best respond
to national security concerns, we must be informed of potential health threats
so we can mobilize our expertise in prevention. Without our voice in communicating
health risks, public participation and confidence will be compromised. Public
health must be strongly represented as lead partners in staffing this new office.
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Sarah A. Lister, DVM, MPH, Dipl. ACVPM
Director of Congressional Affairs
American Public Health Association
800 I St. NW
Washington DC 20001-3710
202-777-2513
202-777-2533
sarah.lister@apha.org
www.apha.org
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