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Kaiser Health News and AP: Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus

The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century. Marshaled against a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million in the U.S., killed more than 126,000 people and cost tens of millions of jobs and $3 trillion in federal rescue money, state and local government health workers on the ground are sometimes paid so little that they qualify for public aid. (Weber, Ungar, Smith, Recht, Barry-Jester, 7/1)

California would shield public health officers' home addresses under new legislation that emerged Tuesday after the long-unknown officials faced death threats this year for imposing coronavirus requirements. Health officials struggling to contain the coronavirus have at times faced an intense backlash in California, including death threats and protests outside their homes for imposing or keeping restrictions. Most recently, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer went public last week with a series of physical threats she has received for maintaining a stay-at-home order for 10 million residents. (White, 6/30)

Physician groups, hospitals and nurses told senators Monday that as policy leaders prepare for a possible second wave of the coronavirus in the fall the state should be thinking about how it can play a role in ensuring personal protective equipment isn't in short supply. The health care leaders told legislators that in addition to the state developing a stockpile that could be bought into by providers if supplies run low, the state should also be thinking about securing a supply chain now to avoid the bidding wars that providers and states fought early in the pandemic. (Murphy, 6/30)