New Jersey Department of Health Invests $116,500,000 to "Strengthen Public Health Infrastructure"
what does that really mean?
According to today’s press release from the NJDOH:
“The pandemic highlighted more than ever before just how critical it is for government to invest in public health,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “A robust network of county and local health departments can make all the difference in helping states identify, address, and respond to public health issues. This investment will strengthen our public health infrastructure by making us more resilient and prepared to meet the challenges facing New Jersey both today and in the future.”
The first grant, Enhancing Local Public Health Infrastructure Partner Organization Grant, in the amount of $75 million was awarded to the New Jersey Association of City and County Health Officials (NJACCHO) to administer grants to eligible county, municipal and regional local health departments (LHDs) across the state. The goal of these funds is to support the development or expansion of long-term health infrastructure improvements with a key emphasis on health equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Grants will be awarded to LHDs based on a funding allocation formula that accounts for population served and greatest need.
Local health department seeking a chunk of these NJACCHO funds can choose to address one or more of the following goals:
Increase health equity for disproportionately affected populations;
Streamline processes supported by technology and automation;
Strengthen organizational capacity to drive progress on public health priorities and increase capacity across LHDs;
Expand data collection and infrastructure to drive data-driven decision making with an aim to improve equity;
Develop multilingual, culturally-appropriate communications/public health campaigns and share across LHDs;
Codify institutional knowledge and COVID-specific lessons learned; or
Enhance and/or continue ongoing COVID-19/communicable disease mitigation efforts.
Let’s consider what this could mean…
“Streamline processes supported by technology and automation" - less in-person support
“Expand data collection and infrastructure” - surveillance
“Develop multilingual, culturally-appropriate communications/public health campaigns and share across LHDs” - tailored propaganda
“Codify institutional knowledge and COVID-specific lessons learned”
Let’s stop right here for a moment, because this one is terrifying. What have our health departments learned?
Here was my experience from just a few days ago…
The goal of codifying institutional knowledge of COVID lessons learned is absurd. Regulatory institutions have decidedly NOT learned the lessons. My concern is that in order to get this grant money, local health departments can basically only promise to codify lessons NJACCHO handed down to local health boards. This is a clear attempt to settle $cience and end the discussion. This would essentially codify #diedsuddenly and SADS (sudden adult death syndrome) as “mysteries” (just like SIDS). Because “institutional knowledge” about COVID has not changed despite science.
It’s a good time to remember that:
The Enhancing Local Public Health Infrastructure Partner Organization Grant was made possible through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) funding, which provides funding and technical assistance to state, local, and territorial health departments to implement and maintain surveillance for human disease and their vectors, improve diagnostics, and to implement and evaluate prevention strategies.
Consider how NJDOH partners approach institutional knowledge…
Repeating. Yes.
Revisiting, reassessing and adjusting according to new findings… not so much.
You can find more on how our local health boards are under the influence here and here.
A big part of the problem is that the funding comes with strings attached. It’s conditional. And the conditions generally come from the CDC. So, once a local board accepts the funding, the public health “solutions” are no longer local.
More on messaging and how it is effectively replaced truth here, here and here.
So is the $116.5 million money well spent? I don’t think so…
It just knocks the wind out of you, renders you breathless and wordless. You've brought forth a wealth of important code and symbolism here. With the reading of this post I finally GOT IT about how they use graphic design as part of the attack-ology. Covid graphics always made me feel nauseous but they are more than awful and ugly, they are mythical in the way they "tell a story." Like that one with the man carrying that giant needle charging at "the virus." OMG.
Keep up the great work.
And while we're looking at top-down public health policy... look at what's at the top.
https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1593158578071736320?s=20&t=X9AGy1P5EzyZ-ibVQW-VwA