Finding housing for veterans without homes could cut emergency care costs: study 2 hours ago In this November 2013 photo, a Korean War veteran experiencing homelessness speaks with a Boston Health Care outreach coordinator on a sidewalk in that city. (Steven Senne/AP) Finding stable housing for veterans experiencing homelessness not only provides dramatic improvements for their lives but also potential large cost savings for Veterans Affairs medical programs, according to new research published this week from department researchers. Officials monitoring one California VA outreach program found that the number of emergency room visits and total costs of that care both dropped by more than half for veterans experiencing homelessness six months after they found shelter through department assistance programs.
Scientific American
Vermont to Give Minority Residents Priority for COVID Vaccines
But some health experts say people of color still need improved access to vaccination sites, along with more information
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States have tried with limited success to get covid vaccines to people of color, who have been disproportionately killed and hospitalized by the virus.
Starting Thursday, Vermont explicitly gave Black adults and people from other minority communities priority status for vaccinations. It follows Montana, which in January announced that Native Americans and other people of color, because they are at higher risk of complications from covid-19, would be allowed to receive the vaccine.
Illinois Newsroom
Jose Martinez, a resident of Cobden, Ill., gets the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Feb. 27 at a temporary vaccination clinic.
Illinois and some other states have prioritized farmworkers in their coronavirus vaccine plans. For many migrant workers from Mexico, this means they could receive the vaccine a year earlier than in their home country.
On a recent Saturday, white vans shuttled small groups of migrant farmworkers from the southern Illinois orchard where they work to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The workers had arrived days earlier from Mexico for the start of the tilling season.
Many attend St. Joseph’s Spanish-language service during their months-long stay in the rural village of Cobden. But on this day, they came to the church, not for Mass, but to receive the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
In a Virtual Proclamation Signing on Monday, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero declared the week of April 5-9 National Public Health Week.
Alongside Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio and Sen. Amanda Shelton, the governor joined representatives from the Department of Public Health and Social Services to recognize the efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and promoting public health.
The national event is hosted by the American Public Health Association.
This year’s theme, “Building Bridges to Better Health,” is aimed at uniting communities and creating a healthier public.
“Now it’s more important than ever to come together, given the significant role Public Health has in managing today’s public health even more important… Making our community safe and healthy is Public Health’s top priority, and when I refer to public health, this is inclusive of environmental health, welfare programs and services for our manamko , to the combined efforts of the divisions of this department,” sai
States have tried with limited success to get covid vaccines to people of color, who have been disproportionately killed and hospitalized by the virus.