Search results for: “covid”
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My Take on the COVID-19 Vaccine: Choice, Lived Experience, and Trust
In 2021 all Missourians are participating, one way or another, in a life-and-death undertaking to bring the pandemic under control by reaching herd immunity as soon as possible. How quickly we reach that goal depends on how well public agencies, nonprofit health care organizations, and private entities can come together to effectively distribute and administer…
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COVID-19 Foundation Update
Like many organizations and companies around the world, Missouri Foundation for Health has been monitoring COVID-19, paying close attention to its impact on our work, staff, and organizational activities. In thinking about what’s best for the Foundation, our people, and our partners and grantees, we’ve decided to alter a few operational things until further notice.…
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Learning During Crisis: Access to contraceptive services amid the COVID pandemic
The health care system has experienced unprecedented disruption during the COVID era. In addition to new virus-related challenges, long-standing health equity issues were magnified by the pandemic. For the Foundation’s The Right Time initiative, which aims to increase access to quality contraceptive services, this difficult time also presented a unique opportunity to learn from the…
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Looking Back, Looking Forward: Hopes for a Healthier 2021
2020 is a hard year. 2021 will soon be here. In my mind, it’s the perfect time to pause and take advantage of Janus’s gift of transition and new beginnings to reflect on the challenging times of the year, where we’re heading in 2021, and guideposts for using a new year to bring forth new…
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Inequity: Society’s Most Important Pre-Existing Condition
As published and seen in the May 11, 2020, issue of Health Affairs The breadth and expected duration of the COVID-19 pandemic brings the entire range of society’s institutional structures into sharp relief at once. Its pervasive impact stretches from the direct toll, chronicled daily in news reports tracking increased cases and deaths, to extensive…
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What Brings Us Together in Missouri?
Missouri’s recent passage of Medicaid expansion was a significant step toward the long-term goal of everyone having access to affordable health care. The expansion of Medicaid presents numerous possibilities for us all to lean in and do our part to generate positive changes in health. It is worth reflecting on what’s next for keeping us…
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Nervous About the New Coronavirus? Knowledge is Power
By now you’ve probably heard about the new coronavirus, which first appeared in China in late 2019. Now known as COVID-19, the virus can cause severe respiratory problems in a subset of people. There is a lot we still don’t know about the disease, but we do know that it is likely to spread inside…
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A Stronger Safety Net Means a Healthier Future in Missouri
As published and seen on July 29, 2020, on Medium Like most other states, Missouri is struggling to achieve health equity. Medicaid has not been expanded, women’s health issues are too often neglected, and Black and foreign-born communities are experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic very differently from others. Health inequities are tightly bound to economic and…
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Medicaid Expansion Makes Sense for Missouri
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the nation and the state of Missouri. As of June 9, there have been more than 15,000 cases of COVID-19 and 800+ deaths in our state. The economic fallout has been widespread as well, with more than 500,000 Missourians filing for unemployment since March and the…
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Revitalizing Public Health in Missouri
In normal times, the public health system operates in the background, largely unnoticed by most of the public. The ability to turn on the tap and get clean water or eat food from a local restaurant without getting sick is simply part of our daily expectations. We don’t think about it until something goes wrong.…
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Strengthening Missouri’s Harm Reduction Approach
With all that we’ve endured over the past two years with the pandemic, it may have been easy to forget how, prior to COVID, the damage of opioids was tearing families apart. Anxiety and isolation spurred by COVID worsened the deadly impact of what was already a national public health crisis. And now, the pandemic…
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For the Sake of Racial Equity, It’s Time for Nationwide Medicaid Expansion
It took more than a decade of work from countless organizations and dedicated individuals to make it a reality, but on July 22, the Missouri Supreme Court reaffirmed the will of the state’s voters by unanimously declaring that Medicaid expansion is the law of the land. Having only moved to Missouri and joined the Foundation…