[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kickoff the program with a compelling important conversation about public health with Dr.

Denise Anderson, Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity & Wellbeing.

This is New Jersey's Public Health Institute.

Doctor, good to have you with us.

- Good to be here, thank you for having us.

- You got it, we put up the website of the center right now.

Tell everyone what it is and why it's so significant.

Because we had an interview with Dr.

Richard Besser, the head of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently, put up our website, people can check it out.

And he told us about this initiative and why it's so incredibly significant for New Jersey and 9.5 million residents of the state, please.

- Yes, and so the Center for Health Equity and Wellbeing, New Jersey's Public Health Institute, we are an independent and transparent and innovative non-government organization, and we have a structured relationship with the state of New Jersey that really enables us to join them in ensuring that the conditions that make good health within reach for all, exist.

Our role is as conveners, collaborators and supporters to eliminate the differences in outcomes of health, it's to function as what we would say an assertive, a responsive, and a nimble fiscal and administrative entity to support public health initiatives statewide, and really to serve as a community-driven and trusted partner, the People's Institute.

Steve, we're poised to address many of the recommendations from that independent review of New Jersey's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So preparedness, emergency response, partnership building, and government collaboration.

- Okay, so first of all, an incredible portfolio that you're responsible for and the website's up right now for people to find out more, but Dr.

Anderson, lemme try this.

We're engaged in a whole series of conversations around public health, trust, distrust in the public health system.

Vaccines is a new initiative that we're doing called Vaccines, What You Need to Know, the graphic will come up.

How much concern do you have and your colleagues about the confusion, the mixed messages, and the fact that people, many are not sure whom to believe and trust when it comes to public health information, Dr.

Anderson?

- Yeah, Steve, it's very, very concerning.

What we're seeing in New Jersey and all across the country is a decrease in the uptake of vaccines and people not knowing who to trust or where to get trusted information from.

And so it's important that we work really hard to make sure that the individuals that people trust, like some of the medical societies, the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others, who have been studying and researching and providing us information about vaccines for decades.

And so we're looking to them to continue to provide that information as the folks who are practicing with these different populations, pediatrics, pregnant persons, and the general population.

And really what we're concerned about is vaccines has never been just about an individual choice.

When we talk about vaccine, we talk about that herd immunity, that there's enough people who are vaccinated to protect those who are unable to be vaccinated for different reasons.

And so that's truly a concern for us.

- Along those lines, we've had certain candidates and certain people in public office who keep arguing that vaccines should not be mandated.

And I follow up and I ask this question, well, if certain vaccines are not mandated and it's, they'll talk about parental choice with children and people's rights and hey, we found out things about COVID vaccine several years later we didn't know at the time, so therefore we shouldn't mandate it.

Florida's not mandated as we speak.

And my response, not my response, but my follow up question is, well, what about those who are more vulnerable?

What about older people who have immune systems that are compromised?

What about children who are more vulnerable?

I'm not here to get on my soapbox, but help us on this, Dr.

Anderson.

It isn't just whether you get the vaccine or not, but isn't it also the impact you potentially have on others?

- Absolutely, Steve, let's take the COVID-19 pandemic, right?

Let's talk about our long-term care facilities, which were, you know, devastatingly hurt here in New Jersey, right?

- That's right.

- Those residents did not leave, correct?

They did not leave those places.

And so what we know is that it was the staff coming in and out and visitors.

And so I like to talk about, you know, our children, Steve, you know, they may come down with a cold or the flu and you know, maybe a little bit of a nose run, a sneeze, and they're still active and running around.

But when that gets transferred to parents, to caretakers, to grandparents, the way that it impacts us is much more different in terms of the illness that we experience, and even sometimes sick enough that it can lead to death.

And so, that's the prime example of why vaccine is not just about individual choice again, but it's also about being able to protect the people that we care about around us.

- That's why it's called public health.

- That's right.

- Doctor, your background clinically is?

- So my background, I started off as a clinical dietician and then also in this public health space.

And so I've been on the healthcare side of it, and then public health.

- How the heck did public health become political?

Isn't it about science?

Isn't it about medication?

How the heck does politics get connected to decisions that government officials responsible for public health are talking politics?

- Steve, politics have always been there, right?

- This is not new, are you saying this is not new?

- This is not new, this is not new.

This is something, you know, over the past decade or so, right?

We've talked about these social determinants of health, the things that happen outside of healthcare, right?

That impacts your health outcomes, whether it's education, the economy, the neighborhood that you live in.

All of these different things.

- Transportation, by the way, can we still talk about social determinants of health without getting in trouble?

- Well, we may not be able to talk about them without getting in trouble, but they're definitely still- - But they're real.

- At the forefront, absolutely.

- But they're real.

People can't get to- - They're absolutely real.

- Because of transportation.

- That's right.

- Where someone lives and what their neighborhood is like and access to, they don't go away 'cause someone say, "Stop saying those words."

- They don't.

Childcare availability, access to food, all of those things still matter, Steve, because the truth of the matter is that if we're doing it right, we spend more time outside of the healthcare setting than we do within the healthcare setting.

And so access and addressing these social determinants is what helps us to do what we're supposed to do outside of the healthcare setting to keep us from coming in there, unless it's for, you know, preventative methods.

But back to your question around how did public health become politicized, my conversations now is that the social determinants of health is this layer, right?

But the overarching umbrella definitely are the political determinants.

And when we talk about upstream interventions in terms of what we see play out in public health is at the public policy level, and that's where the politics are through and out.

- Got it, real quick, the several, the three year strategic plan of the Center for Health Equity & Wellbeing, New Jersey's Public Health Institute, health equity, as we've been talking about, democracy in health, civic engagement and public policy, trust in science, database action, public health workforce, infrastructure development, I'm gonna go back to democracy and health, civic engagement.

We're obsessed with our media and information platform with civic engagement, public awareness.

How the heck would the center be engaged in civic engagement, and what does that to do with democracy?

- Yes, because Steve, in public health and healthcare, you know, we are in contact with the populations that we serve all the time.

And we do a lot of education and awareness on everything from Alzheimer's disease to diabetes and to vaccines.

And so I think that there is a way in public health and healthcare, a nonpartisan way to talk about the importance of civic engagement and active participation in this democracy.

So we talked about the social determinants of health, right?

Education, access and quality is one of those.

However, folks who sit on school boards, that's an elected position.

And so it's important for people to know that that's an elected position.

And if we are concerned about education access and quality and what's happening in our neighborhood schools, then we have to be paying attention to who wants to sit on the school board and making sure that we are coming out for folks who are representing our issues in a non-partisan way.

We can make sure that people are aware, that they are registered to vote if they're eligible, and that they have a voting plan.

- Before I let you go, what do you believe the role of those of us in the media to be in this regard?

- Oh, that's a great question.

I think the role is to be authentic, Steve, and to be a truth teller regardless of what the outcome of the truth telling is.

Because we depend on it to keep us grounded, to bring us information and our democracy depends on it.

- That's Dr.

Denise Anderson.

She's the Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity & Wellbeing, New Jersey's Public Health Institute.

And again, I wanna thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr.

Richard Besser, the former head of the CDC, who told us about this initiative.

And Dr.

Anderson, I promise we'll continue the conversation.

We'll do our part, okay, and I know you'll do yours.

- Thank you, absolutely.

- Thank you, all the best.

I'm Steve Adubato, stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

Newark Board of Education.

Seton Hall University.

EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

And by Johnson & Johnson.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by NJ.Com.

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