(upbeat music) (uplifting music) - The Trump administration is making unprecedented cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Tonight, we're looking at how that might affect Central Illinois, plus updates on health services in Peoria County.

Monica Hendrickson is the public health administrator with the Peoria City/County Health Department.

Thanks for coming in, Monica.

- Thank you for having me.

- It's been a while since you've been on this set, but for a while, I'm sure you were sick of it.

You were on so much during COVID.

- I appreciate it.

I think any avenue to be able to communicate to the public information is appreciated.

- Well, you became a household name very quickly.

That's for sure.

We've got a lot of things I wanna talk about tonight.

First of all, let's talk about your new digs.

You've got a brand new building that was a long time coming.

Tell us how everybody is settling in and what it's like.

- So we've now been in our new building, same location on Sheridan Road, for about three months, and it has been wonderful.

We not only continue to offer the health department services there and expand it slightly, but also we brought in so many other partners.

So two of our county agencies, the Peoria County Coroner, Jamie Harwood, as well as the Peoria County Regional Office of Education, Beth Kreider, also now have their offices and their facilities there, and on top of that, we were able to partner with OSF St. Francis Medical Center Dental Clinic, as well as Heartland Health Services, to be able to offer, you know, just general care there as well as dental services for all ages.

- So you can do a lot more, and I'm sure your old quarters, you were getting kind of claustrophobic, kind of outgrowing it.

- We were.

Our, you know, original building was on that site since the '50s, and it was piece-mealed over time.

Part of the rich history of how Peoria County really supported public health and the medical community in general, and so, over years, it expanded and got added on, but it really did meet its kind of end-of-life needs.

- All right, well, we're glad everybody's working hard there.

Let's talk a little bit about COVID.

I mean, such a huge story just a few years ago.

We know COVID is still among us.

What's it like now in Illinois and specifically in Central Illinois?

- I think, right now, overall, we're seeing COVID kind of what we thought was naturally gonna happen.

We're seeing that happen, which is becoming more endemic.

We see it very much in the same seasonality that we see with other respiratory viruses such as RSV and, of course, influenza.

I will say, even though the effects and impacts of COVID are long-lasting and people that do get sick, you know, definitely have, you know, challenges depending on their own health risks, but it is somewhat comforting to realize that it is kind of now more of an endemic, and we as a community have the tools that are available to generally, you know, take care of individuals that are sick, have prevention methods such as vaccinations, and really be able to get ahead of it this time.

- What do you recommend people do?

I'm sure vaccinations are one of the things, but to keep themselves safe from COVID, I mean, you know, people had issues with wearing masks and social distancing, and it doesn't seem like we have to do that now, but what are some things that people can do to keep themselves safe?

- So, definitely, you know, all of those measures, especially vaccinations, are really impactful, but I would also say, with any other respiratory illness, really self-isolate if you're not feeling well, you know?

I know a lot of people want to just, you know, kind of I can push through the day at work or I can push through the day at school, and, really, we wanna make sure that you are resting, taking care of your body, really addressing those symptoms, whether it's over-the-counter fever reduction or cough medication.

If it starts, you know, getting worse and worse, definitely talking to your primary care provider as well, but, you know, those are the things that you can do to not only decrease the impacts of it to yourself, but also, more importantly, decrease the impact of it getting somebody else sick that might not have the best health conditions and may have a worse impact when they get COVID.

- How as our flu season this year in terms of, was it average, better, worse than what we've seen in the past?

- So this flu season was a rough flu season.

Two things really impacted that.

The first was the type of influenza that we had that usually circulates this area.

So, while the vaccine was effective, it really decreased the severity of illness that we saw, we also saw that a lot of people didn't get the flu vaccine.

A lot of vaccine fatigue is what we're seeing, but right now, the, the influenza season this past winter was influenza A, which, between the two types that we see usually circulating, it can be the harder one.

It takes down people for longer periods of time, a longer recovery.

So that's why the vaccine's so important.

So, not only did we have a strain that impacts you in a different way, but then also on top of that, not as many people were actually getting their vaccine.

It just created that perfect storm.

- You talked about vaccine fatigue, and I wonder what kind of feedback you've gotten from people in terms of, okay, I'm sick of getting shots, or I don't think the shots work.

I don't think the shots are needed.

I'm scared I might get something from the shots.

What kind of excuses are you hearing from people?

- You know, all of those and more.

I think a lot of it's also just understanding the science behind it.

You know, a lot of it's making sure, when you have these conversations with individuals, kind of understanding where they're coming from, giving them a lot of grace as well.

You know, it took me a while during even COVID to realize that I got the luxury, and it is a luxury, to learn science for a long period of time, right?

A lot of people, their last science class may have been ninth grade, and so, you know, how do you make sure that they understand things that they're not, you know, seeing day in and day out?

And so really being able to communicate them, but you're right.

You know, a lot of things we heard was, "I had a reaction when I got a shot," whether it's a flu shot or a COVID shot.

You know, we talked to 'em.

Was it severe?

Did you have to go get an EpiPen?

Were you hospitalized?

"No, it was just sore."

Well, that's normal.

Your body's normal reaction to immunity is to have some type of whether it's soreness, a little bit tired the next day, even a little slight fever, and that's all perfectly normal, and really talk to them about the need for it, and also it's really important to have that discussion between what people think are, you know, easier, extra vaccines versus what we consider required vaccines.

You know, we're now looking in Illinois, where we have three cases of measles.

That's a lot for us.

It's a highly vaccine-preventable disease and it's effective.

It's very safe.

You know, children get their first dose when they are, you know, around 15 months old, and, you know, it's something that we've shown data over and over that it's very safe, and yet we're starting to see hesitancy, and now you're starting to see these outbreaks of measles.

- Well, we saw the outbreaks kind of start in Canada, then Texas, and now they've slowly moved around the country.

Again, why do you think we're seeing this?

- Largely because of vaccination rates.

You know, we're really lucky here in Illinois.

We have a high vaccination compliance and coverage even in our Peoria area, but more and more, there's a lot of misinformation out there, a lot of unreliable sources, a lot of panic and kind of fear, and with that, again, not an understanding of what goes on with vaccinations and how they work, and so really all of that creates that perfect storm, where we're seeing a decrease in people getting vaccinated, even for things such as polio, measles, mumps.

You know, things that, if you talk to our grandparents, if you talk to our parents even, they will tell you firsthand what those impacts are.

They lived through it, and when you're not seeing the impact of a virus or a disease or something firsthand, you lose that connection and the understanding of the value of prevention.

- What are the guidelines on the measles vaccination?

How often are you supposed to get it and when?

- So it's part of your childhood immunization, so you'll get it, usually between 12 to 15 months is your first dose, and then you'll get a second dose usually around five years old.

So, again, it's a two-dose series for children.

When it was actually first introduced, you know, some adults now may not have or know their status, depending on it, and so we do recommend a booster, and it's actually for adults that were born after 1957.

Prior to 1957, there's a likelihood that you were exposed or had measles yourself, but afterwards, with the vaccine, we saw such a huge decrease in the numbers that, you know, one, it's effective, but also just making sure that they had their full dosage, and so, you know, if you are uncertain, you don't have your records, or you, looking back, not knowing where it is, especially if you're in a high-risk area, you know, you work in healthcare potentially, or you travel a lot, you might consider getting a booster.

- Okay.

Now, we know measles can be uncomfortable.

Can measles be potentially deadly these days?

- Yes.

You know, measles, well, again, it's one of those things that people kind of equate with chickenpox.

The severity depends on underlying conditions for individuals, and so there is the ability to have, you know, long-term health impacts based on measles, as well as to have severe cases, and so, again, you know, it's something that we don't readily see.

You know, even our providers are re-educating staff on the signs and symptoms of measles because our vaccines have worked so good for so long, and now, without that level, we're starting to see it come back into our community.

- Okay.

Well, that kind of segues into our new president and his administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's the head of the Health and Human Services, as recently as last week, said he's not anti-vaccine, but we've heard what he's said.

He's very skeptical about it, and even last week, he said the MMR vaccine, the measles, mumps, and rubella, in it, it has, quote, "aborted fetus debris," and scientists have said, "No, that's not the case."

- No.

That is not the case at all.

- But when you have someone high up in power like that, saying things like these and being skeptical, how does that affect your job?

And you're trying to help people get vaccines and vaccinations.

- No, it doesn't make it easier.

That is for sure.

I think when someone with that level of authority, that has that platform, starts sharing misinformation about, you know, the safety and even the make-up of vaccinations, it creates an uphill mountain, really, for us to really be pushing through.

You know, there's already concerns about it.

There was the famous, now very much debunked medical journal article about vaccinations and autism, and so it's always been a challenge for us, and so to have someone on that level kinda share that information actually makes our job harder.

One, to communicate with people to help them understand the value of it, of getting vaccinated, how they protect not only themselves, but those around them, but, also, it then leads to increased disease in the community, where, you know, as public health professionals and our medical profession, we work diligently to start, you know, surveillance, helping people mitigate exposures.

Also, then making sure that there is enough capacity in our healthcare system to address an influx of cases as well.

And so, you know, when you see something like that, it's not adding anything to the dialogue.

In fact, I think it's an unnecessary distraction and it is really at times deadly.

- And it's easy to say, "Oh, well, you know, I saw this on Facebook."

You know, that's just whatever made-up hearsay or whatever, but when you hear the administration saying it, it's something totally different.

So how do you overcome that?

Can you overcome that?

- You know, I think beyond programs like this and being able to have a conversation and share it, a lot of it is also directing people to different resources.

You know, our Illinois Department of Public Health has a great webpage with information.

OSF and Carle also have great information.

The health department, you know, we do wanna make sure we push out accurate information, but oftentimes, it is having a one-on-one conversation, understanding what they're hearing.

You know, asking them kind of questions about how they got to this point.

You know, I think, overall, people want a community that's healthy.

They want people to be safe.

A lot of it is, you know, things that they don't fully understand, concerns they might have, and just really be able to provide them knowledge and let them, you know, read it and digest it at their own pace.

You know, I think one thing we learned during COVID is that you really can't push things at people, but rather, you wanna make sure you are bringing them into conversations.

- Sure.

Does the Peoria City/County Health Department get any federal funding?

- We do.

We get federal funding directly.

We also have a lot of what's known as pass-through federal funding that will come through the state to us, and we also have state funding as well.

The health department, and health departments in Illinois in general, our primary funding are grants, and this makes up about anywhere from 60 to 75% of our funding sources.

You know, our levy, that we're a part of the county of Peoria's tax levy, we're a very, very, very small percentage of that, and so most of our funding is coming from these grants, and so we have been monitoring a lot of our federal funds as well as our pass-through dollars.

Right now, you know, we are actually monitoring two court cases, working through some of it related to our surveillance, and being able to control for respiratory illnesses, and that also includes working with our nursing homes on outbreak control measures, and our shelters as well, and so we are waiting to hear back about kind of the impacts of that funding.

Our emergency preparedness funding, you know, the actual funding that helps us not only during COVID, but helped us during H1N1 or when potentially there is a foodborne outbreak and you have to do hepatitis vaccinations, all of that is also right now being looked at and being unpaused currently, but it is just a matter of watching and waiting.

- So nothing terminated yet?

- Not yet, but fingers crossed.

- Fingers crossed.

Yeah.

Well, the Department of Health and Human Services, which is kind of overseeing the CDC, the FDA, the NIH, had a 25% reduction in staff.

More cuts are coming if they have their way.

Does that have a trickle-down effect, you think, for us locally?

- It does.

You know, it does not necessarily impact your local health department, but you have to understand kind of the complexity of the system, right?

When you talk about, you know, FDA, you know, that's talking about food-drug administration.

That's safety protocols on medication, on making sure that items that you are utilizing are effective or correct or safe, and we've also seen our counterparts at USDA, where a lot of our food safety issues lie.

You know, we still do food inspections at restaurants, but a lot of the grocery stores' products, a lot of the processing and wholesale, that's done at a larger federal level, and that expertise, you are making a lot of assumptions when you're picking up something and you're buying it that it's safe, but now is the question about when that kind of oversight is gone, and really, there was aa great show on PBF about food safety and how the USDA and the FDA was created because of people adding chemicals and other additions to food, and so you will see that impact more and more in that connection, and then even the NIH grants, a lot of people say, "Why do I care about research, right?

I don't see it."

But, you know, think about if you have a family member or a neighbor or someone that has gone through cancer or getting treatment, a lot of the medication, the treatment, those are coming from research institutes.

Those are supporting one of our largest healthcare sectors here in Peoria.

We have UICOMP, our university college of medicine.

We have our two hospital systems, our federally qualified health center, Heartland.

All of them utilize federal dollars either directly or through that research component, and so it will impact us here locally.

- Sure.

You know, we've been talking about COVID and measles and things like that, but, obviously, you mentioned food.

The Division of HIV Prevention unit has lost about half of its staff, and nearly all of the CDC's involvement with tobacco and smoking cessation was shut down.

So we're talking about things like quitting smoking, not vaping, things like that, and I think people need to understand that your department is into that too.

- Yeah.

- I mean, it's not just communicable diseases.

- No.

- It's a lot of other things.

What kind of other things do you do that could potentially be impacted, you think?

- I think a lot of our prevention work that we see kind of globally, so, you know, we have a couple of FDA grants that we use on food safety really to kind of look at the behavioral changes that we see in education with our food establishments.

We do smoking cessation or the Quitline, but we also, you know, every three years, our Tri-County, which includes Tazewell, Woodford, and Peoria, as well as our two hospital systems, OSF and Carle, we actually do a community health needs assessment and improvement plan, and we just finished our data collection from our needs assessment, and not surprising, vaping has come up as a growing health concern, especially because of all the additives that come into it.

So you imagine now that we have a system or a process or a technology that is now impacting our health, but yet no understanding in all that research, and that ability to understand the health impacts are gone, and so that's what's really nervous is that technical and institutional knowledge just disappearing.

- Let's talk a little bit about that report if we can.

With vaping, are we still seeing it growing amongst underage kids?

- We are seeing it growing amongst underage kids.

We're also seeing how it's also getting into a lot as it relates to cannabis as well, and so we're seeing this kind of dual growth in what we're talking about, emerging adults, and so we're really seeing that as a population that is thinking it's not a cigarette.

You know, they've always seen the advertisements about kind of a tobacco product, you know, that, but they think vaping is water-based.

It's much, much healthier, and, no, we're still seeing that impacts in your lung health as well.

So it's a lot, you know, understanding that information and kind of being able to navigate and pivot that.

A lot of that data starts off consolidated at the federal level, even globally, and then kind of trickles down to help drive policy locally, and what we're seeing is we definitely have a need to address that.

A lot of our supporting networks are starting to disappear.

Our contacts are starting to disappear.

Our support is starting to disappear.

- Sure.

How are the tobacco smoking rates?

Are they going down in our area?

- We have seen it actually decrease and a little bit flat-line.

You know, I think, right now, walking through the process of prioritizing our health information that we've collected, so part of our needs assessment that we do as a Tri-County is that we do a massive survey amongst the Tri-County.

That was last summer.

We also do focus groups.

We even look at our community partners, and we actually consolidate all that data to look at what our next priorities are.

Our current cycle that we will end this December, some of those areas might continue into the new cycle, but we've seen mental health be a huge issue.

Healthy eating, active living, and obesity is our kind of top three, and so we'll be interested to see when we get to improvement planning what our next big priorities are.

- They may be the same.

- They may be the same.

They might be, you know, subpopulations that we just wanna focus on a little bit more, but you're exactly right.

You know, we don't see the needle change in three years, but we might be pivoting our kind of focus area depending on emerging health issues.

- Anything else coming out this report that maybe surprised you or that concerned you?

- I think one of the biggest things, overall, is our aging population.

We definitely have a population in the Tri-County, even Peoria specifically, that is getting older, and, you know, a lot of it is how do you age appropriately and healthy at home for longer periods of time?

You lose that social connectivity in a community as you age, so a lot of that is, that was a little bit interesting to see how that's one of our largest growing populations, and just how much more service we're gonna be needing to provide in that group.

- How much impact or help do you get with groups going into schools?

'Cause you wanna try and catch kids when they're young when you're talking about smoking, eating right, things like that.

Does the health department do anything like that with our schools or is that some other department?

- We actually work in collaboration with a lot of our community partners.

We're very lucky here to have a great network.

So some of our schools work with Bradley University, they work with the hospital systems, and, you know, OSF has caravans and nursing students that also do education.

We also have Hult here.

You know, Center for Healthy Living, and they do a large program in related to schools about lung health.

We received funding through the Edwards settlement for the closure of the Edwards plant, and our focus, we partnered around lung health, and that included providing low-dose CT scans, which is for individuals that have had a history of smoking to see, you know, kind of catching lung cancer early, but we also were able to provide education to schools on asthma kits, as well as to help to kind of do education about the impacts of smoking and vaping in the lung, and so a lot of what we do in Peoria is be able to partner and collaborate.

One, because we realize that resources are limited, and oftentimes, we wanna make sure that those subject matter experts are able to get into the schools firsthand.

- And with those partnerships with the other groups, you know, education funding I guess could have an impact on what they're doing too.

- Exactly, and so a lot of them, it's kind of understanding, you know, where are you at where this is.

It could be everything from Department of Education, not only other HHS entities.

DOJ is Department of Justice.

We know we work closely with our probations and our courts and our law enforcement partners, and so this impact just continues to grow.

FEMA is another great example as well, and so it is navigating a system with a lot of uncertainty.

- Mhm.

Any other things we haven't talked about that our fellow citizens may be facing here in the Tri-County area and beyond in terms of health?

- You know, again, in a time where there's a lot of uncertainty, kind echoing our COVID days, right?

Where there is a lot of communication and information that you can get really readily and easily available on your phones, or, you know, from quick snippets of the news, or even, you know, deepfakes, so to speak, right?

Definitely go and make sure that you're working or communicating or asking questions to those reliable resources, and in Peoria, we're really lucky to have some great partners in this.

Again, our hospital systems have great websites and great information.

Our federally-qualified health center, and, of course, our health department.

You know, if you do have a question, you're seeing something that needs to be addressed, or you have concerns, please reach out to us.

We'd love to be able to have conversations with you as well as to be able to provide you with accurate information.

- It seems like, you know, your family doctor would be a good choice too.

- Right.

- I know doctors hate it when you come in and say, "Hey, I looked on WebMD and here's what's wrong with me," but, I mean, they do this for a living, and it's in their best interest for you to be healthy, so it seems like they would be a good resource.

- Agreed, and maybe you approach them more like, "I read this on MD.

I want this to happen."

Versus, "I read this on MD.

What do you think?"

- Right.

- I think that may be, again, wanting to make sure that it's a conversation base with, you know, open-mindedness, building people in, versus making the assumption that, "Oh, this is what I need to get done."

- Right.

We talked about federal funding earlier.

As far as state funding, are you in a good place?

Is your department in a good place?

And with the county too, as far as money, and for being able to do the things you wanna do.

- So we did receive our most recent round of grant applications for our grant fiscal year, which just starts here in the summer, and right now, you know, we are very stable, but, again, it's that trickle effect.

Some of our funding, you know, depending on the next fiscal year, might get limited if the State of Illinois has to disperse funds to, again, address an impact on the federal level.

So if you start seeing decreases at the federal level, you know, especially insurance being a big one and reimbursement rates, you know, that does trickle down to other program areas.

- Is there anything you can do or have done with, you know, your compadres across the state, your counterparts?

- Yeah.

- The word I'm looking for, in terms of lobbying maybe or letting the state and the federal government know, "Hey, don't cut this, we need this"?

- Yes, we have a lot of communication with our federal partners and our state partners, as well as we have a lot of associations that do work together to really advocate on behalf of it, but I think, you know, I think this also talks about the general public, too, being advocates, you know?

If you're seeing something that, you know, doesn't fit well with you, you know, you have concerns about, why are they cutting funding for vaccinations?

Why are they cutting funding for understanding what's the next emerging illness?

Why are they cutting public aid?

All of those pieces, you know, one of the best things to do is to communicate with your elected member of Congress, as well as at the state level.

You know, in the absence of hearing other opinions, sometimes they only hear ones that support a certain viewpoint, so it's really important to make sure that all voices are getting heard by them so that they can properly represent you and the needs of Central Illinois in the different chambers, the different offices that they sit in.

- Well, we encourage everyone to do their homework.

- Yes.

- Don't get your health advice off of Facebook, okay?

(Monica chuckles) (Mark sighs) It's not good.

Well, Monica, thanks for coming in.

We appreciate you, and continue to keep us updated on what's going on in the county.

- Thank you.

I appreciate it.

- All right, thank you, and thank you for watching.

You can check us out anytime at wtvp.org, and we are on Facebook.

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