Op-Eds and Letters to the Editor

NHPHA officers and volunteers occasionally publish op-eds and letters to the editor on issues of importance. Below are some of these articles.

My Turn: Honoring the critical role of public health workers

Joan H. Ascheim: Honoring public health workers

NHPHA Executive Director Joan Ascheim wrote letters to the editor of The Concord Monitor and The Union Leader regarding the importance of National Public Health Week in the time of COVID-19. You can read the Concord Monitor article here and the Union Leader article here.

Impact of coronavirus spreads in NH, nation

NHPHA Executive Director Joan Ascheim was interviewed by The Union Leader about the COVID-19 situation in New Hampshire. You can read the article here.

Our Turn: Raise the tobacco sales age to 21

NHPHA member and New Futures Vice President of Advocacy Kate Frey and Northern New England Chapter of the American College of Cardiology member Daniel Philbin, MD, both of the New Hampshire Tobacco 21 Coalition, recently published an op-ed and LTE about raising the tobacco sales age to 21. NHPHA is part of the coalition and supports this issue. Read the LTE in The Union Leader here and the op-ed in The Concord Monitor here.

Our Turn: The border crisis and the importance of vaccinations

In September 2019, NHPHA President Marcella Bobinsky and NH Medical Society President Tessa LaFortune-Greenberg published an opinion piece in The Concord Monitor on the importance of vaccinations at our borders. The following is an excerpt; you can read the entire piece here.

"With the recent unprecedented influx of migrant children and families at the southern U.S. border comes unprecedented challenges. A major challenge is the prevention of infectious diseases both among those seeking refuge and among those caring for them.

From Sept. 1, 2018, to Aug. 22, 2019, 898 confirmed or probable cases of mumps in adult migrants were reported from 57 detention facilities in the United States, and an additional 33 cases occurred among staff members. While approximately 150 mumps outbreaks and 16,000 cases have been reported in the United States since 2015, most often in close-contact settings, this is the first report of mumps outbreaks in detention facilities.

The prevention and control of outbreaks of infectious diseases among detained migrants is of utmost importance with the 2019-20 influenza (flu) season about to begin. Every year outside of detention facilities in the United States, millions of children get sick with flu, and thousands of children are hospitalized, and some children die from flu."

Letters: Draft budget provides much needed public health funding; NH Public Health Assoc. urges Gov. Sununu to sign budget

NHPHA President Marcella Bobinsky and Executive Director Joan Ascheim published a letter and an op-ed regarding the then-proposed budget in July 2019. Click here to read the letter in The Eagle-Tribune and here to read the letter on Seacoastonline.com.