Franklin County Public Health Situational Update - February 1, 2024

Franklin County Ohio Public Health sent this bulletin at 02/07/2024 01:00 PM EST

Franklin County Public Health Situational Update

February 2024

Franklin County Public Health wants to stay connected with our partners in creating informed and healthy communities. This newsletter is here to serve as a tool for you to share resources for your community, schools, and families in your district.

Vaccine and Guidance

Immunization

Susan Foster, Immunization and School Health Supervisor

The Immunization Coalition of Central Ohio for the February 23, 2024.
- This is an in-person meeting from 1:30pm to 3pm at the State Library.
- To register, visit the link here: https://events.humanitix.com/icco-quarterly-meeting-winter-2024
The RSV vaccine is stopped for this season for those that are pregnant.
- It is still available for Infants and 60+ years of age or older people.
We are accepting Walk-ins for COVID and Flu Vaccine.
- For more information, see our Hilliard clinic information here.
- For more information, see our general clinic information here.

Epidemiology Report Review

Kara Keller, Infectious Disease Program Epidemiologist

Epidemiology Reports* are published every last Friday of the month.
- The report has been updated to reflect monthly community levels.
Review the full epi report* here.
- Please note: all the data shown in the report is only representative of Franklin County Public Health’s jurisdictions which exclude Worthington and the City of Columbus.
Click here for today’s presentation.

Equity Updates

Lisa Dent, Associate Director of Equity and Inclusion

Equity Advisory Council

Black History Month Event on Feb. 10^th – King Arts Complex
Awarding of FCBOC Health Equity Grants
Franklin County Board of Commissioners Community Partnerships- Equity Grants https://crms.franklincountyohio.gov/RMSWeb/pdfs/R17583.pdf

Communication

Angela Taah, Communication Specialist

Health Literacy Trainings

Advancing Health Literacy is offering upcoming trainings that are open to the public in February and March. See the flyer here.
Communication planning is underway for the upcoming eclipse on April 8^th. While FCPH is not in the path of totality, we are working with our regional PIO partners to align communication strategies. Additionally, we are working with the Central Ohio Hospital Council and other health care partners to align on and community education around eye safety. Be on the look out for upcoming communication.
As we move beyond the height of the COVID response, FCPH is taking the time to reintroduce ourself to the public in the form of a media campaign. We want to remind people that we are more than the mask mandate organization of the pandemic. This will be done in a fun and engaging way the reminds everyone of the scores of services that we provide to the public. Marketing items will begin to be out in the world come April 2024 and will continue to be present throughout the year.

Radon Awareness and Radon Action Month

Mike Lopinsky, Community Environmental Health & Radon Gas

Click here for today’s presentation.

Data Updates

Abby Boeckman, Director of Epidemiology & Data

Health Map 2025

On 1/31/2024 the Health Map 2025 (HM2025) Steering Committee met to begin work on HM2025.
The Steering Committee is made up of representatives across various sectors and communities and bring expertise and key perspectives to the planning portion of our HM2025.
The group broke apart into various topic areas and spent over an hour discussing the data that was included in HM2022 and brainstorm what might stay, be removed, edited, or added. This feedback is being reviewed and will guide our work to gather and review our most recent community data.
We will be sure to keep this group updated to the progress of HM2025. In the meantime, we also will have some key updates to our FC CHIP to be published later this month.
We have been working with the Lead Agencies for each strategy to identify how best to measure and track our progress. These performance measures will be outlined in the update.
We also coordinated with COHC and CPH to identify outcome measures (or goals) under each strategy to we are all working toward the same improvement of our health needs.
https://healthworksfranklincounty.org/ Under to 'Projects and Initiatives
https://fcph-data-hub-fca.hub.arcgis.com/ Under to 'FCPH Programs and Planning

Tobacco Preemption

Micah Berman, Professor in Health Services Management and Policy, College of Public Health & Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

Micah went over the language from the local tobacco preemption provision that was inserted into the state budget last year.
The House and Senate voted to override the Governor's line item veto.
- It is now scheduled to go into effect 90 days after the veto is officially filed with the Secretary of State.
The City of Columbus is already planning to seek an injunction regarding this unconstitutional provision that violates protections for those with local home rule laws. Other cities will likely join in as well.
It is likely that the Ohio Supreme Court will ultimately decide on this matter.
Read FCPH's response to this here.