New York Public Health Now
Join New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald and Executive Deputy Commissioner Johanne Morne as they explore the critical issues, innovations, and initiatives that shape the health and well-being of the people of New York.
You will hear timely conversations with public health leaders on topics like air quality, climate change, opioids and harm reduction, Wadsworth Center, New York’s world-class public health laboratory, New York State of Health, our health insurance marketplace, Medicaid recertification and much more. If it matters to you, chances are we are talking about it on NYSDOH's podcast, New York Public Health Now.
New York Public Health Now
s3e03 Climate Change and Public Health: DOH's Dr. Neil Muscatiello and DEC's Sean Mahar Discuss New York State's Collaborative Approach to a Global Challenge
In this episode, New York State health and environmental experts discuss the far-reaching impacts of climate change on New Yorkers' health, from heat-related illnesses to the effects of severe weather. The conversation explores the critical partnership between agencies and the innovative tools and programs being implemented to address these evolving threats.
New York is taking innovative and proactive steps to understand and address the resulting health impacts of a changing climate. This episode highlights the collaborative work among state agencies in New York to monitor emerging threats, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and implement adaptation measures to build resilient communities.
If you have an idea for topics we should discuss, please let us know: PublicHealthNowPodcast@health.ny.gov
Welcome back to New York Public Health Now podcast. This is where we talk about the why, so you can decide what to do. Hello. I'm Dr. Jim McDonald, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, and we're back in person today on the 14th floor of Corning Tower in downtown Albany, and we're recording on what looks like a glorious and beautiful day. There is not a cloud in the sky. The sun is shining. It's 80 degrees. So I'm here with my deputy commissioner, Johanne Morne, Johanne, how are you today?
Johanne Morne:I am doing great. Thank you and glad to join you today. You've noted on the weather and absolutely, fall is my favorite time of year. I am very excited about what's to come.
Jim McDonald:I like fall too; Pumpkin spice, apple cider, brisk mornings, but it has been a warm summer, historically warm summer in New York State. Extreme weather events like tornadoes, flooding, rain, thunderstorms are becoming much more common, and the effects of warming climate touches more than weather. So today we're goning to talk about climate change. Actually, I probably should say the climate has changed, and today we have a couple guests. One is Sean Mahar, who's the Interim Commissioner over at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. He's a fellow Siena College alumni, by the way, although his diploma is a little bit newer than mine, also an adjunct professor and teaches environmental policy and management over at Siena, and before joining the Department of Environmental Conservation as Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs and then Chief of Staff, Sean worked for the Audubon New York. So a really impressive career in wildlife conservation, climate change, adaptation strategies. Good to have you, Sean. How are you today?
Sean Mahar:Thank you. Thrilled to be here today, and thanks for having me.
Johanne Morne:Also with us today is Dr. Neil Muscatiello. Neil's career in state service goes back two decades. He started with the Department of Health, first as an epidemiologist, and now is the Director of the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology. Neil earned a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Albany, and his undergrad at SUNY Cortland in health science. So welcome to you, Dr. Muscatiello.
Neil Muscatiello:Thanks, Johanne. It's a pleasure to be here speaking with you all today about what we're doing around climate change and health.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, so Dr. Muscatiello, let's start with you. Can you speak a little bit about what the Center for Environmental Health does at the New York State Department Health, and then what does the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology do?
Neil Muscatiello:Sure, so broadly speaking, the Center for Environmental Health is really, as it the name implies, is where all the environmental health programs reside. So we have folks in the Bureau of drinking water, public water supply, who protect our water. We have a Bureau of environmental radiation protection who do a lot of work to oversee facilities that use devices that that require the use of radiation, and they have a radon program. There's a group that oversees recreational waters and does foodborne and waterborne disease outbreaks. Another group that investigates environmental exposures and exposure to toxic substances, the Bureau of occupational health and injury prevention is in the Center for Environmental Health, so a diverse group of people, and then in my bureau in particular, there's about 60 great staff, about half of whom do birth defects surveillance and research, and the other half who respond to concerns about environmental contamination, potential health impacts in their community. We have a couple large biomonitoring grants to better understand exposure to different contaminants in the blood of people around the state. We also have a grant from CDC to do climate and health adaptation work, which is really, I think, what we'll be focusing on that and the work we do around that today.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, thank you, Dr. Muscatiello. A lot of bread and butter public health is what I'm hearing over there. A lot of surveillance about what is happening and a lot of understanding about what could happen in the future, because obviously we care very much about the environment we live in. It affects every single one of us, no matter where we live. And really important to have an environment and a climate, that makes sense. And I want to go to Sean Mahar. Sean, you know you're adjusting to life now in the commissioner's office over at the Department of Environmental Conservation, I say over because I can literally see your office from my office here. What's your day to day look like, and how much of what you do is related to climate change?
Sean Mahar:Well, I think, as you know, there is no one common day in these lines of work that we have. Everything is always different, and it's fun and exciting, and it's an amazing opportunity to work with this incredible team at the Department of Environmental Conservation on all the issues we have, and climate being, I think, one of the ones that's very forefront of our minds. Recognizing all the wide ranging impacts that happen from our changing climate that are happening right now. And you know, our work to both mitigate our climate pollutants that are going into the environment and then adapt to what we're finding happening on the landscape, from more intense and frequent storms to the extreme heat that we're seeing here in New York State.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, it's interesting, when you talk about that word mitigate and the word adapt, those are the two words I hear a lot. I as a human being, I have to adapt. I think one of the things we need to do is mitigate the risk. So that's stuff we can do as humans to change what the risk is for our climate, and I think it's little doubt left now, the climate is changing. I think it's fair to say the climate changed. I think it's important to talk about what's happened here. It's kind of obvious to me, the summers are getting warmer here in New York State, and some of the impacts of climate change we are seeing. So maybe Dr. Muscatiello, what are some of the changes of a changing climate we're seeing here. And maybe you could just talk from what you see the Department of Health, and then we'll see if Sean can answer that from Department of Envornmental Conservation.
Neil Muscatiello:Sure. And I guess I would say to New York State as a whole, among the different state agencies, has done a lot of work to assess what the climate impacts are in the state. As you alluded to we know that temperatures are warming in New York state. There's documents that suggest New York State is warming more quickly than other parts of the United States, and particularly since 2000 the temperatures in New York State have been higher than at any period in our recorded history. We're seeing more variation in precipitation. Hurricanes and tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean are becoming more intense, and as those storms become more destructive, combined with sea level rise and the storm surge that comes with that, you know, we expect that that could cause more extensive impacts among the residents of the state. While New York state itself is not likely to have, or is not projected forecasted to have wildfires to the extent that we see in other places like the Western United States, as we experienced last year, those impacts can travel to the state and impact the health of our residents.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, it's a good example. You know, it's interesting. You remind me of last June we had the Canadian wildfires, which really caused the air quality to get worse in New York, we saw more people go to the emergency department during June of last year, 23, because of adverse air quality. One things I think about this year is we had a heat wave in I guess it was mid June this year, and we saw an increased number of people going the emergency department because of heat related injuries. And I think those are two tangible examples. And we found out about those examples because we use syndromic surveillance here at the New York State Department Health. What is syndromic surveillance? Can you just talk about that really quickly?
Neil Muscatiello:Sure. So syndromic surveillance really gives us a near real time picture about the health impacts we're seeing in emergency departments around the state. It's really one of the only tools we have to, in sort of in a rapid kind of way, evaluate what health impacts we're seeing. And we've been lucky enough in the Center for Environmental Health to work with some really great partners in this DOH syndromic surveillance program, as well as the EMS or emergency medical services program, to gain access to those data streams that they have available to them that allows us to then look at heat related illness around the state. And as you said, we've seen that when the weather gets warmer, we see more people going to the emergency department for heat related illness. There tends to be more EMS calls for people with heat related illness. And as you mentioned, the data that we got that we were able to look at from the New York State Mesonet, which is a network of 127 weather monitors around the state, they recorded some of the highest temperatures at many of those sites than they have since the network's been in existence since starting in 2018 as of this year. So we can see those impacts occurring fairly soon after they occur. And actually, for the first time this year, we've been able to get that information online on the DOH public website, for people who are interested in sort of being able to visualize those impacts themselves.
Johanne Morne:Well, sounds like there certainly is a lot of change that we can point to as it relates to our climate and the health impacts that it's having on New Yorkers across the state. I can certainly attest to the extreme heat that I can especially this past summer, Sean, from a DEC perspective, what can you add? What else do we need to know?
Sean Mahar:A lot Johanne, and I think first, you know, just taking a step back, you know, DEC and DOH have a very strong relationship when it comes to this work. We obviously work with the broader state agency network. But when it comes to the monitoring that Neil was speaking about, that data is really important because it informs our decisions on the landscape, and sort of underscores, you know, the types of mitigation work that we're doing. And when I say mitigation, Commissioner, to your point of, what is that? That's really looking at what are the root causes of climate change and what are the major contributing factors, and for that, it's greenhouse gas emissions. So what we do is part of the climate action planning process in the state, is really looking at, okay, what are all those different sources of emissions that contribute to climate change, and how are we as a state taking steps to reduce them? And the governor really has us on, you know, a multifaceted approach to addressing those greenhouse gas emissions reductions. You know, from working on a broad cap and invest program for carbon emissions in the state, from looking at HFCs and refrigerants to looking at our transportation networks and how we're electrifying our transportation fleets, we really have an all hands on deck approach to making sure that New York is really at the forefront trying to drive down those emissions and mitigate climate change, and when it comes to our mitigation efforts, adaptation, as you said, is our next phase. So when you look at things like extreme heat, this is a symptom of the climate change problem and something that New Yorkers are facing. So we need to be responsible in figuring out how we're helping New Yorkers adapt, and that's where that partnership with DOH and DEC is critical, and that's why the governor really started our extreme heat action planning process in the state. So in 2022, she kicked off a major initiative led by DEC and NYSERDA, along with DOH and 25 other state agencies in New York to really look at what are the major impacts facing New Yorkers from extreme heat, and what do we have to do to prepare for that, recognizing our future we're likely going to see more of these extreme heat events. And, you know, people just think extreme heat of a hot day, right? It's really hot outside, but really, some of the major things that we see are from the nighttime cooling. And when you have an extreme heat situation, you don't get that nighttime cooling effect. And that's where people inside their homes are more susceptible to some of the health based impacts from extreme heat. And that's where we're looking at how we set up cooling centers, how we're working with local municipalities to take steps and actions on the ground to create places where people can go to cool off. And then also, for us, working with nature is really critical, because we know access and availability to trees is really important to reducing the heating effect that you see in many urban areas, and it also really helps improve public health by improving air quality locally as well. So we really take that holistic look at our work, and that's why we need to work closely with the Department of Health on these initiatives.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, and I want to go back and just make sure we all have the same understanding of some of these terms here, because I love that you talked about greenhouse gasses. What is a greenhouse gas?
Sean Mahar:That's a great question, and one that we get quite often too. And we have our Office of climate change experts, have a lot of information on our DEC website that really goes into what those climate pollutants are. But greenhouse gasses are pollutants that go up into the atmosphere at high levels, and they trap the sun, solar heat coming into the planet. As you get more greenhouse gasses, emissions in the atmosphere, that amplifies that heating effect in lower levels of the atmosphere, which then, in turn, causes the climatic changes that we're seeing happening right now.
Jim McDonald:I know I don't look old, but I am old. And you mentioned something called HFCs. Hydrofluorocarbons are different than... Do you remember CFCs? Those were chlorofluorocarbons. Like I'm an old, old doctor, I remember when our asthma inhalers, the medicine we give kids with asthma, actually changed, because we need to change the propellant and remove the chlorofluorocarbons out of there, because they were creating damage to the ozone, right? So what's a hydrofluorocarbon, and why do we care about its impact on the environment?
Sean Mahar:HFCs are predominantly in refrigerants. So when you think about your refrigerators, your air conditioners, your heating and cooling elements, the way in which you freeze your ice skating rinks, you know they take these type of refrigerants and use them as part of their processes, and what happens is, you get leakage. You get releases into the environment. And these are climate super pollutants, as they're called. They're, you know, when you look at carbon and what carbon does to, you know, the climate change equation on that, HFCs are actually more potent and can last longer in the upper atmosphere, so they have a greater contribution to climate change effects that we're seeing, and that's why we need to phase them out. So we're looking at changing the way we and the types of components and products that we use in our heating and cooling systems to reduce those emissions going into the atmosphere.
Jim McDonald:So what's a common example of a hydrofluorocarbon that I might be using every day in my life?
Sean Mahar:Well, really, a lot of the heating and cooling elements that you have in buildings like the Corning Tower here. And you know, if you like to as I do, enjoy winter and go out ice skating, a lot of your ice skating rinks are run by chiller systems that have HFCs. So what we're looking to do is phase out those productions and work to advance more non polluting or less harmful elements in those heating and cooling products.
Jim McDonald:I think that's an example. When you're changing out an HFC for something different. That's called mitigation. And part of why I make that distinction is I as human being need to adapt to climate change, but if we're more successful with mitigation, that's less adaptation for me and better for everybody.
Johanne Morne:So Sean, you touched on a number of things. You talked about how data influences the practice. You talked about the partnerships between DEC as well as with the Department of Health, and how we move forward within those frameworks of legislation that you touched on that shows how we're advancing in New York State. What type of capital investment is there in New York State as it relates to doing this work and continuing to allow us to move forward?
Sean Mahar:I think under the governor's leadership, you've really seen a renewed commitment in the state budget to really advancing and making sure that we're shrinking the state's overall carbon footprint as a state entity. So she's really been pioneering a lot of the investments that we need, you know, here in the Empire State Plaza, to really looking at our transportation networks and electrifying our state fleets, and making sure we're bringing on electric vehicles that reduce transportation emissions. And there are a lot of investments going into state infrastructure, but we're also really putting a lot of money out on the street too. When you look at the environmental Bond Act, when you look at the Environmental Protection Fund and a number of state sources, there are a lot of investments that this governor is making to make sure that we're really leading by example here in the state. And we have a whole executive order, Executive Order 22 which is really looking at the state sustainability efforts overall and reducing that carbon footprint. And she's backing that up with the investments to really help our agency partners really lead by example.
Jim McDonald:So let's just understand some of those investments. Like, if I'm just a regular person in New York, am I going to see some of these investments, like you said, electrifying. What are some of those examples of those capital investments we're seeing in New York state?
Sean Mahar:a fossel fuel based... That's really a big change, too, right? Oh yeah!
Jim McDonald:We're so used to going to gas stations. I grew up with gas stations, but if you want to charge your car, you know, you got to go to a charging station, right?
Sean Mahar:Yep, and some gas stations are obviously bringing on charging infrastructure. We're putting in charging infrastructure that's accessible for our state employees to use, and really making sure that we have that availability with a charging network all across the state to make it easier for that transition.
Jim McDonald:What about wind? Is New York investing in wind or solar? Do you see any of that going on?
Sean Mahar:A lot of it all over the place. And, you know, working with our partners at NYSERDA and the Department of Public Service. You know, our clean energy transition right now is very much underway. We're looking at offshore wind sources. We're looking at onshore wind sources, or solar, installing solar, you know, across the state, and we're looking at DEC to make sure that we're balancing that out, putting it into places where it would have a more minimal environmental impact, but still achieve our clean energy goals. And that balance is something that's critical that we bring to the equation.
Jim McDonald:And I think that's a really important thing. If you're going to put a windmill up somewhere, if it's going to go in the ocean, or it's going to go on land somewhere, you have to make sure it's not going to adversely affect wildlife that's around there, or the ocean life or whatever, to make sure it works.
Sean Mahar:Exactly.
Jim McDonald:Just to remind, we're talking to Sean Mahar, the Interim Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Dr. Neil Muscatiello from the New York State Department Health, is our Director of our Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology. I want to go back to this summer. It was a hot, hot summer. We saw a lot of heat. In fact, many New Yorkers saw more than 10 days this summer of over 90 degrees, and four days over 95 degrees, making July of 24 one of the warmest on record. And for those without access to air conditioning, that can be really a challenge. So let me start with you, Dr Muscatiello, what are some of the strategies we can utilize as a state to help mitigate and adapt to climate change?
Neil Muscatiello:Sure, so I think there's several steps that we've taken to help reduce the risks of extreme heat on health. You know, we know from looking at the syndromic surveillance data and our EMS data, in addition to some more quantitative studies that we've done, that we see impacts of temperature on health at temperatures as low as the mid 80s or so. We really think it's important to implement these strategies towards adaptation. And so, for example, one of the things that we partnered with the National Weather Service on several years ago was to, you know, take these the results of these studies that we had done to them, and you know, through through the great partnership we had, we were able to justify a recommendation to lower the threshold at which they issue their heat warnings. And so, you know, when people are hearing those warnings at lower temperatures, perhaps they, you know, are thinking more about the risks to their health. And so we may have fewer people going to the emergency department. Commissioner Mahar previously mentioned cooling centers. Cooling centers are another option for people of no other access to a cool space during times of extreme heat. And so we've worked with local health departments and local emergency managers in partnership with the State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to collect information about the location of cooling centers that we can keep up to date in fairly real time fashion when we have extreme weather, to provide people with information about where they could go to stay cool. We've also worked with partners in the office of temporary disability assistance to promote programs to help people cool in their homes, and we look forward to further discussions about how we could do that in a way that's also beneficial to the environment as we move forward. But right now, people who meet certain programmatic criteria for those programs can get a window AC unit in their home, and that's. Helpful for people who may not be able to get to a cooling center and otherwise feel more comfortable being cool in their home.
Jim McDonald:Dr. Muscatiello, I want to follow up on something you talked a little bit about heat risk. I know, this year the CDC had a new web page called cdc.gov/heatrisk and, you know, heat risk is a different term we're using this year. And I think it's one of those things where, you know, we're kind of getting used now to understanding, well, it's not just the temperature, it's really more than that. So can you talk a little bit about what is heat risk and why is that important? Because now there's another color coded chart I'm supposed to look at. But there were some days this year where the heat risk looked really bad, that was, you know, extreme, and there's some days where it's major. Why is this important now to look at the heat risk every day?
Neil Muscatiello:Just stepping back, so the heat risk tool is essentially a health-based heat risk forecast, so it takes into account not only what the temperature is going to be, but what we know about the temperatures at which we see health impacts. And so CDC, working with the National Weather Service, developed this tool that provides a tailored geographically forecast of what people can expect the next day for their weather, and that depends... it's a five category system going from green to magenta that is an easy to use tool for people to see what their heat risk is going to be and so you can put in your zip code and see what the heat risk forecast is for the next day. And if you're in a red or magenta area, we'd recommend doing things like trying to plan your activities at times when the weather is going to be cooler. Of course, if you have to be outside during the hot weather, start hydrating the night before. Seek breaks in the shade if you can, those times when you're going to be outside, you know, make sure you can get to a cool spot in the evening to sort of give your body a chance to cool off from the day. We really look forward to, you know, using that heat risk tool in the future, and I think some of the preliminary analysis we've done to better understand how the heat risk tool works, suggest that it really was a pretty good tool for forecasting next day emergency department visits for heat related illness.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, I think that was important, but I like that tool, cdc.gov/heatrisk because you're righ, green is good, but when you that red major or magenta extreme, we did see more people ending up in the emergency department. And I you know, there's suggestions on what you can do, right? But like, you think one of the things we're not always thinking about is, like, when it's really hot, like this, you have to have an enormous amount of water if you're working outside when it's red or in that magenta status, you really have to be purposeful for how you're going to manage it. And I think this is one of the things I just see about living in our current generation is you have to plan for each day in front of you based on what the weather shows you. You know, because years and years ago, we didn't have nearly as many hot days like we do now. So Sean, back to you a little bit. What are some strategies we can use as a state to help mitigate this climate change? You talked about some of them before, but like, we're a big state, what are some things we can do in New York to mitigate climate change?
Sean Mahar:Well, I mean, New York is doing a lot. And just to go back to extreme heat, you know, part of really the governor's focus is making sure that we're planning effectively, and that's why, when it comes to extreme heat, she kicked off this extreme heat planning process and really making sure that all the state agencies and government were collaborating together and really being prepared for what is coming down the pike and what we're seeing happen. And you know that is really critical and essential for the state to lead and then help our local government partners in the ways that they need to lead and on the monitoring as well. You know the extreme heat forecasting and heat forecasting has been essential, but one of the cool tools that DOH and DEC collaborate on is air quality monitoring. And each day throughout the summer, we put out an air quality forecast looking at ground level ozone impacts. And we know that on warmer days and high heat days, you get more air quality impairments from that ground level ozone, which contribute to asthma and breathing problems and cause, you know, other health impacts that, you know, DOH and DEC collaborate on. So when we look and see what the temperature is going to be, we forecast that for air quality pollutants and put out regular advisories throughout the summer. And it's just our way of getting information out so that everyday people can make informed decisions. And that really underpins a lot of our work.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, and I want to understand ground level ozone a little better, like when ground level ozone is high, we recommended people wear a mask when the air quality was awful. How do you mitigate if you're a human being with a high ground level ozone, what do you do?
Sean Mahar:Well, I may have to turn to your health expert here to answer that when it comes to heath questions.
Jim McDonald:What I'm getting at is a mask isn't helpful for ground level ozone. It's really about being indoors. You know, ground level ozone, you gotta, just gotta go indoors, and
Sean Mahar:that's where I think, collaborating with the that's a tough issue. Department of Health, we put out a lot of science based information to help people make informed decisions. And I think, as Neil was saying, plan your days accordingly. So if you know it's going to be a poor air quality day, and you are in a sensitive population group that has breathing problems. You know, look to make strategies to limit your time outdoors and the times of day when the air quality is going to be poorest. And that's really the type of information that we put out with the air quality advisories that we issue throughout the summer.
Johanne Morne:Both of you have done such a great job at raising our awareness as to what's happening in New York State, what's happening on a national level?
Sean Mahar:A lot, thanks to New York's leadership and really elevating these conversations and really making sure that we are pushing the federal government to take similar actions and steps that we are taking here in the state. And I think there's a lot more work that needs to be done on the federal level, and a lot more that we can take examples from of what we're doing in the state. You know, we work regularly with the Environmental Protection Agency and really working to make sure that on the national level, some of these emissions reduction strategies are happening on a national level, because you can only go so far in the state to regulate these pollutants, and we really need a national conversation and a national solution to that. So we work with EPA to really advance things like the Clean Power Plan and different strategies to reduce those emissions that are contributing to climate change, and that's very much underway right now. And we really, you know, are looking to see where things go in the future on the federal level, and what that means for our work in New York. But New Yorkers should rest assured that, you know, this governor is all in on our climate change efforts here, and we're going to continue to lead by example as best as we can.
Jim McDonald:I mean, definitely having clean energy is really part of our future, isn't it? You know, it's interesting. I hear about wind, I hear about solar. I do hear a little bit more about nuclear energy too. You know, creating space for that to be part of the conversation about where we're going. I'm still holding on for the future in Star Trek, though, where, you know, plasma energy there.
Sean Mahar:You and me both.
Jim McDonald:Gene Roddenberry was thinking about this a long time ago in Star Trek time.
Sean Mahar:Well, he inspired me to get involved in the sciences at an early age.
Jim McDonald:That's awesome.
Johanne Morne:Thank you all for joining us today for the conversation, and thank you for stopping over to the 14th floor today both Sean Mahar, Interim Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Conservation, and Dr. Neil Muscatiello, Director of the Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology here at the Department of Health.
Neil Muscatiello:Yes agree. Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure to talk to you, and we look forward to working with DEC and our other state partners in the future as we continue to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Sean Mahar:Thanks so much for having me, and it's been an honor to be here. And I'll just add not a shameless plug, but it's a shameless plug of checking out the DEC podcast,"DEC Does What?" We actually just had our extreme heat episode on with one of our DEC experts as well. So I think it was great to see you want to talk about the subject today and good crossover opportunities.
Jim McDonald:Yeah, thank you both. I really think mitigate and adapt are the words I want to leave us with today. You know, I think about mitigation that's responsibility of the population at large for the most part. Adaptation is what we're going to have to do if we aren't successful at just mitigating the changes that are in front of us. So that's it for today's New York Public Health Now podcast. If there's a topic of interest you would like to hear us talk about, please let us know by email at PublicHealthNowPodcast@health.ny.gov
Johanne Morne:And to hear the latest New York Public Health Now episode on your favorite podcast player, app like Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, YouTube and Google Podcasts, search by our podcast title, New York Public Health Now, or by keyword, NYSDOH, then tap the subscribe or follow button to be notified when we release a new episode, which is about every other week.
Jim McDonald:And if you like what you hear, please leave a review. For New York Public Health Now Podcast, I'm the Commissioner of the New York State Department Health, Dr Jim McDonald.
Johanne Morne:And I'm Johanne Morne.
Sean Mahar:I'm Sean Mahar.
Neil Muscatiello:and I'm Neil Muscatiello.
Jim McDonald:And thank you for listening.
Monica Pomeroy:New York Public Health now is a production of New York State Department of Health's public affairs group. Michael Wren is the executive producer and engineer, with additional production support provided by Sarah Snyder, Genine Babakian, Barbara Stubblebine, Alicia Biggs, Monica Pomeroy and Kyle Kotary, copyright 2024 All rights reserved. We welcome your feedback. Please email us at PublicHealthNowPodcast@health.ny.gov.
