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1/x Important alarm bell from @AmberSchmidtke: "Something strange happened yesterday when Public Health Commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, presented the Governor’s budget proposal for DPH to the Georgia legislature. ... https://amberschmidtkephd.substack.com/p/the-daily-digest-20jan2021
2/x "....Despite the pandemic and the last decade of budget cuts to the Department of Public Health, the Governor asked for only a negligible increase in funding for Dr. Toomey’s department. ...
3/3 "...This surprised me because every roadblock I’ve run across to improving the public health response to the pandemic has come down to money:
4/x "Dr. Toomey went on to talk about how much the DPH was relying on volunteers to carry out testing and vaccinations. Over and over, the comments indicated how limited they were in terms of resources. And yet, she didn’t ask for additional funds."
5/5 "...when asked about morale at the department and whether the public health professionals were getting additional pay during the pandemic, she replied that appreciation would matter more than money. That surprised me too, given the beleaguered accounts I’ve heard..."
