AGENCY TESTIMONY
Overview of current public health activities and services
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Dr. Morse provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse range of public health activities and services currently offered by the New York City Health Department, showcasing the breadth and impact of their work.
- Highlights the department's workforce of over 7,000 people serving 8 million New Yorkers
- Details specific activities including food safety inspections, vaccine distribution, disease investigations, and overdose prevention efforts
- Describes community health initiatives such as the public health corps and home visiting programs
- Mentions vital records services like issuing birth and death certificates
Dr. Michelle Morse
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Those investments fund a matrix of work happening across our city each and every day.
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More than 7,000 people work at the health department and all of them work for the more than 8,000,000 New Yorkers in one way or another.
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For example, to prevent foodborne illness, we inspect more than 30,000 food service locations for food safety including restaurants, school cafeterias, and food trucks.
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To ensure that every child in New York City has access to vaccines, we distribute more than 2,500,000 doses of pediatric vaccines to more than a thousand different health care providers.
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To prevent the spread of disease, we conduct thousands of disease investigations related to certain sexually transmitted infections, foodborne illnesses, waterborne illnesses, and other infectious diseases just like the hepatitis A one that you might have heard about a few days ago.
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To prevent overdose deaths we distribute more than 300,000 naloxone kits and more than 54,000 fentanyl test strips.
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To meet New Yorkers where they are and build trust on the ground, we've equipped more than 5,000 community health workers to join our public health corps.
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To support parents who are pregnant or who have young children, we've provided more than 20,000 families with home visiting nurses, doulas, and community health workers.
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To support people who do not want to be pregnant or for those who cannot safely carry a baby to term, we have fielded calls from more than 8,000 people at the abortion access hub.
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Lastly, to celebrate the joy of new birth or mourn the loss of a loved one, we issue more than 1,000,000 birth and death certificates annually.
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That's just a glimpse of our work.