More SNAP, Data Gaps

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Welcome to Public Health Morning Radio,

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a show for public health professionals to keep you informed in under five minutes,

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five days a week.

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It's Wednesday,

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November 5th,

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2025.

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I'm Jansen Silvers.

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First up this morning,

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we continue to track SNAP benefits.

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Monday,

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the federal government said that it can distribute $4.6 billion in emergency funds.

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which covers half of November SNAP benefits,

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and will completely tap the SNAP contingency funds.

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Meanwhile,

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as we reported yesterday,

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states and localities are stepping up to fill the gap in various ways.

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In North Charleston,

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South Carolina,

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leaders from the State Department of Public Health,

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Social Services,

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and other agencies held a town hall for residents to explain what help still remains for families affected by the shutdown.

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South Carolina's Governor Henry McMaster is one of several governors mobilizing the National Guard.

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to assist communities and food banks.

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NPR's Aisha Rasco interviewed Elizabeth Kiever,

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the chief resource officer at Harvesters,

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which is a food bank in Kansas City,

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Missouri.

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We're in uncharted territory.

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We have always been the supplement to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

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And when you think about the county I was in alone,

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I was in Jackson County.

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There are 92,000 folks in that county who are on SNAP benefits.

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and

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The monthly distribution that is anticipated for that county alone is $19 million.

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That's more than our organization receives in charitable contributions for an entire year.

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Dr.

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Laura Samuel,

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a professor at Johns Hopkins University,

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appeared on Baltimore's WBAL-TV's morning show to outline how a lack of food affects the entire health system.

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They often have to make compromises that might include things like not filling prescriptions.

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We also know that a lot of low-income households,

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if they have people with diabetes or hypertension,

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chronic conditions that are sensitive to diet,

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those are the folks that tend to feel its effects really quickly.

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We see increased rates of emergency department visits,

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for example.

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Both the Harvard T.H.

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Chan School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have deep dive articles that explain the effect of SNAP on public health.

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We'll have those linked in the show notes.

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We will also continue to follow the developments of this story throughout the week.

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Make sure you never miss an update when you follow this newscast wherever you get your podcasts.

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A hunger emergency isn't the only issue arising from the government shutdown.

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A lack of new data and dashboards from CDC is also a problem for communities.

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Here's Melissa McMasters with the Marion County Health Department in Indiana on local station WRTV.

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A lot of the reports that come out of the CDC

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are not coming out.

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So,

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you know,

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we really are losing that ability to kind of prepare for what's next.

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However,

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there is still a resource out there for you.

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PopHive is a project from the Yale School of Public Health that debuted earlier this year.

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The platform puts near real-time,

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reliable health data directly into the hands of the public,

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and in this case,

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in the hands of public health.

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And the platform has allowed epidemiologists to spot an increase of RSV hospitalizations recently for children under four.

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Data for respiratory diseases,

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childhood immunizations,

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and chronic diseases are all available.

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We have a link to PopHive in the show notes where you can check out dashboards,

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data,

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and maps to help keep your community healthy.

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We'll also have a link to the Your Local Epidemiologist article outlining the RSV data.

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And finally,

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before we go,

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new research to be aware of linking high influenza vaccination rates to reduced antibiotic prescribing in nursing homes.

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a new public health report

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from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health,

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details the findings of a study completed by Northeastern University that examined the community-level benefits of the influenza vaccine.

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Researchers used national data to analyze the relationship between county-level influenza vaccination rates and antibiotic prescribing patterns in U.S.

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nursing homes and found that for every 1%

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increase in local flu vaccination coverage,

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nursing homes experienced a statistically significant decrease in antibiotic prescribing.

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Find more information about the study by clicking on the link in the show notes.

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That's it for today.

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Join us right back here tomorrow for more Public Health Morning Radio.

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Be well.