Anna Maria Barry-Jester, KFF Health News

Anna Maria Barry-Jester

KFF Health News

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • KFF Health News
  • The Desert Sun
  • L.A. Daily News

Past articles by Anna:

Conservative Blocs Unleash Litigation to Curb Public Health Powers

Spurred on by opposition to pandemic-related health mandates, a coalition of religious liberty groups, conservative think tanks, and Republican state attorneys general has filed a cascade of litiga… → Read More

Rural California Hatches Plan for Engineered Mosquitoes to Battle Stealthy Predator

Tulare County officials hope the region will soon be a testing ground for a new generation of technology in a centuries-old war: Human vs. Mosquito. → Read More

Babies Die as Congenital Syphilis Continues a Decade-Long Surge Across the US

Congenital syphilis rates keep climbing, according to newly released federal data. But the primary funding source for most public health departments has been largely stagnant, its purchasing power … → Read More

Health Officials See Bright Future in Poop Surveillance

Sewage surveillance is proving so useful in mapping covid trends that many public health officials say it should become standard practice in tracking infectious diseases. Whether that happens will … → Read More

‘Injections, Injections, Injections’: Troubling Questions Follow Closure of Sprawling Pain Clinic Chain

In May 2021, Lags Medical Centers, one of California’s largest chains of pain clinics, abruptly closed its doors amid a cloaked state investigation. Nine months later, patients are still in the dar… → Read More

‘I Just Want to Stay in One Spot’: From Homeless to Housed in Rugged Del Norte

California’s homeless crisis is often understood through cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, where the sheer number of people living unsheltered can quickly capsize the programs designed to … → Read More

Labs With No One to Run Them: Why Public Health Workers Are Fleeing the Field

Across California, public health departments are losing experienced staffers to exhaustion, partisan politics and jobs that pay more for less work. The public health nurses, epidemiologists and mic… → Read More

Racism a Strong Factor in Black Women’s High Rate of Premature Births, Study Finds

Dr. Paula Braveman, director of UCSF’s Center on Social Disparities in Health, shares her insights on a provocative new study that identifies racism as a decisive factor in the gap in preterm birth… → Read More

Santa Cruz Health Officials Honored for Persevering in Covid Battle Against Tide of ‘Denialism’

Mimi Hall and Dr. Gail Newel, health director and health officer for Santa Cruz County, California, will receive PEN America’s 2021 PEN/Benenson Courage Award for soldiering forward in their work a… → Read More

Over Half of States Have Rolled Back Public Health Powers in Pandemic

At least 26 states have passed laws to permanently limit public health powers, a KHN investigation has found, weakening the country’s ability to fight not only the current resurgence of the pandemi… → Read More

The Newest Disease Detection Tool for Covid and Beyond: Poop

Hundreds of college campuses, cities and counties around California and the U.S. are exploring sewers for the newest data stream to track covid and other infectious diseases. → Read More

Hard Lessons From a City That Tried to Privatize Public Health

Facing bankruptcy, Detroit largely dismantled its public health department in 2012, and the city essentially went two years without a government-run public health system. Five years later, this maj… → Read More

‘We’re Coming for You’: For Public Health Officials, a Year of Threats and Menace

Local health officials have become the face of government authority as they work to stem the pandemic. That has made them targets for chilling threats from some of the same militia groups that stor… → Read More

Can the US Keep Covid Variants in Check? Here’s What It Takes

The U.S. has fumbled almost every step of its public health response in its battle against covid-19. Experts say that must change if we’re going to outflank the variants emerging as the virus continues to mutate. → Read More

California Counties ‘Flying the Plane as We Build It’ in a Plodding Vaccine Rollout

In California, the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history is run largely by the same overworked and underfunded local health departments tasked with covid-19 testing and contact tracing. It’s a daunting undertaking as the pandemic continues to surge. → Read More

‘Nine Months Into It, the Adrenaline Is Gone and It’s Just Exhausting’

A UCSF emergency room physician reflects on California’s response to COVID-19 and on lessons learned — or not — as the coronavirus makes its second devastating surge. → Read More

Pandemic Backlash Jeopardizes Public Health Powers, Leaders

At least 181 public health leaders in 38 states have resigned, retired or been fired amid the turmoil of the pandemic. The departures come as backlash against public health is rising with threats t… → Read More

As Broad Shutdowns Return, Weary Californians Ask ‘Is This the Best We Can Do?’

California’s ping-ponging approach to managing the pandemic — twice reopening large portions of the service sector economy only to shut them again — has residents and business owners on edge. But e… → Read More

Hard Lives Made Harder by COVID: Homeless Endure a ‘Slow-Moving Train Wreck’

This was supposed to be the year California finally did something about its homelessness epidemic. COVID-19 upended that promise, along with the cobbled-together services many homeless people rely … → Read More

California Expands Privacy Protection to Public Health Workers Amid Threats

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded a confidential address program to public health officials in the wake of ongoing threats made against them tied to pandemic safety precautions such … → Read More