Tuesday, April 1, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Nevada is certainly one of 13 states with insufficient public well being emergency preparedness, in response to a just lately launched research.
Since 2003, the annual “Prepared or Not” report has evaluated states’ preparedness for public well being emergencies utilizing 10 key indicators, together with public well being funding stability and flu vaccination charges. The 2025 version, titled “Defending the Public’s Well being from Ailments, Disasters and Bioterrorism,” was compiled by Belief for America’s Well being, a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to group well being promotion.
The belief’s officers emphasised the report’s essential timing, noting it comes on the heels of current choices by the Trump administration to scale back the Federal Emergency Administration Company’s function in catastrophe preparedness. The report highlighted ongoing challenges states face, together with local weather disasters, expired COVID-19 emergency funding and outbreaks of ailments corresponding to measles and avian influenza.
“The report findings present that there’s vital room for enchancment within the nation’s emergency preparedness,” stated J. Nadine Gracia, president and CEO of Belief for America’s Well being. “A wholesome inhabitants is extra resilient throughout an emergency, and our most necessary recommendation is that policymakers and different sectors shouldn’t wait till an emergency occurs to put money into public well being and prevention. We will save lives if we construct these techniques prematurely of the following emergency.”
The 92-page report discovered that Nevada ranked within the lowest tier of efficiency in state preparedness for a public well being emergency. The state shouldn’t be accredited by the Public Well being Accreditation Board, an unbiased group with an accreditation program that units “rigorous requirements for public well being companies and operational effectivity.”
There are lots of areas the place Nevada falls behind nationwide averages.
In Nevada, 52% of workers on common used paid day off from 2019 to 2024, a price 3% decrease than the nationwide common. Throughout a public well being emergency, paid day off may be necessary as a result of the power to remain dwelling with out dropping earnings or job safety may help gradual illness unfold, the report said.
Different areas of enchancment for Nevada embrace the 36% seasonal flu vaccination price amongst residents, which is among the lowest within the nation, and lack of participation within the Nurse Licensure Compact, an 2000 settlement established by the Nationwide Council of State Boards of Nursing that enables registered nurses to follow in any member state with a single multistate license.
9 states don’t take part on this compact, together with California and Oregon.
“The introduction of the NLC has considerably enhanced nurse mobility, permitting them to follow throughout a number of states with a single license, thereby growing the flexibleness and responsiveness of the nursing workforce,” the report states. “This elevated mobility has proved particularly invaluable throughout public well being emergencies, enabling immediate deployment of nurses to areas in want with out the hindrance of acquiring particular person state licenses.”
The Belief for America’s Well being made numerous coverage suggestions on the finish of its report, with priorities corresponding to offering steady and enough funding for public well being safety; stopping and responding to outbreaks and pandemics; constructing more healthy communities; readying well being care techniques to reply and get better; and getting ready for environmental threats and excessive climate.
Dr. Cassius Lockett, district well being officer for the Southern Nevada Well being District, is these suggestions.
Lockett told the Sun that he’s making an attempt to supply extra funding for public well being by way of grants and the state, hopefully to cowl among the reductions the well being district is anticipating from the federal authorities.
He additionally desires to provoke applications that broaden medical care to the area’s homeless inhabitants, promote and enhance group vaccinations, research methods to mitigate the impact of Southern Nevada’s excessive warmth on residents, and modernize information to detect outbreaks sooner and ship therapy faster.
The objectives depend upon funding, which the report harassed was “important for preparedness and response capability.”
The Belief for America’s Well being urged congressional and state lawmakers to broaden public well being emergency preparedness funding, put money into steady public well being information modernization and guarantee steady enchancment of public well being infrastructure by way of funding.
“There’s going to be a give attention to preserving the infrastructure for rising infections, and I feel we do this properly, however we have to have some enhancements,” Lockett stated. “I should not have a crystal ball, however one of many issues that we’re all ready for, and with bated breath, is what potential federal grants might get decreased or eradicated, as a result of that’s going to impression the general public well being infrastructure and our capability to answer any sort of rising infectious ailments, together with chook flu (and) dengue.”
