Cristin McCarthy Vahey

For all who are celebrating Easter this weekend, I wish you a blessed holiday with family and friends.

This week is National Public Health Week. This is a great opportunity to thank our state and local public health leaders who work tirelessly every day to keep our families and communities health, safe, and strong.

Whether it is assuring clean water, inspecting restaurants, combatting chronic disease, preventing gun violence, providing newborn screening, improving suicide prevention, providing immunizations, educating the public, or preparing for emergencies, our public health leaders are the people behind the scenes making it happen.

As I shared earlier this week, I recently stood with the Connecticut Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to talk about the safety, efficacy, and importance of vaccination.

As we head into April, I wanted to share some news about $150 million in cuts made early last week by the US Department of Health and Human Services. I wish it was an April Fool’s joke, but unfortunately these cuts, primarily to our Department of Public Health, will have significant impact on both state and local public health efforts. I’ll also share more about events and activities over the last two weeks, including a gathering with over 20 statewide Pediatricians to discuss the safety and effectiveness of routine vaccinations.

As I shared last week, I will continue to share public health news and information that can help you, your families, and our community stay healthy and safe. This week, my focus is tobacco and nicotine. My Grandfather, Fred McCarthy, died of emphysema when I was 15. Watching my grandfather struggle to breathe and eventually die has fueled my work on tobacco prevention for decades.

In keeping with the theme of healthcare funding, this week, I’d like to share a little bit about the role of private equity. I’ll also share a bit about events and activities with all of you.

Starting this week, I plan to share a regular public health announcement or update along with other community events and information. This week, the focus is heart disease, which is the leading cause of death for both women and men. Please let me know if you have community events you would like shared either through an e-blast or social media - we will do our best to help get the word out on many of the opportunities here in Bridgeport and Fairfield!

Since I last wrote, actions taken in Washington have dominated many conversations in the news media, around kitchen tables, and here in Hartford.

State agencies, nonprofit providers and individual residents have shared uncertainty and, in some cases, significant concern.

As your representative, I remain focused on advancing many of the policy priorities I hear from all of you. In this e-mail, I will share a few of those items in the news, some of the many events and meetings I have had, and focus on just a couple of the issues we are addressing here in the legislature.