ASHEVILLE, NC – March 23, 2023 – Dr. Nick Ladd, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) in Asheville, observed that there is more anxiety in children “as the frequency of mass shootings has increased.” Asheville City schools and Buncombe County Schools have not had a school shooting in the past 5 years. However, students are networked to the media and social media which can cause feelings of anxiety and panic through their exposure to the terrible events. A 2021 study published in the JAMA Network Open, the Journal of the American Medical Association’s open-source access medical journal, find that students became worried about the violence happening at schools and that this was associated with feeling anxiety and panic symptoms 6 months later. This is consistent with a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center that found that almost 60% of 13-to-17-year-olds were worried about a shooting happening at school. Students are also very frustrated that school violence is continuing to take place.

The federal government does not track school shootings so the Washington Post has created a database from news reports, open-source databases, police reports, and directly calling schools and police departments. There have been more than 377 school shootings since the incident at Columbine High School in 1999, resulting in 349,000 students experiencing gun violence. These incidents have become more frequent since 2018. In 2022, there were 46 school shootings which were more than any year since 1999. A total of 199 children, teachers and staff have been killed; 425 have been injured.

The schools in Asheville and Buncombe County have many mental health providers for students to reach out to if they are emotionally overwhelmed. Dillon Huffman, Asheville City Schools’ spokesperson, says that their counseling department has not seen an increase of students with anxiety issues following the school shootings. The majority of students that take advantage of these services have anxiety from other issues. However, Dr. Ladd opines that the anxiety surrounding mass shootings may not be the presenting problem, although it may be a contributory source for anxiety. Learning resiliency skills like breathing exercises can help the affected students better manage their emotions so that they can refocus their attention to learning at school.

Listen to the full report below:

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

ASHEVILLE, NC – April 26, 2023 – The CDC’s COVID-19 Community Levels describe the impact of COVID illness on each county’s healthcare system. The community level for Buncombe County remains at a low level for the week ending April 17^th. Every county in North Carolina is low. About 98% of the counties in the U.S. are at a low level.

The CDC’s Community Transmission Levels describe how much disease is within each county. The community transmission level for Buncombe County remains at a moderate level for the week ending April 16^th. Most counties in North Carolina are at a moderate level. About 20% of the counties in the U.S. are at a high level with about 20% at a low level.

The Buncombe County COVID-19 metrics are on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard. Data from the week ending on April 15^th indicate:

• Last week’s total cases are up by 25 (48%) from the previous week
• 68% of the total population have received their initial vaccination series.
• 33% of people with their initial vaccination series have had the updated booster.
• The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations has increased by 2 and of ICU patients has decreased by 3 from last week.

An updated COVID-19 booster is now available for eligible persons 6 months and older. It is more effective at protecting against severe illness and death from the new variants.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and the updated booster.
• People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home

For a county at a low community level, like Buncombe County, the CDC recommends:

• If you are at high risk for getting sick, wear a high-quality mask in a public indoors space.
• If you plan on being with someone at high risk for getting sick, consider self-testing for COVID-19 infection and wear a high-quality mask when indoors with them.

Listen to the full report below:

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

DENVER, CO  – April 12, 2023 – There is a movement to develop technology capable of removing excess carbon dioxide (CO2) gas from our atmosphere in order to reverse the effects of climate change. CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas and increasing levels are responsible for global warming. Private businesses and nonprofit groups are incentivized to adopt this approach to CO2 reduction in order to qualify for many billions of dollars of federal tax credits and funds through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. In addition, the federal government has funded 4 national centers to develop new technology. Other names for the removal of carbon dioxide from the air are ‘carbon capture,’ ‘carbon sequestration’ and ‘scrubbing’ CO2 from the air.

Climate change is caused by humans, specifically by green-house gases in our atmosphere like carbon dioxide and other products of fossil-fuel combustion. These greenhouse gases help to keep the heat from the sun from leaving our atmosphere. Not only do the greenhouse gases linger in the atmosphere for a long time, their levels have been shown to be rising rapidly over the past twenty years as does the average temperature of the atmosphere. Last year, 40 billion tons of carbon were released into the atmosphere, according to the International Energy Agency.

Most scientists predict a number of devastating environmental catastrophes will occur with this increase. Warming of the oceans will melt ice from our polar regions with rising oceans, flooding of cities, the loss of many islands and the death of the coral reefs. Warmer air carries more moisture in it which leads to more extreme weather events like more precipitation and flooding. More heat waves mean more drought and starvation.

Climate change can impact health though more climate extremes by reducing air quality, damaging food production systems, decreasing safe water resources, and increasing insect vectors. These climate drivers impact our local region with more forest fires around the city, more floods within the city and the surrounding community, and having longer warm weather seasons for insects to cause disease in humans. Climate change can result in more health impacts due to heat-related illness (such as heat stroke and cardiopulmonary illness), vector borne disease (like Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and malaria), injuries, and mental health problems (due to economic loss, job loss, and stress).

There are 2 ways that CO2 can be removed from our atmosphere. 1. It can be removed at the source of emission from power plants and vehicles that burn fossil fuels. 2. Air from the atmosphere can be ‘captured’ and treated. Carbon capture has been very expensive on a large scale; however, a new technique has been developed that is much cheaper. CO2 gas from the air is collected and transformed into liquid or gas. The U.S. government will pay companies $180 for each ton of CO2 removed from the air using the new direct air capture technology. The second largest carbon ‘direct air capture’ plant in the world is near Denver.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis remarked about ‘carbon capture’, “It’s nothing less than saving our planet and our way of life.”

Listen to the full report below:

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

WASHINGTON, DC – April 10, 2023 – On April 10^th, President Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to officially end the U.S. national COVID emergency. It was scheduled to expire on May 11^th. The national emergency designation is distinct from the U.S. public health emergency which is still set to expire on May11^th.

Each designation allows for its own set of measures to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. One of the items that the public health emergency act affects is immigration restrictions at the U.S.-Mexican border. The national emergency enabled the government to support systems that are affected by the coronavirus pandemic such as welfare, health and economic networks. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in July 2020, there were almost 17 million unemployed Americans with almost 10 million due to business closures or loss of business due to the pandemic.

With the end of the national emergency, many government agencies, like the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), have had to adjust their programs in order to return to normal pre-COVID procedures. The COVID mortgage forbearance program will end in May. Caregiver assistance for VA-eligible veterans will require an in-home evaluation. To reduce the spread of COVID, Congress approved telehealth to reduce the number of in-person appointments while allowing for access to healthcare. Last year, Congress extended this service independent of the COVID crisis because it has proven to be a successful adjunct to obtaining access to high quality healthcare.

The public health emergency allows Medicaid beneficiaries to keep their health insurance and access to health care during the pandemic, even if their eligibility changed. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that between 5 and 14 million people  will lose their Medicaid benefits when the public health emergency expires next month.

The COVID-19 pandemic was declared a U.S. public health emergency on January 31, 2020 and a national emergency in March 2020 by then-president Trump. The emergency designations have been renewed and broadened by President Biden since he became president in January 2021. COVID-19 infections have resulted in the deaths of over 1 million Americans over the past 3 years.

Listen to the full report below:

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]