The On-line Information Affiliation has named KFF’s Kaiser Well being Information and The Related Press winners of its 2021 College of Florida Award in Investigative Knowledge Journalism for his or her joint undertaking “Underfunded and Underneath Risk.” The award is likely one of the highest honors in information journalism.
The joint KHN-AP investigation revealed that public well being departments across the nation had develop into understaffed and poorly geared up to confront the worst pandemic in a century. Their evaluation discovered that no less than 38,000 state and native public well being jobs disappeared since 2008, and spending for native public well being departments dropped by 18% per capita since 2010.
The joint KHN-AP investigation revealed that public well being departments across the nation had develop into understaffed and poorly geared up to confront the worst pandemic in a century. Their evaluation discovered that no less than 38,000 state and native public well being jobs disappeared since 2008, and spending for native public well being departments dropped by 18% per capita since 2010.
Journalists from each information organizations drew upon greater than a dozen information sources to evaluate a whole bunch of state and native well being departments. Reporters interviewed greater than 150 individuals, surveyed all 50 statehouses, filed dozens of information requests and sorted by laws throughout the nation.
Even throughout the top of the coronavirus disaster, many states spent little of their federal covid-19 reduction funding on public well being departments, and state legislatures continued to undermine the general public well being system with funds cuts.
KHN and AP additionally adopted the story all through the pandemic, displaying how the politicization of public well being measures prompted bodily threats in opposition to public well being staff, with the backlash triggering the most important exodus of public well being leaders in American historical past and an enormous legislative rollback of public well being powers.
AP and KHN additionally routinely shared information and supplied steering to information organizations to assist them localize the findings of the investigation for his or her communities. The award — one in every of many KHN has obtained through the years — honors work that successfully makes use of information to inform a narrative, presents that information properly to customers and has relevance and journalistic affect.
About KFF and KHN
KHN (Kaiser Well being Information) is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. Along with Coverage Evaluation and Polling, KHN is likely one of the three main working applications at KFF (Kaiser Household Basis). KFF is an endowed nonprofit group offering data on well being points to the nation.
About AP
The Related Press is an unbiased world information group devoted to factual reporting. Based in 1846, AP at the moment stays essentially the most trusted supply of quick, correct, unbiased information in all codecs and the important supplier of the expertise and providers very important to the information enterprise. Greater than half the world’s inhabitants sees AP journalism every single day.