Gov. Lamont signs law that makes it easier for people to sue gunmakers 

State Sen. Ryan Fazio exploring run for governor

CT families could get more heating help this winter. But there’s a big ‘if’

New Haven bans city spending on Avelo Airlines

Tong pushes back after DOJ labels Connecticut a sanctuary state

Buying an electric vehicle? They just got $1,000 more expensive in CT

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News 12 Staff

RTCTPowerPolitics08092025BBlock230pm

I'm Mark Sudan. Welcome back to Power and Politics. Doctor Manisha Jaani, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, joins us now. Welcome. Thanks for having me. You, I'm sure have been busy here with all kinds of things going on this summer and of course back to school is right around the corner. Uh, what should families know about immunizations? So first of all, I think it's important to recognize that Connecticut was just recognized as the most highly vaccinated state for children in the country with the highest immunization rate for measles for children entering kindergarten. So this is an important time as you're getting ready to go back to school to make sure that your children are up to date on all their vaccinations that they need for school, and the reason that it's useful is it'll keep your kids in school, it'll keep them healthy. It keeps your family healthy and it's a great checkpoint in time to remember as you're getting ready with new backpacks and clothing and pencils and books, making sure those vaccines are up to date as well. And I think that state measles report was like 98%. 3%, which is like unheard of. Well, it's the best we've seen in a long time. We were quite high even before COVID. We did go a little bit down during COVID because a lot of kids were not in school and there were a lot of data backlog issues as well, but since then we are even higher than we were before the pandemic, so we went up about 0.5% in the last year since our survey last year. We always have been in a pretty good state regardless. 95% vaccination rate for measles is what you need to have herd immunity, and what that really means is that let's say you have an immunocompromised child who's in a classroom and can't get the vaccine for some reason. If 95% of the other children are vaccinated, that protects those that are more vulnerable within the community. So the good news is that we've always been at that rate. These are small incremental increases, but every little bit extra is only that much better, and it makes me so proud of us as a state that we have a populace that really values vaccinations and the. Protection that it can afford their children. Yes, that's very good. Well, and we're in that, uh, summary time, and we, you know, you have to deal with summary kinds of things like West Nile virus which has now been detected in several Connecticut towns including right here in Fairfield County. What, what do people need to know about it? So West Nile virus is a virus that you can get from a mosquito bite. And we monitor the mosquitoes throughout the state starting in the early summer and going into the early fall practically looking for the pools of mosquitoes that may be having West Nile virus in them. We have not had a human case this year yet, but we do that so that we can help issue warnings to people and to local communities. And sometimes local health departments will do local campaigns to get rid of mosquito populations where they know West Nile maybe has been detected that is really governed at a local level, but what this really can do for us is say mosquito bites are never fun. Nobody likes to get them, but when you know that there is a virus in them, as you said that we've had pockets throughout Fairfield County where West Nile has been detected. That you want to be extra careful at dawn and dusk wearing longer sleeve clothing, trying to protect yourself from mosquito bites, wearing insecticide to prevent getting mosquito bites, and really that can all be just preventative to try to prevent from getting this virus. And as long as we're on the subject of bugs, uh, we did a story earlier this summer with the Connecticut Deep about the Longhorn tick as well. What do you want people to know about that? So that is an invasive tick species here in Connecticut. It's really a tick that we have not normally had. It is one that is really from Asia. It has come here. One of the things that is concerning about it a bit is that it can replicate on its own, meaning it doesn't need a male and a female. That's a little bit unusual. It all. Also has the ability to have another pathogen called Ehrlichia chaffiensis. This is not something we usually see here in Connecticut. We only had about a couple of cases in the first several years of the 2000s, but in the last 5 years we've had 28 cases. Could that be related to this new tick? We don't really know yet. That's part of what we are following. But it is another tick-borne illness like some of the others that people are familiar with, whether it be Lyme disease, bubesiosis, anaplasmosis, this would be Ehrlichiosis and the challenge with that is that you can get a rash, fever, fatigue. These are very common symptoms. They're things that could be any number of things, but if you've had a tick bite, the. Concern is that you could have one or more of these types of bugs that could be giving you one of these infections. They're all very treatable. It's all about getting checked out and diagnosed early and of course prevention is only better if you can accomplish it. And what does that entail? It means wearing longer pants, trying to avoid the tall grass. And wading through those tall grasses where deer may walk and then the ticks are on the grass and then they get onto you and doing tick tick checks of yourself, your pets, your kids when you come in from the outside if you've been hiking or going through those very wooded areas. So also wearing long socks that you can potentially tuck your pants into. Some of these things are uncomfortable to do in the really hot weather, but you know what, it's starting to get a little cooler for us, so people we want people to still be outside. These are the things that people can do to really just try to protect themselves from getting any of these bugs that we really don't want to have. In about the 30 seconds we have left, it's been a hot summer, as we know, cooler now, but it could get hot again. What, what, what are some quick tips for folks? We really want to avoid heat stroke. We want really people to stay hydrated be watching out for their young kids, making sure that they're not in the sun for too long, really thinking about your older and younger folks in your family because those are gonna be the ones that are the most. Heat sensitive, but you know as school is getting back in session, kids are playing outside team sports they're out there exercising they're out there doing drills and we really need to watch out for those kids as well because it's really important to keep them safe. Thank you, doctor. Well, coming up, Connecticut families could get more heating assistance, but there's a catch.

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RTCTPowerPolitics08092025CBlock230pm_2025-08-09-15-06-49

It may be 80 degrees outside, but winter is right around the corner. This year, Connecticut families could get more heating assistance, but there's a catch. News 12 Connecticut's John Craven explains. Gabriela Tejada is raising two kids, but even with a full-time job, she still needs help paying her heating bill. The price is going up and up every year, so I. I still need this assistance every year I guess. This winter Tejada could qualify for more money. The state is proposing an increase in the low income home energy assistance program. A family of four earning up to 9100. 100 $0 a year would receive up to $645 plus an additional $1200 in crisis benefits. Well for families like Gabriela's, more money is always good news, but There's a catch. The catch is Congress hasn't actually funded the LIHIP program yet. President Trump wants to eliminate it altogether. What it would most likely mean is we would either have to reduce the amount of benefits that households are eligible to receive, or we would have to delay when we can start to take applications. Right now applications are set to open September 1st, with fuel delivery starting November 3rd. Good news, heating oil is cheap right now, and mild weather means there's money left over from last year, but the uncertainty is still unnerving. That is anxiety building. I would use those two words, um, but we are experts at navigating difficult decisions. As a low income family, we'll be probably struggling, you know. We sort of notice probably families hoping they're not left out in the cold this winter in Bridgeport, John Craven, News 12, Connecticut. Well, that's all our time. I'm Mark Sudall. Thanks for watching.

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