LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: April 19, 2022

By: Olivia Landry

For decades, Louisiana was one of the worst states for HIV transmission, and in 2015, healthcare leaders created a plan to try to end the epidemic.

As they expanded access to prevention tools and health services and pushed to ease the stigma surrounding the human immunodeficiency virus, new diagnoses dropped by more than 20%, and by 2019, Louisiana no longer ranked among the 10 states with the highest transmission rates.

Then COVID hit, forcing immunocompromised people like HIV sufferers to isolate themselves. Many of the more than 22,000 Louisiana residents with HIV or AIDS lost in-person access to health providers, and newly diagnosed patients did not get the treatments that can keep them from transmitting the virus. Testing sites also administered far fewer tests, and five years of progress evaporated.

Preliminary data suggests that after a multi-year decline, new HIV diagnoses increased by about 33%, from 722 in 2020 to 960 in 2021, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

“We don’t know exactly why that was the case,” said Sam Burgess, the STD/HIV program director at the health department. “We certainly know there was a lot less testing in 2020 and 2021. There were a lot of calls out to the public to avoid routine medical visits, so I think a lot of people delayed their screenings for sexual health. Some of the folks who probably would have been diagnosed in 2020 were diagnosed in 2021.”

Testing is picking up again with the recent lull in COVID cases, but the totals are not reaching pre-pandemic numbers.

Testing efforts at Crescent Care, one of the main HIV/AIDS treatment centers in New Orleans, were cut in half over the last two years. The clinic administered almost 8,000 HIV tests in 2019. Because lockdowns limited many patients to telehealth visits, the number decreased to 4,000 in both 2020 and 2021.

“The most effective means of HIV testing is getting out in the community and testing people,” said Dr. Jason Halperin, an infectious disease specialist at Crescent Care. “In lockdowns and social distancing, all of that testing has stopped.”

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator

Published: April 19, 2022

By: Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana residents are concerned about damage from hurricanes and fear the unsettling reality of the state’s eroding coastline.

According to an LSU survey released Tuesday, 40% of respondents who have insurance said they filed property damage claims since 2020.

Hurricanes Ida, Laura, Delta and Zeta left Louisiana residents with billions of dollars in damages, especially people in South Louisiana and metro New Orleans.

The respondents who had filed insurance claims were evenly divided in assessing how the companies handled their claims, with 47% satisfied and 47% dissatisfied.

But more than half of the respondents with homeowner’s insurance said their premiums have increased.

Read more at the Daily Advertiser

Published: April 13, 2022

By: Lura Stabiler, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—On Black Maternal Health Advocacy Day Wednesday, the House voted 101-0 to pass a bill to provide for perinatal mood disorder screening, specifically for postpartum depression and awareness.

Rep. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, authored the mental health bill, House Bill 784, to help deal with Louisiana’s alarming maternal and infant mortality rates. Louisiana has the highest maternal death rate in the country and the second-highest infant death rate.

At a House Health and Welfare Committee meeting earlier this month, Robin Gruenfeld with the March of Dimes said, “One in seven women experience symptoms of depression during their pregnancy and the 12 months following delivery. These women are more likely to give birth preterm or experience the loss of an infant.”

The bill requires healthcare providers who offer postnatal care to screen patients for signs of postpartum depression or related health disorders. The healthcare provider will likely be the new mother’s obstetrician or their child’s pediatrician.

Read more at St. Mary Now

Published: April 13, 2022

By: Margaret DeLaney, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The Senate Retirement Committee advanced a bill to make it easier financially for retired teachers to come back to work to help ease statewide shortages.

Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, the sponsor of the bill, said it addresses the shortage of teachers and other personnel. Mathematics, science, English, language arts and special education have all been identified as areas with shortages that require certified teachers.

Current law suspends retirement benefits for many teachers who return to work depending on when they retired.

Fields’ bill would expand the number of certified teachers in any subject area who could return without losing retirement pay. That would include any who retired before July 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, the House Education Committee advanced a bill Wednesday to maintain a database with training courses and requirements teachers must complete to become certified. The new database would allow new and experienced teachers to keep track of new regulations for professional certifications.

Read more at Lafourche Gazette

Published: April 13, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson and Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Three anti-vaccine bills ran into trouble with lawmakers Tuesday during lengthy debates.

Rep. Larry Bagley, a Stonewall Republican, had proposed a bill that would make it a misdemeanor crime for government agencies and schools to discriminate against people based on their vaccine status.

The bill, House Bill 54, was aimed at blocking requirements for people to be vaccinated to access the premises. Bagley ended up returning the bill to the calendar, which means it will not be taken up again unless two-thirds of the House votes to reconsider it.

“I had hundreds of calls, as most of you did, too, in the past year… Friends… losing jobs,” Bagley said on the House floor. “I fully believe that you as an individual could have the right to choose.”

But other lawmakers pointed out problems with the bill concerning enforcement, charges and freedom of speech.

Read more at the Daily Advertiser

Published: April 12, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson| LSU Manship School News Service

For the first time since 2016, a majority of Louisiana residents believe the state is heading in the wrong direction.

A survey released by the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, part of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, showed that two-thirds of Louisiana residents now believe the state is taking a turn for the worse.

Only 26% of those surveyed said they believed the state is going in the right direction. That is the lowest percentage since the Manship School began doing the annual survey in 2004.

The pessimism is widespread across political and demographic backgrounds. Seventy-one percent of Republicans report that they feel the state is headed in the wrong direction and 54% of Democrats agree. The numbers are closer among racial identities, with 68% of white and 61% of Black respondents having a pessimistic view. Regionally, 69% of South Louisiana residents and 64% of those living in North Louisiana having a negative view.

The Louisiana Survey results are based on responses from 508 adult Louisiana residents contacted initially on landline and cellular telephones. Within the sample, 395 were interviewed live and another 113 elected to complete the questionnaire online. The interviews were conducted from Feb. 21 to March 14.

The poll has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points, and the margin of error is larger for subsets.

Louisiana residents’ faith in their government fell to the lowest point since the survey began measuring it.

Only 25% of residents say they are either very confident or somewhat confident in the state government to address important problems effectively. This dropped from 41% in 2021 and is several points lower than its previous record low of 33% in 2006.

Read more at The Advocate

Published: April 7, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–Third District Attorney John Belton told a House committee Thursday that he will convene a grand jury to consider charges against the state troopers involved in the death of Ronald Greene. 

Greene, a black motorist, died after a violent encounter with State Police in which he was beaten, tased and dragged while shackled after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash outside Monroe. 

“It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” Belton told the special committee investigating the Greene case. “I believe state and federal crimes were committed, including federal civil rights violations.” 

Belton said he is moving forward with charges because he has been giving approval to do so by federal authorities, who had previously asked him to wait until their investigation was complete. 

Read more at The Times of Houma/ Thibodaux

Published: April 7, 2022

By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The Senate Education Committee advanced a bill Thursday that would prohibit transgender athletes from competing in accordance with their gender identity. 

Senate Bill 44, sponsored by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, is dubbed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.” The bill requires athletes from the elementary through collegiate level to compete based on their sex at birth. 

The bill unanimously cleared the committee, with neither of the two Democrats on the committee, Sen. Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge, or Sen. Katrina Jackson, of Monroe objecting. 

The bill is redundant at the high school level, as the Louisiana High School Athletic Association already requires athletes to compete based on their birth sex, leading critics to call the bill a solution in search of a problem. When the bill came up last year, the LHSAA said that it was aware of only one transgender athlete who had tried to compete in Louisiana. 

But if the bill becomes law, it could shake up college athletics. NCAA policy allows transgender athletes to compete under certain circumstances. 

Read more at The Times of Houma/Thibodaux

Published: March 31, 2022

By: Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—Lawmakers tangled Monday over whether to create a new set of fines for holding a phone while driving even if the driver is not texting.

The “hand-held phone ban” bill would allow law enforcement to fine drivers seen with a phone in hand while behind the wheel.

“This is trying to promote safe driving,” the author of the bill, Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, said.

The fine would be lower than the $175 to $500 for a texting-and-driving citation. The new fine would range from $50 to $100 and may include a maximum of 15 hours of community service for a first offense.

The House postponed a vote on the bill as lawmakers questioned how it would be enforced and whether it would discriminate against poorer people with the most basic phones.

Read more at the Daily Advertiser

Published: March 29, 2022

By: Lura Stabiler

BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Service) – The House voted 75-21 Monday night to advance a bill to grant adopted people access to their original birth certificates with their birth parents’ names.

Rep. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine, sponsored the bill, which would grant the right to adoptees age 24 or older to learn the identity of their birth parents. He chose that age because of Louisiana’s forced inheritance laws. After 24, a child is not entitled to inheritance.

Currently, the only way for an adopted person to access their original birth certificate is to appear in front of a judge with compelling reasons. Compelling reasons can be topics such as health and inheritance. This is not possible without hiring a lawyer, which Owen believes is not possible for all Louisiana citizens.

“Grown people should have access to their documents,” said Owen.

Questions arose about whether the bill would violate the privacy of birth parents. When children are adopted, they receive new birth certificates with the names of their adoptive parents. But, Owen argued that the bill is about letting a person access a vital government record with his or her name on it rather than initiating meetings with parents.

Read more at KALB