Top HHS official tours Florida cooling center as nation bakes

By Ariel Wittenberg | 06/25/2024 06:17 AM EDT

Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine met with Jacksonville’s Excessive Heat Task Force during the city’s severe weather alert.

Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine speaks at the Health and Human Services Humphrey Building.

Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, seen here in 2023 at the Health and Human Services Humphrey Building in Washington, visited Jacksonville on Monday during a heat wave. Mark Schiefelbein/AP

A top federal health official toured a cooling center in a Florida city on Monday to better understand how communities are responding to the consecutive heat waves sweeping the nation this summer.

Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine met with Jacksonville’s Excessive Heat Task Force as the city was under a severe weather alert for excessive heat. The visit follows a record-setting heat dome event that blanketed New England and much of the northeast over the weekend, spiking hospital visits for heat-related illnesses.

“It is all ripped from the headlines, unfortunately, in terms of extreme heat impacting us in the U.S. and globally,” Levine told POLITICO’s E&E News in an interview. “There is not a state in the country that isn’t seeing challenges from the heat right now.”

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Under President Joe Biden, the Department of Health and Human Services has made a concerted effort to address heat’s impact on health. This spring, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled new guidance for clinicians to help them talk to patients about how extreme temperatures could impact their health. HHS also recently updated its Heat Health Index to identify heat-related risks and illnesses at the zip code level.

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