Free Republic

At first blush, it looks like just another bureaucratic shuffle. It isn't. In fact, the move to carve out a new state Department of Public Health reflects a shift in California's attitude toward fighting disease and confronting health emergencies--including those prompted by terrorism and fears of epidemics, such as avian flu. The department is patterned in part after the kind of agency that all 58 counties and three cities--Berkeley, Pasadena, Long Beach--already have, by law. It will be run by a medical doctor known as the state's public health officer--the state's "Top Doc" or "Papa Doc," as the position already...

California's action-star governor pledged in his first State of the State address in 2004 to "blow up the boxes" of the state's bloated bureaucracies. But that campaign fizzled like a box office dud -- one that Gov. Schwarzenegger has apparently forgotten. The governor on Tuesday announced his support for SB 162, which the Senate passed in January. The measure would split emergency health duties from the Department of Health Services. The result: A new state bureaucracy, the Department of Public Health, would concentrate exclusively on preparing California to address a bioterror attack or an epidemic, such as the avian flu....

SACRAMENTO — Concerned about threats that include a flu pandemic and bioterrorist attacks, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his support Tuesday for a new state Department of Public Health. The governor is embracing legislation by Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento) to establish a California office focused on concerns such as outbreaks of disease and food poisoning, and overseeing care of 100,000 people living in nursing homes. "The governor is focused on getting ahead of the game and being visionary," Margita Thompson, a Schwarzenegger press secretary, said Tuesday. Ortiz's legislation would also restructure California's Department of Health Services, which focuses much of its...