<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For months, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, the director of the New Orleans Health Department, has watched the threats come closer: Louisiana <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nola.com/news/healthcare_hospitals/flu-rsv-louisiana-united-states-doctor/article_5ac9fdf8-bcc3-11ef-9ab1-e7a90ec08126.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">led the United States</a> as seasonal flu cases surged <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-this-years-flu-season-is-the-worst-in-more-than-a-decade/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">to their highest rate in 15 years</a>, and had the <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/06/health/bird-flu-death-louisiana.html" title="">nation’s first death</a> from bird flu. Then came a deadly measles outbreak in neighboring Texas. The number of Louisiana schoolchildren with exemptions to vaccine requirements doubled <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.axios.com/local/new-orleans/2024/09/06/kindergarten-vaccine-exemption-louisiana-increase" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">in a year</a>.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">During the Covid pandemic, Dr. Avegno worked with state officials to tame high infection rates and promote vaccines. But after taking office last year, Gov. Jeff Landry began carrying out a promise to remake public health after the state’s Covid response, which he thought was a disaster.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Landry, a Republican, created a position for a state surgeon general, appointing Dr. Ralph Abraham, a former congressman who had <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nola.com/news/politics/louisiana-surgeon-general-blasts-states-past-covid-response/article_64153d82-7c40-11ef-8ed4-07b880ad2d8d.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">railed against the state’s “tyrannical” Covid response</a> and argued that the real risk was not the virus itself but the vaccines against it.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">So it was not entirely a surprise when Dr. Abraham announced last month that Louisiana would “no longer promote mass vaccination,” <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://ldh.la.gov/news/7478" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="">calling efforts to do so during Covid</a> “an offense against personal autonomy that would take years to overcome.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">To Dr. Avegno, it was a blunt reminder of how the political aftereffects of the pandemic have left her field worse prepared in many ways to fight the next one.</p><p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">“We’re in a very different world right now,” she said. “We are now prepared to throw the baby out with the bath water and leave ourselves incredibly vulnerable.”</p><div class="css-1336jj"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171quhb"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1b5b8u1" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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