Typically at this time of the year, Aryn Backus would be working on the coming year’s Tips From Former Smokers campaign and publishing the next youth tobacco survey in her role as a health communications specialist at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. Abby Tighe, a public health advisor at the Division of Overdose Prevention, would be working with grantees to help prepare for the upcoming budget year and determine how they want to spend their money.

Instead, both are currently unemployed after sweeping layoffs earlier this year ultimately left 10,000 staffers across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), FDA, and CDC jobless.

But that doesn’t mean they’ve been waiting for their next opportunity to come to them. Backus, who is a deputy executive director at the National Public Health Coalition (NPHC), and Tighe, who is an executive director with the nonprofit, have been busy advocating for their former colleagues and to reinforce public health’s importance in society.

“Public health has kind of a PR problem,” Tighe said. “We want to help the American public and our policymakers understand why we need public health and why the infrastructure is so critical.”

Here’s how they’re helping public health’s image.—NO

You won’t be saying “Banner? I hardly know her” for long.

Chuck Lehn has been the president of Banner Plans and Networks since the Phoenix, Arizona-based health system Banner Health launched the insurance company back in 2011.

In fact, he’s been with the nonprofit health system since 1986, originally working on the hospital financial side of the business. Then, after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Banner execs decided to form their own health plan, which has grown to offer Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicaid (including a joint venture with Aetna) options for the 3.5 million patients the system serves annually.

And while it isn’t uncommon for health systems to own health plans, it certainly makes for different work than running just the plan alone.

Lehn spoke with Healthcare Brew about what it’s like to operate a health plan connected to the Banner system and about the future of health insurance with new technology in play.

“The most important thing that we’re trying to do is change the narrative to: How do we get rewarded for keeping people healthy?” he told us.

See the full convo here.—CM

Tylenol may have a bot problem.

In late September, President Trump directed the FDA to warn those who are pregnant against use of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, citing an unproven link between taking the medicine and rates of autism. (At the time, researchers said they needed more evidence; a more recent review published in the British Medical Journal found no link between use of acetaminophen and diagnoses of autism or ADHD.)

Following President Trump’s directive, bots seem to have driven and amplified the conversation, according to a new report from narrative intelligence platform PeakMetrics. Nearly a third of posts about Tylenol from September 19 to November 4 on X were likely bot-driven, according to PeakMetrics, which reviewed 437,131 posts across X.

According to Peak Metrics, 93% of the suspected bot activity was “reposting existing content, extending reach and lifespan of emotionally charged narratives.” More than half (65.8%) of the conversation on X about Tylenol was unfavorable toward the brand, according to PeakMetrics, which also noted that, across those posts, “themes of parental guilt, loss of trust, and frustration toward pharmaceutical companies” were prominent.

Keep reading on Marketing Brew.—KM