The upstate is that and what made you decide to run for office. Yeah sure so Senate District 12 case up a little bit of Greenville County and a good chunk of Spartanburg County sort of in the eastern portion of that I've lived in the upstate since 2001. I started in Greenville, I was a resident at Greenville Hospital system and then my husband and I moved to Spartanburg in 2005 and I have lived here with our four kids for me the. That I've chosen to run is that it's really important to bring the issues of public health, especially now to the forefront. We know how important it is for a healthy economy and a healthy workforce that we pay attention to health inequities and make sure that we have the things that we need to take care of the people in our community. Yeah, that's great. and that actually is why you know we wanted to do this. Facebook live with you. It's because you are in public health and your OB GYN. That's correct and I'm also a public health although most of my work has been with the outside babies, the kids the children the children, yes, Yeah. so we have that in common and I think we're both kind of particularly poised to see some of the failures of the way the Corona virus response has been handled of how we got into this mess. What we need to do to get out of it and that's that's probably the question that's. Everybody's mind, we know that Cogan testing availability has been hard the testing parameters people who are able to get tested. It's really only been people who are showing symptoms people who had a known exposure or traveled outside the country for a long time. we're certainly not testing anywhere near enough people to figure out how widespread this diseases right mm hmm in your opinion and knowing that you're kind of focusing on state policy. And what we can do in the state of South Carolina. what process for testing lots of people would you say the state government could work on? Yeah. That's a great question, and there are some tenants of public health that have worked for a long time for decades in following through and making sure that we can track what's happening in any new public health epidemic and one of those tenants is certainly early testing for everybody, making sure that it's accessible that it's free that it's widespread so that we know who is caring the infection, especially wanna know those. Who are carrying it without symptoms and like you were saying up until this time we've had only testing for people with symptoms and it's really going to be important moving forward to know who is healthy enough to be back in the workforce is who actually is positive without having those symptoms and I think working together with the federal government and coordinating response on the state level would be very important to provide that testing. Yeah, I I agree wholeheartedly and I think what we're seeing is that the federal government really should have taken the charge on this right. It should have been this top down structure similar to. We mobilize for war right Donald Trump called himself a wartime President, well, the federal government handles that not state governments. Yeah. That's a very good point because the States don't wage war right. It's a federal response exactly because there are more resources with that. there's there are 50 States. We have to coordinate all of it. one thing we talk about a lot is the need to test and trace and do what you know. some people are hearing for the first time. Called contact we know that we need to scale that process up how how does that happen in a state like South Carolina? What would we need to do to get there right? and so that's another one of those public health tenant. So we were talking about just a minute ago. that's Super important for trying to work on an infectious disease and get it under control, especially one. That's a new infectious disease like this is as you were talking about, you know States not being able to. The response by themselves and needing it from the top down, particularly for something as invisible as a virus. We know that that the virus doesn't respect state barriers and so we don't need one state doing something different than another state. We need that coordinated response right and so what we need in South Carolina is increased support for South Carolina Deak. They have a mechanism in place for doing contact tracing already for some infectious diseases. The problem is they're funding has been slashed over. Several years and so they don't have enough people to do that contact tracing and very simply put what contact tracing is is that if you find out somebody who's been exposed, you have people who are hired to basically contact the people that they have come in contact with and test those people so that you can get any potential exposure under control quickly. Yeah and it is it's necessary If when we talk about reopening, we know we have to have those steps in place. we have to be able to to. Out who is infected who they had contact with and isolate well and we've been presented this I I would say the GOP has really pushed the false narrative of it's either the economy or it's public health and that's simply not true. We know that we can do both but we have to do both responsibly. We have to take care of and we have to set our response on people because it is people who will die if we don't and I think very interesting new awareness has come about in that. We know that public health. And workforce and economy are not separate. We know that to have an economy you have to have a healthy workforce, which means paying attention to those public health concerns. Yup, we have to fund public health. It's that's right. Those things go hand in hand. Public health is no longer on the sidelines now and are you familiar with Abdul say it. I don't believe so who is that he ran for governor of Michigan in 2018, and he's also an epidemiologist. He's an MD MPH as well. huh and he was the. Health director for the city of Detroit and he made this comment on Twitter that basically said the next time somebody asks like when it comes to public health budgets. Well, how are you gonna pay for it like? We have to push back how are not like how are you not? This is what happens when you don't that's right and it's basically my whole mood forever. I know that is my canned response anytime somebody pushes back on public health funding. you're gonna pay for it one way or another, so we have a few other questions here This is kind of it's kind of related to public health and you know what we've been talking about kind of more taking care of those not necessarily public health and it regards Medicaid expansion. South Carolina missed out on that I I would say it was delivered it wasn't by accident. It was deliberate is that part of the reason why we're seeing poor health outcomes in the state. We know that Corona virus is just for. Killing and affecting our communities of color would you say that part of the reason is that access at the point of entry? That's a really great question. We do know that States that decided to go with Medicaid Expansion. They have much better health outcomes across the board, not just now with the the pandemic, but across the board they have better health outcomes the States that chose not to go with Medicaid expansion and the interesting thing about. Medicaid expansion because people sometimes go well if we take Medicaid expansion, you know, Where's that money gonna come from. It's already the money of South Carolinians that is in Washington and all we need to do is claim it for South Carolina and that would be a huge resource millions of dollars to go into the health for South Carolina. So I know there was there was some frustration with Senate Democrats in the South State Senate they were fresh. That Mcmaster, you know he refused to expand Medicaid when he was elected governor and they knew that the state Legislature wasn't gonna do it because the GOP control that so they decided to make a ballot resolution essentially and say alright well if you don't wanna touch it. why don't we give voters a choice? is that something when you're elected, you would push for as well or would you push for the Legislature to make that call? I think it's a great idea to. That people have an opportunity to have a ballot referendum and see what is that the people feel needs to happen. Yeah. we have another question here. this one pertains we're kinda moving away from Corona virus here South Carolina we're one of the highest States for maternal mortality. We have higher rates of women dying due to pregnancy or pregnancy related complications that is you know your practicing your OBGYN. Do you see that in your patients? Do you? what do you think are the solutions to that problem? and how can we ensure that at the state level? women are taking care of and then I'll you know I'm a big supporter of Lauren Underwood. Mom Tobi bill I think it's a good initiative and wanna see what we can do in the state to complement that. Yeah. That's a really great question and a really good point that you bring up and so a lot of times people are unaware that the United States has the highest rate of maternal mortality, which means women who die in or around childbirth. We have the highest rate of any developed country, and there's a number of reasons that people think that that's the case. Some of them are the health and equities. Some of them have to do with our health care system. Some of them have to do is lack. The access to prenatal care or lack of access to care after somebody has had a baby because most of these deaths actually happen in the time frame after somebody's had a baby soon soon there after and so one of the things that has happened now as a public health advocate is I have lobbied with other OBGYNs in the Legislature, both here in South Carolina and in Washington, DC about that moment of us bill because what it does is give us provisions to study why this. Are happening track where these tests are happening and try to get a handle on what's causing this problem and how we can do better to provide care for our mothers. What are some of the reasons that women die from pregnancy or shortly thereafter? Mm hmm The probably the biggest reason is cardiovascular events cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, things that can't necessarily be understood beforehand that are brought about or exacerbated by pregnancy. When when we look at a state of South Carolina, I've I had this health education behavior promotion. we tend to talk in public health. We talk acronyms so remembering what those letters stand for can be a bit of a challenge. I should one class where the research topic I chose was maternal mortality and what really I guess it it was surprising, but it wasn't it was how disproportionately or. Women in rural settings women in rural counties, It's you know, it's already a challenge to provide equitable access to health care to ensure those good outcomes for both mom and baby, and we've made more progress on babies that we have moms But when it comes to rural women there, it's those challenges plus right because a lot of counties in South Carolina don't have a single OBGYN or their hospital is closed and there are certainly rural areas of both Greenville and Spartanburg counties that are facing some of these challenges because not only is there not a hospital or an OBGYN in that County. there might not be transportation, they might have issues with child. They might have you know trouble finding somebody who has hours if they're expected to work during the week, and they're only free time this weekends or vice versa so as far as it goes for rural health, what are some of those solutions? Yeah, you bring up a lot of good points. There are a lot of things that sometimes can prevent somebody from being able to have access to care as you mentioned that it can be things like transportation access to childcare to get there access to having. By for a physician or a hospital and like you mentioned South Carolina has at least 10 counties that don't even have a hospital or an OBGYN and in the rural areas that makes it even more complicated for people to get care. you're talking about these statistics with the maternal mortality and affecting people in the rural areas as well, even as we have one of the higher rates of maternal mortality in South Carolina. What we know is that it affects women of color. Even three times higher than that, and so that's really important when you talk about you know the access to care in rural areas and women of color disproportionately suffering from this. And so I think it's really important that we have a coordinated effort and circling back to the Medicaid conversation that those Medicaid dollars actually go to help to fund hospitals. So that's actually one of the solutions is Medicaid expansion. Yeah, I think I think it's beneficial. To understand why we're all hospitals are closing why we can't just get telehealth up and running everywhere like why we have these problems. Why don't OBGYNs for practice and in a rural County like Can you elaborate on that? yes, So Telehealth is wonderful, Tell health is amazing and if there's ever any small silver lining in all that has come from what has happened recently with this pandemic, it has made people more aware of how accessible Telehealth is and how valuable it is. Providing care in so many different ways that being said there is a lot by telehealth that can't be done in OBGYN and so mom of two I like so, so there's a lot that can be that that is being worked on it and UFC has done amazing things with some of the things that they have done with maternal health and telehealth for M FM, which is maternal fetal medicine for people out in the rural areas that can't access that high-risk pregnancy care that they have done an amazing job with that telehealth. Great. so I think that has a place in upcoming medical care, but the hospitals are really important because that's where people go in my line of work to have their babies and that's where you go if you have an emergency and you need those those places for people to be safely taken care of yeah. I think when we talk about why hospitals are closing it, it's not a problem that started yesterday. It's it's been building right and it's been building because we've post World War two have this. Infrastructure push with the Hill Burton Act of 1946 and so we built up community hospitals, we built a medical schools and dental schools and nursing schools, and then we put them. We tied them to a pavement model, which said you have to have a certain mix right you have to have a certain percentage of patients that have employer-based insurance. They're gonna reimburse more and then Medicare is gonna reimburse a certain amount and medicaid's gonna reimburse a certain amount and it's it's this balancing act. And what happens often in rural communities is that an employer a large plant or a factory or what have you closes people lose their employer-based insurance. They go to one of the payment models that doesn't pay as much or they go out. and now we're looking at on compensated care. We're looking at people who tend to be handed every I kick in the teeth they can get sometimes and. The hospital can only absorb so much of that before that's true. Yeah. you know you're the question you're the question was about how do we get more doctors into these areas into these rural areas and one of the models that has worked very well in other States that I would like to see implemented in South Carolina is that we have sort of like a stipend for people while they're going through medical school and residency and in Exchange for that and they agree and commit to working in a certain area for a certain length of time and making sure that. Provided with the resources to provide care in those areas is part of the state's obligation, but the obligation of that position to be in that area for specific product of time means that those people in that area will get care and I think that's a really good solution and it has worked well in other States. I had a similar kind of rural health problem. Yeah, there's also been a big push, not just for like student loan forgiveness in Exchange for service basically right which sometimes you get you know. Five years and then somebody wants to pack up and leave and go back to a larger area where they can make more money, which given the astounding medical debt medical students face. I certainly can't blame them for but when other push has been to actually Center medical schools nursing schools in those rural communities themselves and I know Mcmaster part of his reasoning for not expanding Medicaid was that he wanted. Explore more Telehealth and nurse practitioner provide care is that a possible solution that you would support in the state House. What are the pros and cons of that? it's you know it. It might be a tool that we have and should use or you know, but there are certainly drawbacks too. Yeah there are there's there's certainly need to have creative and resourceful ideas for providing care for people and places, but there is no care nurse practitioners are one of the ideas that have got that many people have put forward because they do have the ability to take care of people. At the same time, there are certain things that need to be taken care of by physicians and the things that physicians are trained for and I think that making sure that people in the different areas, including rural health areas have access to physicians is really important. Yeah I agree and I think one of the challenges with using nurse practitioners and PAs that they have to be overseen by a doctor, Yes and when the doctor retires, they have nowhere else to go unless they can get another physician to take that position. Place so it's I think we need to have those discussions. I think we need to figure out the solutions and use every tool in our tool belt to make sure that people have access to care no matter no matter where they live. speaking of kind of that you know cooperation between federal and state partnerships right, so we're talking about how the federal government can swoop in with student loan reimbursement and what the state can do to actually attract providers to rule. what are some of the cooperative efforts between the federal and state government are taking place to fix the much more maternal mortality problem in South Carolina. Oh yeah, I have that, but like let's draw that out some for people so that's a really good question so on the federal level, what we were able to do in some of the advocacy work that I have done in the past couple of years is able to secure funding for the state to. All have what's called a maternal mortality Review Committee and that maternal mortality review Committee has existed in some States and some States it didn't exist at all. It has existed in South Carolina, but it's been done completely out of volunteer basis. so all the data extraction all the time to look at the records and all the time to interview patients of the families and so forth about what happened when the patient dies. so we have to have an understanding of what caused the maternal death and be able to give back to meaningful data all that was being done basically out of volunteer basis. So now there's actually. Funding from Congress to each of the States to have one of these maternal mortality review committees and they're very coordinated and they have a very diverse group of people on each of these committees that help to understand what what's causing these deaths so that funding on this from the federal government down to each of the state levels was a huge win. Yeah and that's often I think what the federal government does best is allocate their resources to areas that are the most in need so that. Because they are closer to the problem, they understand how to better use it sometimes there was I I'm trying. I'm trying to think how to say this without sounding like I'm bragging. I was inducted into one of the the public Health Honor societies at the University of South Carolina and our keynote Speaker at our induction ceremony. gosh, I forget his name at this point, but he was essentially the CDC director for maternal mortality and I asked him. Could do anything what would it be and he said I would standardize death certificates so that when women die can, I can see why he would say that given what he does, but just I would standardize death certificates so that women when women die, we know whether or not they were pregnant. We're not trying to match up all these desperate pieces and I know one challenge has been that in an effort to protect patients privacy, sometimes that information is identified so much have no idea if there's one hospital that's. Problem or one region or even one medical provider and that can be hard to find that evidence so that we can make better policy right well. in some ways he got his wish because he the forms for the maternal mortality review committees are standardized and they're very detailed, but it does take people because of the reasons you're talking about from you from a identified standpoint, it does take a lot of people to coordinate the the pieces of information to. What took place around this maternal death, but the the forms are much more standardized so that we can actually extract this data effectively and reproduce some interesting results and data from it. we have a viewer question. I guess we're getting back to it here with the state opening back up. Should we be wearing masks? How do I stay safe with Covet moving around the state? Yeah. That's what. Everybody's thinking about right now, right? Yeah. everybody is thinking about that. So one of the things that comes to mind for me is that there's two reasons to wear a mask one is to protect yourself from anybody that would be sick around you if they were to call for sneeze on and so forth and then the other thing is if you were a symptomatic carrier that you could protect somebody else now clearly if you're sick, We're just gonna make this assumption that you're gonna stay home and you're not gonna go. In public, if you know you have go and you took the question about wearing a mask at that point, it's kinda move, but the question about wearing a mask out in public so that people can get back to some of the regular activities is really too full. For me. It's about protecting yourself in case somebody calls or sneeze on you and then it's about protecting other people in the case that you're one of those people that's an asymptomatic carrier, and that's the that's the biggest thing to me from a public health standpoint right now is knowing who you're walking well are the people who are walking around with this. Well, but there's still infectious. Those are the people that are coming in contact with other people and don't even realize that they have this virus and so they may not know it and they may come in contact with somebody who could be really in need to compromise in some way and become infected. So those are the two reasons for me to that. we make sense for people to wear masks from a community health perspective. Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head. It's it's not just it's certainly important to. Protect yourself to protect you know the people in your household but we also have to let go of this rugged individualism idea. Right we are in a pandemic it''s. We're only going to get out of it when we have a collective approach to finding that solution to taking care of each other and so I ran errands with my kids. I ran one errand. I should be a little more specific. I had to go to the office so sometimes with kids running errands me is running one ad and it felt like. But it was actually just one and yeah, I didn't even get I I wore my mask and yeah, I wore it because I wanted to stay safe, but it was mostly. I would hate to get somebody else sick and that's the thing I we have no idea how a virus will affect somebody. It's it's a gamble right every time. Yeah. and I think if you look to what your history for other similar things like this when you have a pendulum that has swung so far to one side, it can't stay there right. We're constantly getting more information. We're constantly evolving our. Of how this virus works, so this is a temporary protective measure that we do to take care of each other right to take care of ourselves and take care of each other. It was the understanding that as we get to learn more about this as we have more resources that pendant will start to swing back to the Middle and we'll have a better understanding of this. We don't know what that timeline looks like, but it's reasonable to expect looking back through history that this is how that will go. This is a temporary time and we will find a way around it. What Bye. I guess I'm kind of the belief that we're not going back to the way things were at least not entirely. you can no. I think this pandemic has really put a big spotlight on some of our vulnerabilities some of our inequities in a way and just I think how tenuous most people how tenuously people exist paycheck to paycheck and if something happens, that's it right? There's no backup. There's no plan B. how tide we are. Between our workforce and childcare, we can't expect people to work if we don't take care of their families and we expect currently most people to work as if they don't have a family and to parent is if they don't have work. I have found that thinking about I mean, so my children are a little bit older right. They're all very self-sufficient. They're doing their school work really well they transition from this whole like in class to online learning, not that it's been their favorite, but they've been able to do it because they're older and. I can only imagine how challenging it has been for people who have been expected to work and have young children at home with the same time and then also like for my kids teachers who have young kids. I mean to teach while they're trying to teach their kids as well. so they you know the the doubling up of the responsibilities really has made come to life how important it is for people to have really good child care and also how. The roles of people in child care and in their homes need to have some understanding about what it's like for people to not have child care and the choices that they have to make it one if both mom and dad work and the children are not in school, but we're opening back up the economy. How do you make those choices for who's gonna take care of that person that child because we're not going to have them taken care by grandma and grandpa right now, so these are really challenging choices. I have found more often than not so a lot of times the mom ends up not going to work and so again that really affects her professional trajectory, and it's really important to keep that in mind with that, child care and workforce cannot be separated and so we are talking about the economy, but we also at the same time I talk about closing schools. I was like that doesn't make any sense Well and I'm personally tired of policies that treat women as expendable right We you touched on it when. Are usually the ones to pick up a child care slack if something happens and the professional ramifications of doing that is not just you know you lose your footing in the workforce. It's also you lose time that you're investing in your 401 K. if you're lucky enough to have one time that's reduced social security benefits it''s it compounds. It's not just one app and we already earn less we already we're responsible for most of the care giving and most of that is unpaid and. Where we're paying the price and it it has to stop. We're half the population we should be treated equally and I think that this has been really a big effect to on again. the disparities that exist with women of color that this has affected them even more. So yeah absolutely in mortality and the economy and everything there was a study or I guess a report. It came out earlier this week that it was talking about the Pss the small business loans Red States received more than Blue States in terms of total beneficiaries and I guess dollars, but 95 percent of black owned businesses did not receive a 90 percent of other minority owned businesses did not receive a so it's it's pretty clear. That help is not universally accessible and we're in a time where we're really it really ought to be and that's that's a federal problem that we need to push for and hold our leaders accountable too. we did have a slightly less I guess depressing question. I don't wanna say depressing. we have we have an idea on we know what to do with this. We know what policies we need to put in place to take care of people and we just need. Willpower to do it I know that the House has passed a couple of really helpful bills, but we could do more. We could go further and we need the Senate to do their job. We need the the executive branch to do theirs and I I look forward to the day when we are able to hold the people who got us into this mess accountable but thinking forward to those happier times, whatever they may be or whatever they may be. what are you most looking forward to when all of this is over? Wow, so one of the things I have been really impressed with. I have been the ways that our community has come around people who have been struggling with their businesses or if with work or with school and the things that people have done for themselves. I've done for their neighbors and I have been Super impressed by the resourcefulness and the kindness that I have seen. I think for me, one of the things that I'm looking forward to. Feeling that freedom to be back out with groups of friends and seeing my children being able to be out with their groups of friends and being able to go to work and not have to necessarily take all the same precautions and by taking off all my clothes in the garage when I come home and be able to just walk into the House and take a shower so you you said you have four children two and two were in high school in College is that's right. Yes. Yeah. Did your College kids come home to walk with you or they did they came home thinking that they. About to go on spring break and they ended up spring break with mom and dad. Well, and then spring break is just persisted. It's I'm sure it's you know. it's a mixed bag. You're grateful to have that time together, but it can also be a lot to have everybody under one roof and well. we're we're really fortunate to have some space and everybody feels really good about doing their work and so that has made it a lot easier again. We're having older children who are self sufficient. I think has been the the easier part of this. People who have smaller children, it's it's very challenging for them to understand why you can't go to the playground. Why you can't go to the library. Why you can't go to the museums? Why you can't see your friends. all the things that little kids really look forward to and really makes your day with such a small child, go faster and for them to feel happy. It's harder for them to understand and so I've I feel very fortunate that that's the case that we have kids that are older at this point. Yeah we've Minor ages six and four, and we have definitely had a lot of those conversations where you know if we drive by a playground why we can't get out why they can't see their friends. it's it is hard with having them both because they're still my six year old is very much self-sufficient. You know she can get her own snacks. She can entertain herself. She knows to do her work. She'll you know take that upon herself, sometimes not she's not perfect but my four year-old. Is still very much. I mean my mom, I need mom to help me. I need you know and it never fails that when I'm trying to sit down to do something that I'm interrupted. I can't remember the last time I had an uninterrupted thought or a hot Cup of coffee. so if you since it's Mother's Day weekend, if you have a Any mom in your life, whether a mom of your heart or a mom, you were born to. Or you know with take. Make sure you love on this weekend, but especially if that mom has been under locked down with very small children, she needs some help. you can guarantee you that yes, That's a good point I I personally I'm very much looking forward to just being outside and around people whether it's concerts or just sitting outside at a cafe or something I just want to be out and surrounded by people and people watch while I drink a preferably. Hot Cup of coffee So I'm starting to a theme here with coffee. I'm just saying it's it's practically magic. You put some beans and some hot water and suddenly you have energy. So anyway, it's been wonderful. talking with you. Thank you so much this is great folks if you have any if you would like to get involved with the Doctor Bingham campaign, where can they find you? I'm sorry you cut you cut out for just a second. Oh it means one of my kids is probably on the Kindle if anyone who's watching today wants to get involved with your campaign, How can we find you and what else you need? I really appreciate that. so I am Super excited about being the Senate District 12 candidate for you guys and looking forward to being in your voice in Columbia, You can find me on Facebook. Page, which is Doctor Bingham for South Carolina Senate. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram and we'll shortly have our website up and we'll be able to direct people to that, as well as being revised at the moment. Yeah great. are you at a point where you need phone bankers or text banking anything like that, or are you still waiting a little while we are already collecting volunteers and have a great volunteer coordinator who's working with the people who want to volunteer and basically deciding with them what tasks they would like to do so if somebody is interested in. A volunteer for our campaign have them just get in touch with us to the Facebook page and that would be fantastic great. Well. Doctor Bingham. Thank you so much folks you heard it if you wanna get involved with our campaign, please follow her on social media message her there certainly if you're in a position to donate, we all every candidate needs donations, but we especially need people like her in our state Senate making policy because we do not have anyone quite like her. I can tell you that well, I really appreciate you taking the time to make sure that we have these important conversations and we elevate this public health issues up to a larger audience and making decisions together is really important for the health of people in South Carolina. I think that as an OBGYN as a mom as a community activist as as the things that I do to engage in our community, I have a voice that shows the love and commitment that I've had for this district and they have Spartanburg and Greenville for a long time and I wanna bring that expertise to Columbia. Right, Thank you so much and we will see you all later.