New chair: Dr. Craig Greene, a surgeon at Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic, has been elected to serve as chairman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, the commission announced this week. Greene has served on the board as commissioner for the Baton Rouge district since 2018. Read more about Greene here.
Vaccine promotion: The Baton Rouge Health District received a $50,000 grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation’s Community Crisis and Disaster Response Grant program. This funding will help expand the Health District’s recently announced #COVIDSAFE campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccination among Baton Rouge-area health care workers as well as associated community outreach. Get more information about the vaccine here.
Fourth-quarter growth: Stuck in the grip of the pandemic, the U.S. economy grew at a 4% annual rate in the final three months of 2020 and shrank last year by the largest amount in 74 years. For 2020 as a whole, a year when the coronavirus inflicted the worst economic freeze since the end of World War II, the economy contracted 3.5% and clouded the outlook for the coming year. Read the full report.
