Longtime Mississippi public health officer Cobb dies at 92

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi state health officer who helped create some of the nation’s most comprehensive vaccination requirements for children has died. Dr. Alton Cobb was 92. He died Friday. The current health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, describes Cobb as a “phenomenal public health leader.” When Mississippi began offering Medicaid in 1969, Cobb became the first executive director of the state’s Medicaid Commission. Cobb was the top public health official from 1973 to 1992 in one of the poorest states in the nation. He helped start a nutrition program for women, infants, and children and led efforts to create a statewide emergency medical services system.

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