Decades of Yo-Yo Funding Hampering Covid-19 Response

Pen and paper data collection. Faxing basic information. Gutted local workforces. This is the U.S. public health landscape in 2020 as it tries to respond to the coronavirus and prepare for the next inevitable pandemic.

Decades of cuts in public health funding have crumbled the nation’s public health infrastructure, leaving health departments without the tools and the people they needed to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, public health advocates said.

The solution requires money, they agree. Governments must increase the base funding that goes to the network of federal, state, and local public health departments, replacing a panic-and-neglect cycle with ...