Public Policy and Advocacy Toolkit

An effective public health response to COVID-19 relies on a representative, well-trained and professionalized workforce. We must commit to rapidly and thoughtfully expanding the public health workforce in the United States in response to this pandemic with an eye toward building stronger public health infrastructure for the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed huge gaps in the US public health and health care systems and highlighted the negative effects of hundreds of years of structural inequities and systemic racism. In particular, this pandemic has disproportionately impacted low-income, migrant, Indigenous, incarcerated communities, and communities of color. Programs and policies should create a preferential option for these groups.

To control the spread of COVID-19, save lives, and reopen schools and businesses, we must ensure an equity-centered and comprehensive response: from community mitigation to testing and tracing to safe quarantine, working and sharing lessons with nations around the world.