A deep dive into hundreds of health departments nationwide revealed the U.S. could be less prepared for the world's next pandemic than it was for that of COVID-19, reports The New York Times — and it's not for lack of trying. Instead, state and local public health institutions "endured not only the public's fury, but widespread staff defections, burnout, firings, unpredictable funding and a significant erosion in their authority" to implement orders necessary to pandemic response.
An "invisible casualty" of the last year and a half, COVID has already begun to "reshape the public health work force in ways that could impair the ability to fight future pandemics," writes the Times. In fact, its examination identified "more than 500 top health officials who left their jobs in the past 19 months." Exiting personnel are "exhausted and demoralized," in part because of abuse and threats. And despite money from the federal government, "dozens of departments reported that they had not staffed up at all, but actually lost employees."
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