HJAR May/Jun 2021

36 MAY / JUN 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS POLICY COLUMN POLICY BEFORE this global emergency, mostAmeri- cans likely paid attention to public health only occasionally — when, say, requesting a copy of a birth certificate, letting health officials onto their property to inspect a septic tank or seeing a report about health officials responding to an outbreak of food- borne illness. Public health was not at the forefront of most people’s minds. But things have changed; the pandemic has demon- strated the need for a new evaluation of public health and a new commitment to its importance. from foodborne illnesses. Most outbreaks of foodborne illness never make the news, but now and then one does, seizing the public’s attention for a brief time. That is the nature of public health: you value it when you need it, and you don’t think about it when you don’t. This may help explain why funding for public health was in decline before the pan- demic. According to a report fromTrust for America’s Health, funding for the CDC’s pub- lic health preparedness and response pro- grams decreased from $858 million in fiscal The public health response to an outbreak of infectious disease is not dissimilar to its response to an outbreak of foodborne ill- ness. In both situations, health officials investigate an illness, seek to isolate the cause, attempt to contact others who may have been exposed to the cause of the ill- ness and take actions to control the spread of the illness and protect the public from exposure. According to the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention, every year in the U.S. an estimated 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die PublicHealth The COVID-19 pandemic has FOCUSED ATTENTION onpublichealth likenothingelse in recentmemory. UNDER THE MICROSCOPE