Public Health 3.0 After COVID-19—Reboot or Upgrade?

Governmental public health, which In the United States has long been relegated to the periphery, has returned to center stage because of COVID-19. Because of funding for a national forecasting center and a federal mandate for public health data modernization, among other public health steps taken to control the pandemic, there is now unprecedented awareness about the vital role of public health in all sectors of society. Yet in this moment of crisis, it is imperative that policymakers and practitioners avoid reducing the work of public health to pandemic preparedness alone. Health is driven by communicable and chronic diseases as well as social and environmental determinants. Addressing all drivers of health requires relying on governmental public health in collaboration with other sectors, because "public health is what we do together as a society to ensure the conditions in which everyone can be healthy."1