Since April, 49 state and local public health leaders across 23 states have resigned, retired, or been fired. The reasons vary from terminations to resignations caused by burnout, conflicts over shutdowns, social distancing rules, and mask orders. This comes at a time when state public health departments were already working under budgets that have dropped 16% per capita since 2010. Since the 2008 recession, more than 38,000 state and local health jobs have disappeared.
In Episode #6 of Next Up, Emily Brown, former director of the Rio Grande County Public Health Department in Colorado describes how public health is under attack and why it matters during COVID-19.
