“We ignore the public health sector unless there’s a major catastrophe,” said ⁦ @scottjbecker⁩, the head of the ⁦ @APHL⁩. “Then we throw a pile of money at the problem. Then we rescind that money as soon as the crisis abates.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/coronavirus-public-health-system-us.html?referringSource=articleShare

“Health care spending grew by 52% in the past decade, while the budgets of local health departments shrank by 24%, according to Trust for America’s Health, and the CDC’s budget remained flat. Today, public health claims just 3 cents of every health dollar spent in the country.”

Every $1 spent on prevention saves $5.60 in health spending.

Every $1 spent on childhood vaccines saves $16.50 in future health care costs.

Public health saves money and, most importantly, it saves lives.

The Case for Investing in Public Health: The strengthening public health services and capacity

http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/278073/Case-Investing-Public-Health.pdf

“The proposed FY2019 budget includes $13.60 billion for health security–related programs, a decrease of $636.1 million, or 4%, from the estimated $14.24 billion in FY2018, and a 3% decrease from the FY2017 actual funding level of $13.96 billion.”

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/hs.2018.0077?journalCode=hs

I know I’ve thrown around a ton of quotes in this thread, but its an effort to inform. The continual decrease in health security funding serves as an extreme vulnerability and #COVID19 is making this vulnerability very well known.