Article Out Loud – Not Optional: The Public Health Consequences of Dismantling Emergency Infrastructure

This is an article by Andrew D. Pickett and Raphael M. Barishansky, an Article Out Loud from Domestic Preparedness, July 30, 2025. During the COVID-19 crisis, decades of investment in healthcare emergency infrastructure, funded through two key federal programs, allowed emergency operations centers to mobilize rapidly, hospital coalitions to coordinate care, and surveillance systems to monitor community spread. Learn how 2025 federal proposals threaten to dismantle this funding and significantly undermine the nation’s ability to respond to the next crisis. Now to the featured article.