From HSToday: Preparing for the Next Pandemic: Building a More Resilient U.S. Healthcare System. The COVID-19 crisis taught us that we rely too heavily on foreign countries for medical supplies and pharmaceutical components.

From HSDL: Ready or Not: Public Health and Emergency Preparedness. The Trust for America’s Health has released its latest report in an annual series on public health emergency preparedness in America: Ready or Not 2022: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism.

The report assesses and tracks the public health preparedness of all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each state is grouped into one of three tiers based on the “10 Top-Priority Indicators of State Public Health Preparedness,” which includes factors such as  community water system safety, flu vaccination rates, and patient safety in hospitals. Overall, 17 states and the District of Columbia were placed in the highest tier, 20 scored in the middle tier, and 13 scored in the lowest.

Also included in this year’s report, a special section examining the nation’s preparedness as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons of the Pandemic’s Tragic Death Toll: What Needs to be Done to Save Lives During the Next Public Health Emergency?