On December 9, 2022, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a final report detailing findings of its two year investigation into the nation’s response to COVID-19. The report, which was authored by the Democratic majority staff, summarized information the Subcommittee collected from 42 hearings and briefings, 24 transcribed interviews, and over 950,0000 documents to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of the nation’s COVID-19 response.
The Subcommittee found that the U.S. was underprepared for a major public health crisis prior to the COVID-19 pandemic due to multiple factors including chronic underfunding, longstanding health disparities, and a failure to invest in preparedness. The Subcommittee criticized the Trump administration’s response, including what it described as a slow initial response and perceived interference with public health response activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Subcommittee identified ongoing challenges to the pandemic response including misinformation, distrust in public health expertise, and harassment and threats of public health officials. In addition to the public health response, the Subcommittee examined the response to the economic toll of the pandemic.
The Subcommittee offered 30 recommendations to strengthen the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to public health and economic emergencies focusing on mitigating ongoing risks still posed by COVID-19, making critical investments in the nation’s public health and economic relief infrastructures, decreasing vulnerabilities to future crises, and guarding the integrity of relief programs. The full list of recommendations is available in the report, but several of particular interest to NACCHO members are:
- Increase bivalent booster uptake through a targeted booster campaign
- Increase funding for federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies, ensuring that annual funding is predictable and sufficient to build long-term capabilities.
- Invest in modernizing public health data systems at the federal, state, and local level to make them more flexible, dynamic, and interoperable
- Make sustained investments to grow and retain a culturally competent public health workforce trained in surveillance and detection, risk communications, laboratory science, data systems, and disease containment.
- Examine opportunities to protect the public health workforce, including by establishing a national reporting system for incidents of violence against public health officials and providing legal protections for workers facing harassment and threats.
On December 14, the Coronavirus Subcommittee held a final hearing, “Preparing for and Preventing the Next Public Health Emergency: Lessons Learned from the Coronavirus Crisis,” to discuss the report and hear from the following expert witnesses:
- Dr. Rick Bright, former Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services
- Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and former vaccine researcher at the National Institutes of Health
- Rebecca Dixon, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project
- Dr. Ngozi Ezike, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sinai Chicago and former Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health
- Admiral Brett P. Giroir, M.D., former Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services
The witnesses echoed many of the findings and recommendations of the Subcommittee, and urged action to address public health infrastructure, workforce, and preparedness. After the hearing, the Subcommittee voted by voice to formally adopt the report, with only Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) vocally voting no.
