COVID-19: The Voices of Public Health Leaders after a Year of Response is a compilation of interviews conducted with state and local public health officials who were on the front lines of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews were conducted in the style of an after-action review during the summer of 2021 with a sample of public health officials across the country.

Officials were asked to describe what worked and what didn’t work in their response to the pandemic. Responses to the interviews are outlined according to the many public health functions that were undertaken during the pandemic including surveillance, testing, quarantine and isolation, other public health non-pharmaceutical interventions, and vaccine distribution. For each function proposed improvements for the next pandemic are provided.

This book offers scientists and interested persons orientation and helps to decipher statements from governments and authorities. It will help professionals involved in the approval, planning, implementation and evaluation of COVID-19 studies to distinguish meaningful from pointless.