This self-study course examines public health challenges that will present threats to our homeland security long after COVID-19 fades from our daily lives. Pandemics, health equity, food security, and increasing violence will continue to test our decentralized public health system and impact our daily lives. For almost half a century we have been warned that state and local public health departments are not adequately funded to handle day-to-day operations, much less new and emerging threats. COVID-19 demonstrated how poorly our public health system was prepared for a prolonged disaster. The numbers of cases and deaths are still growing as this self-study course is being developed in December 2021, and the number of COVID-related deaths will soon surpass one million.
