With the upcoming public health emergency ending, we reflect on how the U.S. handled the pandemic and what to expect going forward in a post-COVID society.

Newswise — UCI Public Health Founding Dean and Director Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH reflects on the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency coming in May 2023. This is significant because not only will certain programs like Medicaid and Medicare change their policies after the PHE ends but also how public health operates in the post-pandemic world.  

We now understand that COVID-19 is a disease of disparities and how disproportionate the impact is on neighborhoods with high density. At the start of the pandemic, the public health infrastructure failed to shelter communities of color from social determinants of health like health literacy, health access and housing density that caused Hispanic/Latinx and African Americans to have higher rates of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19.