Sick of being undervalued, sick of job insecurity, sick of lacking career development opportunities, sick of threats and derision and exhaustion and trauma. Even at this moment, as parts of the United States are still silently surging with COVID-19 and new cases of monkeypox are emerging, the public health workforce is experiencing significant layoffs.
Yes, it has been a long pandemic. Yes, the public is weary of hearing about COVID-19 and taking measures to mitigate its spread. But it's not over simply because we all want it to be. Many public health jobs are ending, and efforts to fund a COVID-19 aid package are stalled in Congress. But so much work remains to keep the public safe, now and as we look toward the prevention of future pandemics.
With a workload that has increased exponentially along with infections, the culture of working in public health must change to acknowledge our new realities. An online yoga session in the name of boosting"wellness" is not going to cut it among a workforce where 56% report experiencing at least one symptom of PTSD. Trying to boost morale with freebies like a snazzy T-shirt won't work when 32% of employees are considering leaving their organization in the next year .
The public health workforce requires meaningful structural change and long-term development, not Band-Aids. The health professionals I've worked with want to see funding that creates actual careers — positions that last longer than a few months, that don't require us to uproot our lives and move cross-country, and that offer salaries and benefits that will allow us to support our families.
"But it must be really easy to get a public health job during a pandemic!" I have lost count of how many times I have heard this refrain. But this infectious disease epidemiologist is here to say that it's not easy. I've been looking for a steady job in public health since long before the current pandemic.
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