When working well, many systems in our society are taken for granted. Mail delivery, reliable streetlights and traffic alerts are systems we don’t often think about.

Public health systems are another example of critical infrastructure.

Preventing an outbreak of illness from the lettuce at Safeway. Keeping the paint at local businesses free of lead to protect kids. Keeping residents in senior living facilities safe by regulating infection prevention standards.

In the last eight months, however, we have seen the dismantling of so many vital public health systems, large and small.

I am a retired family medicine physician with a longstanding interest in public health.

Recently, I have had several conversations with Port Angeles High School graduate Erika Meyer, an epidemiologist with the

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