How prepared are state health departments to track disease outbreaks?

When a new disease threat emerges, we all rely on our state health departments to track it, understand it, and guide our response. A new report has taken a close look at the epidemiology capacity—the people, tools, and resources—within these departments across the United States. The report itself does not share its specific findings, so we don't know the current state of readiness or where gaps might exist. What we do know is that someone felt it was important enough to conduct this survey, which tells us that understanding our public health infrastructure is a pressing issue. Without the results, it's impossible to say if we're well-prepared or vulnerable. This report is a reminder that the strength of our frontline disease detectives is something we should all care about, even if the full picture isn't yet clear.