In 2016, public health leaders from the US Department of Health and Human Services began highlighting a concept called Public Health 3.0.1 Their idea was that the modern age of public health (Public Health 1.0) began around the dawn of the 20th century when scientists significantly advanced understanding of infectious diseases and developed vaccines and antibiotics to address them. The second wave-Public Health 2.0-was kicked off by the Institute of Medicine's 1988 report The Future of Public Health.2 Following that report, we saw the expansion of governmental agencies to coordinate and manage the public's health, organizations that have played a critical part in the response to COVID-19. Public Health 3.0 recognized that although individual behaviors drive health status, the physical and social determinants of those behaviors (neighborhood safety, education, availability of reliable transportation, quality of housing, and more) drive those behaviors.
Making Equity the Priority