The Response Ready Epidemiologist in State, Territorial, and Local Health Departments: An Efficient Funding Strategy to Meet Response Needs and Reduce Programmatic Silos.

Abstract

We documented the value and utility associated with staffing a Response Ready Epidemiologist (RRE) in state, territorial, and local health departments (STLs). Recipients of the Centers for Disease Control's Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Cooperative Agreement provided feedback showing that RREs are an efficient way to provide STLs discretion to use staffing to meet acute or urgent needs that arise. Other funding mechanisms can adopt similar disease-agnostic flexible models in lieu of disease-specific, siloed, and prescriptive funding to increase efficiency. (<i>Am J Public Health</i>. 2026;116(9): 1301-1306. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308667).