evidence: These functions are interrelated and dependent on systems and infrastructures to ensure their maintenance and sustainability. For example, surveillance systems rely on laboratory systems to process diagnostic tests, the necessary skilled laboratory workforce, supplies and equipment to process tests, and mechanisms to communicate timely results.7 Core to such systems is a trained and protected health workforce able to reach even the most marginalised communities. Public health functions and systems are underpinned by public health and social measures, such as mask wearing, limits on gathering, and school or workplace closures, as well as social and financial support, such as paid sick days and debt relief, that encourage adherence.89 [...] Prioritise rapid deployment of core public health functions—surveillance, testing, contact tracing, and quarantine—and ensure equitable access to supplies. [...] These recommendations are not new, and since its emergence SARS-CoV-2 has consistently laid bare our broken and underfunded public health systems. Widespread community transmission, strained healthcare systems, depleted health workforces, and the devastating global loss of life are the consequences of public health systems not able to fully execute core functions in detecting and responding to outbreaks. Longstanding political and financial neglect to build local public health capacity and meet local needs has left the world vulnerable to infectious hazards both known and unknown.