22 Public Health Accomplishments in 2024
Plus what 2025 will bring and a gift to YLE subscribers
Every year, the U.S. intelligence community publishes a threat assessment on who was trying to kill us and how it was stopped. I’m always surprised the public health community doesn’t do the same with what, given the impact that biosecurity, health, and the environment have on Americans’ quality of life, survival, and economy.
So, consider this your end-of-the-year public health report for 2024!
We have stopped many things from trying to kill us—not only stopped but prevented in the first place. Often, this work is invisible, and we have our work cut out for us in 2025.
(Disclaimers: These are in no particular order, I am sure we missed many, and this doesn’t mean our work is done. Also, because data is delayed, some of these accomplishments happened in 2023, but we learned about it in 2024. I’m counting those a 2024 win.)
Turning the tide
1. Opioid overdose deaths declined after a staggering climb over the past decade. Large-scale initiatives, like Naloxone distribution and education campaigns, are partly to thank. For example:
Laredo, TX, deployed successful knock-and-talk programs
Marin County, CA, leveraged public vending machines so residents could access free Narcan kits
2. Sexually transmitted infections declined by 2% percent. Lower rates of gonorrhea and syphilis are driving the slowdown.
3. Cervical cancer deaths are decreasing among young women (the first cohort eligible for the HPV vaccine), which suggests the vaccine is working in wondrous ways.
4. Obesity rates dipped for the first time in a decade. This could be partly due to widely used GLM-1 (like Wegovy or Ozempic).
5. Covid-19 is *not* among the top 10 leading causes of death. Provisional U.S. data from 2024 show that Covid caused 7 deaths per 100,000 people. This is compared to 2023 (where it ranked #10 at 11.5 deaths per 100,000) and 2022 (where it ranked #4 at 44.5 deaths per 100,000).
Policy at play
6. More accurate and precise data on race and ethnicity. In March 2024, federal standards were established to add Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) as a new category to all federal government documents, including the U.S. census. This will help us better understand health trends and needs for these groups.
7. First ever drinking water standards for 6 PFAS—or “forever chemicals”—for which low doses can accumulate in the body and have been linked to several diseases. Providers have three years to set up testing and, at that point, will need to tell the public if rates are too high.
8. New standards for kids’ school meals that limit added sugars, reduce sodium, and allow more flexibility in menu planning (like locally grown and culturally relevant foods). School meals serve millions of students daily, contribute a substantial proportion of daily nutrition, and are often the best source of quality foods distributed equitably.
9. Firearm violence was declared a public health emergency by the U.S. Surgeon General, mobilizing momentum to address the leading cause of death for American children. For example, 160 hospital executives and leaders met to discuss it using health system data to better understand epidemiological patterns.
10. Vaccines for Children celebrated 30 years of success. This federal program that provides vaccines to children whose parents may not be able to afford them has prevented more than 472 million illnesses, 29.8 million hospitalizations, and $2.2 trillion in costs.
Oiling the engine through innovation
Expanded wastewater surveillance to include bird flu, seasonal flu, and RSV, allowing communities to detect health threats faster.
First-generation vaccines and drugs successes. Lenacapavi, for example, was named Science’s breakthrough of the year. This is an HIV prevention drug that is close to 100% effective. It’s only given twice yearly. (But they must work on the patient price tag.)
Data pipelines were laid so the decentralized public health system could start communicating with each other. Over 41,000 data connections were made between 70 state and local health departments.
Triumphs in the field
Over 3,500 local health departments keep your invisible shield intact and strong. Here are a few (of many, many) wins this year:
14. Sixteen measles outbreaks were contained despite increasing rates of disease. For example, modeling showed that a migrant shelter in Chicago should have had 250 cases, but the outbreak was contained to only 64 cases thanks to action on the ground, including administering more than 30,000 doses of the MMR vaccine.
Oregon implemented peer-support programs for rural residents with hepatitis C.
Higher classroom air quality standards, like those adopted in California this year, will help limit student exposure to infectious diseases and pollutants in wildfire smoke.
Local and state health departments, like those in Santa Clara, CA, and Colorado state, started testing raw milk sold in their communities before federal wheels got rolling, accelerating progress toward our nationwide milk testing system.
Food-borne outbreaks were stopped, and 12 timely public health warnings were issued regarding contaminated products, from McDonald's Quarter Pounders to ready-to-eat meat.
International successes
World Health Organization ran a highly successful polio vaccination campaign in Gaza: 94% of children under 10 had two polio shots, and 448,425 children between ages 2 and 10 received vitamin A.
Egypt and Cabo Verde were declared free of malaria.
The Americas are again free of endemic measles now that Brazil has re-eliminated the disease. Vaccination coverage in the region has reached 87%.
Rwanda stopped Marburg (an Ebola-like disease) in its tracks due to excellent epidemiological work, contract tracing, and decades of investments in building up their health systems.
YLE successes
It’s been a big year for us here at YLE, too:
Sent 90 newsletter emails covering over 20 topics, from Covid-19 to cancer to climate, with over 36 million reads.
Grew the team to 15 rockstars.
Launched the first YLE spinoff for local communities—hello, New York!
Created resources for this community, including our first webinar, a co-hosted Podcast, and guides for routine vaccination questions.
Going into 2025
While the field of public health has had tremendous successes, we still have big challenges ahead.
Our field is allocated <3% of the national healthcare budget. And 2025 will come with a host of new challenges. I’m keeping my eye on…
New Health and Human Services Administration and ensuring the public’s health doesn’t slip backward in key areas while making important progress in others.
Bird flu as it continues to heat up and what the government will (and will not do) to prevent another pandemic.
New threats, like dengue making its way up North due to a warming climate.
In 2025, the role of unbiased, trustworthy, and independent information about science and public health will be even more important, and YLE is ready to take on this challenge.
We have our work cut out for us.
Bottom line
I couldn’t be more proud to be in public health. We continue to accomplish so much with so little. This field will be challenged like never before in 2025, but I’m confident that we will be able to navigate this terrain with relentless dedication, innovation, partnership, and listening.
Here’s to 2025. Happy New Year!
Love, YLE
Gift to subscribers (especially public health people)
YLE could not survive without your support. You may not know it, but you are already helping achieve many of the 2025 goals—making public health visible, putting the public back in public health, and getting with the times. What you do (and support) matters.
Below is a small token of my appreciation: a printable infographic summarizing the successes above. I hope it brings motivation, clarity, and a sense of purpose to those of us in public health. Importantly, there is space to add your 2024 contributions.
Here are PNG and PDF downloads.
