Be an Advocate for Public Health!

​​Your local public health officials are facing threats and intimidation for doing their jobs, which is to protect Coloradans from public health threats including the COVID-19 pandemic. Like educators, health care workers, and elections officials, they deserve support and gratitude for saving lives.
Across the country, attempts to strip public health of its authority to protect you and reduce its already limited funding are underway. Don’t let this happen!​
Speak out! Demonstrate your support for public health
  • Testify at your local board of health meetings. Visit your county government’s website to find out when they meet (it might also be part of a regular county commissioners’ meeting). Most are allowing for virtual public comment during COVID-19 so you don’t need to physically show up to provide support.
    • Share a personal story that reflects your support for public health protections, or how better protections might have impacted you or your family.
    • Point out that in an interconnected community, individuals are accountable to each other. Public health is everyone’s responsibility and public health agencies show us how to do that (e.g. getting vaccinated for flu or COVID-19, limiting large indoor gatherings).
    • Ask questions about the science behind public health decisions, giving your agency representatives more chances to explain the evidence.
    • Express your trust and appreciation for your local public health agency.
    • Emphasize that, while critical voices are always welcome, threats and harassment have no place your community

  • Write letters to the editor and op-eds vocalizing your support for local public health.
  • Share your support for local health officials with your networks, including on social media, and encourage others to speak up.
  • Like and share posts & tweets from your local public health agency! Find your local public health agency here.
  • Show your support for public health efforts and help fight misinformation using social media resources from the Public Health Communications Collaborative and the American Public Health Association.
Contact your state and federal legislators!
  • Find your state legislators’ contact information here.
  • You can use this advocacy tool from the American Public Health Association to contact your U.S. Senator or House member.
  • Join the National Network for Public Health Law (NNPHL) Act for Public Health initiative. 
  • Feel free to use these talking points in your communication:
    • Public health must not be an afterthought! Our communities need sustained, predictable investments in public health so we can survive and thrive.
    • Public health has broad bipartisan support, with 70% of voters agreeing that local public health agencies are key to creating a healthy community. Please protect the public health workers, laws, and systems that protect us all!
    • In addition to responding in emergencies, public health agencies provide services such as air and water monitoring, infectious disease control, ensuring safe childcare, and promoting physical activity. So why do we only invest 3% of total health spending on public health? We must do better!
    • Preparing for the next pandemic or climate disaster requires long-term, strategic planning that must be funded consistently, not just for a year or two after an event. Our communities need guaranteed public health funding to make it through an uncertain future.
    • Public health laws safeguard communities from food-borne illness, dangerous infectious diseases like tuberculosis, measles, and COVID-19, and harmful environmental exposures. Don’t let reckless, short-sighted politics gut these essential protections!