The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) responds to public health emergencies at various levels within its organization. Overtime, CDC's response capabilities have matured across the organization due to years of emergency management investment and experience across the agency. In 2019, CDC began to implement the Graduated Response Framework to formalize an approach for managing public health emergencies that recognizes its response capabilities and meets the evolving needs of the country. This brief report summarizes CDC's Graduated Response Framework structure, and how response management escalates and de-escalates according to resource needs and complexity.

As SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to circulate globally, high levels of vaccine- and infection-induced immunity and the availability of effective treatments and prevention tools have substantially reduced the risk for medically significant COVID-19 illness (severe acute illness and post-COVID-19 conditions) and associated hospitalization and death (1). These circumstances now allow public health efforts to minimize the individual and societal health impacts of COVID-19 by focusing on sustainable measures to further reduce medically significant illness as well as to minimize strain on the health care system, while reducing barriers to social, educational, and economic activity (2). Individual risk for medically significant COVID-19 depends on a person's risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and their risk for developing severe illness if infected (3). Exposure risk can be mitigated through nonpharmaceutical interventions, including improving ventilation, use of masks or respirators indoors, and testing (4). The risk for medically significant illness increases with age, disability status, and underlying medical conditions but is considerably reduced by immunity derived from vaccination, previous infection, or both, as well as timely access to effective biomedical prevention measures and treatments (3,5). CDC's public health recommendations change in response to evolving science, the availability of biomedical and public health tools, and changes in context, such as levels of immunity in the population and currently circulating variants. CDC recommends a strategic approach to minimizing the impact of COVID-19 on health and society that relies on vaccination and therapeutics to prevent severe illness; use of multicomponent prevention measures where feasible; and particular emphasis on protecting persons at high risk for severe illness. Efforts to expand access to vaccination and therapeutics, including the use of preexposure prophylaxis for persons who are immunocompromised, antiviral agents, and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, should be intensified to reduce the risk for medically significant illness and death. Efforts to protect persons at high risk for severe illness must ensure that all persons have access to information to understand their individual risk, as well as efficient and equitable access to vaccination, therapeutics, testing, and other prevention measures. Current priorities for preventing medically significant illness should focus on ensuring that persons 1) understand their risk, 2) take steps to protect themselves and others through vaccines, therapeutics, and nonpharmaceutical interventions when needed, 3) receive testing and wear masks if they have been exposed, and 4) receive testing if they are symptomatic, and isolate for ≥5 days if they are infected.

Arthritis is the most common cause of disability, and osteoarthritis is our nation's most common form of arthritis. This serious, painful and potentially life-altering joint disease places severe limits on daily activity and quality of life for over 27 million Americans. Affecting mainly hands, knees and hips, osteoarthritis (OA) often causes weakness and disability, interferes with work productivity, results in joint replacement and generates inordinate socioeconomic costs. In view of the fact that the U.S. population is aging and obesity is on the rise, the prevalence, health impact and economic consequences of OA are expected to increase dramatically. | Now is the time for bold and innovative action to reduce the burden of this growing public health issue. The National Public Health Agenda for Osteoarthritis sets the stage for a collaborative and focused initiative to achieve three overall goals over the next three to five years: | • | Ensure the availability of evidence-based intervention strategies—such as self management education, physical activity, injury prevention, and weight management and healthy nutrition—to all Americans with OA | • | Establish supportive policies, communication initiatives and strategic alliances for OA prevention and management | • | Initiate needed research to better understand the burden of OA, its risk factors and effective strategies for intervention. | | Leadership from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Arthritis Foundation (AF) initiated a collaboration to address ways to reduce the public health burden of osteoarthritis. This collaboration led to the creation of The National Public Health Agenda for Osteoarthritis. This document is an executive summary of the report; the complete report can be found on our journal's website (http://semarthritisrheumatism.com), the AF's website (http://www.arthritis.org/osteoarthritis-agenda.php), and the CDC's website (www.cdc.gov/arthritis/docs/OAagenda.pdf).