Leadership-Followership Relationship through the Pandemic for our First Lines of Defense: Healthcare Workers and Military Personnel

The scientific community internationally was compelled to find answers and therapies to control SARSCoV-2. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) [1] affirmed a Public Health Emergency (PHE) of international concern, the highest level of alarm under international law (2020). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), seemingly transmitted most by person-to-person contact (CDC, 2020) [2] so nationwide public health orders were exhorted. Amid an infectious pandemic, vaccines are a public health strategy implemented to prevent the spread of disease. The CDC continues to collaborate partnerships to fight new variants and lineages, maintaining global efforts to combat the largest viral genomic sequencing effort thus far. Nevertheless, the PHE for COVID-19, declared under Section 319 of the Public Health Service (PHS) Act, expired May 11, 2023. As we continue our fight with new variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, it is suggested that we learn from the past three years to understand and reference previous experiences, successes, and failures, to make better decisions in the present into the future. Not only is there an opportunity to strengthen the leadership-followership relationship by building trust through transparency, but now is the time to reimagine healthcare to create true interoperable visibility and consider how the first lines of defense can be better protected to serve others. This article reviews the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine mandate, the effects on the first lines of defense, and the toxic triangle that created an onset of confusion, controversy, and fear throughout the country..