In late January 2020, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar  declared a federal public health emergency as a result of  COVID-19: "The actions we have taken and continue to make complement, complement the work of China and the World Health Organization to contain the outbreak within China."

Since then, it has been renewed eight times, but eventually the declaration will expire. When it does, it may initiate another kind of public health crisis. According to some estimates, 15 million people — including 6 million children — are at risk of losing Medicaid coverage when the public health emergency expires. That is because that's when state officials will sift through their Medicaid rolls and eliminate people who are no longer eligible for coverage under the expanded social safety net.  

For more on this, The Takeaway spoke to Megan Messerly, health care reporter for POLITICO.