Interest in health systems has never been this high. Since its discovery in December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), or COVID-19, has rapidly spread across the globe, accompanied by heated debates about responses at local, national, regional, and global policy scales. Rankings of the number of cases and concern over high rates of death and disability emerged alongside the discussions of which countries were doing a better job and why. Media stories, academic publications, and discussions among policy actors at national and global institutions quickly shifted from trying to figure out what was happening, how the virus was spreading, and why people were so sick, to broader systems-level questions: Why were public health systems across high-income and low-income countries not prepared to prevent and control this pandemic? What went wrong with the key components of health systems, such as the health workforce, hospital capacity, availability of personal protective gear or drugs, and ability to develop new testing and other diagnostic tools, treatments, and vaccines? How did different health insurance systems facilitate or limit individuals’ and communities’ access to timely care?

In addition to responding to the pandemic, the management of other serious health conditions and responses to the needs of vulnerable groups in our communities emerged as major tests for health care systems.