The opportunities and challenges of the close relationship between primary care and the public health became clear in many communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, public health and primary care teams worked collaboratively to mount an effective response. However, potential synergies were not always realized because public health and primary care had been undergoing significant transformation and modernization in the decades leading up to the pandemic. Still, shared goals of community safety and optimizing health led to many creative and innovative partnerships and coordination of systems that built a foundation for future collaborative efforts toward disease prevention and response. We write from our experiences as family physicians who also serve as local public health officials in three different jurisdictions, collectively responsible for more than 800,000 lives prior to and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In this chapter, we draw on historical and contemporary elements of primary care and public health practice while sharing pragmatic and sobering illustrations from the field, success stories, and partnership achievements. The chapter culminates in recommendations about how primary care and public health partnerships can more effectively serve communities in future pandemics.