Is the US prepared to deal with another pandemic or widespread health crisis?

Is the US Prepared for Another Pandemic? A Mixed and Concerning Picture

The current expert consensus is largely pessimistic, with most public health leaders, former officials, and recent assessments suggesting the US is not adequately prepared for another pandemic or major health crisis—and may even be less prepared than before COVID-19 in some respects.

Key Concerns

Federal infrastructure has weakened significantly. A recent bipartisan assessment found that federal health agencies experienced significant workforce disruption amid broader restructuring efforts, including layoffs and partial and chaotic reinstatements at CDC in 2025. The Trust for America's Health "Ready or Not 2026" report concluded that federal health agencies experienced significant workforce disruption amid broader restructuring efforts, including layoffs and partial and chaotic reinstatements at CDC. Delays, disruptions, and cancellation of funds for public health infrastructure and programs across the country undermine emergency preparedness. The erosion of funding and expertise during 2025 has had real consequences for emergency readiness.

Key leadership positions have sat vacant. As of late 2026, the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy sat empty for much of Trump's first year back in office, and the White House began restaffing it with a health official and biosecurity specialist this summer — hires that were heralded by the public health community but broadly seen as not enough.

Budget cuts threaten core capacity. The proposed FY2027 budget includes a $15.8 billion reduction in HHS discretionary funding—a 12.5 percent decrease from FY 2026 enacted levels—and proposes significant cuts to CDC. Earlier in 2026, proposals called for a reduction of nearly $18 billion in NIH funding, approximately a 40 percent cut, and a $3.6 billion cut to CDC, while over $11.4 billion in COVID-era public health grants were clawed back from states, localities, and community health organizations, funding that had been supporting not only pandemic response but the broader infrastructure of surveillance, laboratory capacity, emergency preparedness, and infectious disease monitoring.

Withdrawal from international cooperation. The US withdrew from the WHO, and infectious disease specialists warn this matters because a loss of international coordination has really put us at a severe disadvantage for all of these viruses, which again don't care about national borders.

Current outbreak indicators are troubling. The 2026 Ready or Not report notes in 2025, the country faced the most severe flu season in nearly a decade, rising measles outbreaks, continued H5N1 avian influenza activity, and a growing number of extreme weather events—all while the federal systems built over decades to help states prepare for and respond to emergencies came under significant strain. Notably, the 2024-25 flu season saw the highest hospitalization rates since 2010–2011 and the most pediatric deaths in any non-pandemic season since reporting began in 2004.

Declining vaccination coverage. The percentage of U.S. residents who received a vaccination against influenza continued to decrease from pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, weakening one of the basic defenses against outbreaks.

Areas of Some Strength

It's not entirely bleak. Some structural investments remain:

The Bottom Line

Even with the caveat that funding stability does not quickly reverse capacity losses (as TFAH notes), the overwhelming theme across experts—including former CDC Director Robert Redfield—is sobering. As Redfield and a colleague wrote in mid-2026: despite our horrid experience with COVID-19 — the loss of 1.2 million American lives and the severe damage to our social and economic life — we are not much better prepared today than we were in 2019.

A Harvard exposure science professor summed up the sentiment bluntly regarding current systems: "Whatever hits next, and I don't think it will be this, but we don't have the systems in place to stop it."

In short: the US retains significant scientific, technological, and institutional capacity built up over decades, but recent funding cuts, workforce reductions, leadership vacancies, declining vaccination rates, and withdrawal from international health cooperation have eroded readiness at a moment when infectious disease threats (flu, measles, H5N1 avian influenza, and emerging pathogens) are increasing. Most experts characterize the US as either equally or less prepared than it was heading into COVID-19—a notable and concerning assessment given how that pandemic unfolded.