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

Based on current assessments, the picture is decidedly mixed — the US has significant infrastructure and lessons learned from COVID-19, but experts and government watchdogs are raising serious concerns about eroding capacity heading into any future crisis.

Areas of Concern

Funding cuts are substantial. A major worry is disinvestment in core public health infrastructure. The President's proposed FY 2026 budget for the CDC amounts to a 53 percent reduction in funding as compared to FY 2024, reflecting proposed cuts to CDC and its sister agency, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Specifically, within the total proposed cut, CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness program faces a 52 percent funding reduction. Additionally, this year's termination of already-approved funds clawed back over $12 billion in COVID-19 era grants – funding that in addition to supporting the pandemic response was intended to strengthen public health infrastructure beyond the needs created by the pandemic, including infectious disease monitoring, laboratory capacity, emergency preparedness, and mental health services.

Federal coordination gaps persist. A February 2026 GAO report found ongoing structural issues, noting that a whole-of-nation approach is needed to effectively respond to nationally significant public health emergencies, including ensuring coordination between public health and health care systems.

Leadership vacancies. The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, created after COVID to coordinate federal pandemic strategy, has been hollowed out — in 2025, Gerald Parker resigned as head of the office, leaving the office with no employees.

Long-term budget shortfalls. Looking further ahead, HHS's own multi-year planning acknowledges a massive gap: if funding continues at the proposed FY 2026 levels over the projected five-year period, an estimated $33.5 billion funding gap from the total projected need is expected.

State-level disparities. The Trust for America's Health's 2026 "Ready or Not" report finds that readiness varies widely by state and depends on federal stability. National preparedness depends not only on state-level capacity, but also on strong and stable federal systems, sustained intergovernmental coordination, and long-term investment in public health infrastructure. The context is sobering: 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. The report also highlights uneven protections like paid sick leave, where access to paid sick leave varies widely across U.S. regions—from 98 percent of workers in Pacific states to 67 percent in East South Central states—and gaps are most concentrated among low-wage, part-time, and service-sector workers.

Global health retrenchment. US pullback from international outbreak-prevention efforts is also a factor, since pandemics often start abroad. In 2025, the administration dismantled USAID, the federal humanitarian agency that played a role in global outbreak prevention and response, after stating that large portions of USAID funding did not align with "core national interests."

Areas of Relative Strength

Not everything is negative. Scientific and technical capacity continues to advance:

The Trust Deficit

Experts emphasize that technical readiness alone isn't sufficient. As discussed at a 2026 Global Virus Network meeting: the COVID-19 pandemic made clear that public health guidance is only effective if people trust it — mistrust, misinformation and confusion around evolving recommendations slowed response efforts, and experts emphasized that rebuilding trust must happen before the next crisis, not during it.

Bottom Line

The honest answer is: not as prepared as public health experts believe is necessary. While the US retains strong scientific/biomedical capabilities and a legal/institutional framework built since 2005, significant budget cuts, leadership vacancies, reduced global engagement, and uneven state-level readiness suggest real vulnerabilities. The consensus among preparedness experts is that current trends—particularly funding cuts to CDC and dismantling of coordinating offices—are moving the US in the wrong direction just as new risks (H5N1, other emerging pathogens) are increasing, with modeling suggesting over the next 25 years there is a 50% probability of a pandemic occurring, with a mortality level similar to or worse than COVID-19.