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

Based on current assessments, the picture is decidedly mixed—with many experts and independent watchdogs expressing significant concern about US pandemic readiness, even as certain specific capabilities have been strengthened.

Signs of Weakened Preparedness

Federal workforce and funding cuts: The CDC has experienced substantial attrition, having lost approximately one quarter of its civilian workforce between fiscal years 2024 and 2026, with reductions spanning global health, health promotion, scientific research, and communications. The Health Resources and Services Administration similarly lost approximately one quarter of its staff, affecting programs that support underserved communities.

Budget proposals: The administration's proposed FY2026 budget would mean a 53 percent reduction in funding as compared to FY 2024 for the CDC. Within that, CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness program faces a 52 percent funding reduction. Since about 80 percent of the CDC's domestic budget flows to states, localities, tribes and tribal organizations, healthcare systems, and community partners... Federal funding accounts for about half of state and local health department budgets, so cuts to federal spending are cuts to local public health budgets, this has ripple effects nationwide.

Grant terminations and litigation: Earlier in 2025, HHS moved to claw back more than $12 billion in COVID-19-era grants — funding that had been broadened to support infectious disease monitoring, laboratory capacity, emergency preparedness, and mental health services. While court orders blocked terminations for plaintiff states and the District of Columbia, litigation remained unresolved through year's end, creating sustained uncertainty for preparedness planning.

Countermeasure research setbacks: The administration also canceled nearly $500 million in contracts funding mRNA vaccine research and development in August 2025, describing the move as a potential disruption to the research, development, and deployment of countermeasures needed for the next public health emergency.

Leadership gaps: The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy—created after COVID to coordinate federal response—In 2025, Gerald Parker resigned as head of the office, leaving the office with no employees.

Global posture shift: The US announced its withdrawal from the WHO after almost 78 years of membership, which it said was in response to "the WHO's failures during the COVID-19 pandemic", and earlier dismantled USAID, the federal humanitarian agency that played a role in global outbreak prevention and response.

Areas of Continued or New Investment

Not everything points downward. Some specific programs are actually seeing increases: CDC's FY 2026 budget request of $963,291,000 for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases is $44,000,000 above the FY 2025 enacted level... necessary to keep the nation prepared for the next public health threat and will enhance cross-CDC investments in the proposed Biothreat Radar Detection System.

Experts also caution against oversimplified doom narratives. Georgetown's Rebecca Katz told PBS FRONTLINE that "the reality is that it's a lot more nuanced than that", noting that different parts of the world are investing resources to prepare for pandemics in various ways.

State-Level Variation

A 2026 Trust for America's Health report found uneven readiness across states, with results placing 20 states in the high-performance tier, 17 states and the District of Columbia in the middle-performance tier, and the remainder lower. Basic protective infrastructure like paid sick leave—which reduces disease transmission, supports business continuity, and is increasingly recognized... as an important part of preparedness infrastructure—varies dramatically, from 98 percent of workers in Pacific states to 67 percent in East South Central states.

Bottom Line

The consensus among public health researchers and watchdog organizations is that the US public health system is under significant strain from a confluence of budget cuts, workforce reductions, and policy shifts, even as certain surveillance and biothreat-detection investments continue. Trust for America's Health frames it directly: 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—and by that measure, many experts argue the US is currently less prepared than it was during or immediately after COVID-19, even as isolated capabilities have improved.