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

Based on current assessments, the picture is mixed and trending in a concerning direction, with experts, government watchdogs, and public health organizations expressing significant concerns about weakening preparedness.

Recent Real-World Tests

The U.S. has already been tested on multiple fronts recently. 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. Separately, during 2025, the nation faced a series of significant public health emergencies, including the most severe influenza season in nearly a decade, the highest number of measles cases since 1991, continued H5N1 avian influenza cases, and extreme weather events such as wildfires, hurricanes, and extreme heat. More recently, an Ebola outbreak response encompassing the Pentagon, CDC, USAID, DHS, state officials, hospitals, foreign governments and aid groups prompted the U.S. to deploy military assets, build treatment centers, and organize airport screening—showing some operational capacity remains.

State-Level Readiness is Highly Uneven

The authoritative "Ready or Not" 2026 report from Trust for America's Health evaluates the nation's readiness for public health emergencies through 10 indicators of state preparedness, including healthcare workforce mobility, state public health funding, laboratory surge planning, access to paid sick leave, and community water system safety. It found stark disparities: 20 states in the high-performance tier, 17 states and the District of Columbia in the middle-performance tier, and 13 states in the low-performance tier.

Federal Infrastructure Under Strain

Several major structural concerns have emerged in 2025-2026:

Funding instability: A TFAH report found that emergency preparedness funding faces a proposed 52 percent cut, leaving states and localities more vulnerable to future outbreaks and pandemics, natural disasters, and other health emergencies. Compounding this, the March 2025 termination of 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—created major disruption, though court orders blocked terminations for plaintiff states and DC, but litigation remained unresolved through year's end, creating sustained uncertainty for preparedness planning.

Countermeasure development setbacks: The report also notes the cancellation of 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 vacuum: Notably, the White House's own pandemic preparedness office has been gutted—in 2025, Gerald Parker resigned as head of the office, leaving the office with no employees.

State funding mixed: On a more positive note, a majority of states maintained or increased their public health funding in FY 2025, but at least 12 states reduced funding amid an extraordinary period of federal disruption.

Withdrawal from Global Health Architecture

The U.S. has also stepped back from international coordination mechanisms. In 2025, the administration dismantled USAID after stating that large portions of its funding did not align with "core national interests," and in 2026, the U.S. announced its withdrawal from the WHO after almost 78 years of membership, citing "the WHO's failures during the COVID-19 pandemic." A global pandemic preparedness assessment specifically flagged this as destabilizing, finding the withdrawal of the United States from WHO introduces a structural discontinuity in surveillance and financing that no complementary arrangement yet remedies.

Bottom Line

The overall assessment from public health experts is one of eroding readiness. As TFAH's 2026 report summarizes: in 2025, the United States confronted a fundamental test of its public health emergency preparedness infrastructure, and federal health agencies experienced significant workforce reductions, with rebuilding a resilient public health system requiring sustained, predictable investments and concerted efforts to restore staffing, expertise, and operational capacity at every level—from federal agencies to state and local health departments.

In short: While the U.S. retains substantial underlying scientific, medical, and logistical capacity (as shown by the Ebola response), 2025-2026 has been characterized by significant funding cuts, workforce losses, leadership vacancies, and withdrawal from international health cooperation—all of which experts and watchdog organizations warn have weakened the nation's readiness compared to just a few years ago, with substantial variation in how prepared individual states are.