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

Based on recent assessments, the evidence points to significant erosion in US pandemic preparedness over the past year, even as some underlying capabilities remain. Here's what the data shows:

Structural and Policy Changes Weakening Readiness

Loss of global coordination infrastructure:

•In 2025, the administration dismantled USAID, the federal humanitarian agency that played a role in global outbreak prevention and response

•In 2026, the U.S. announced its withdrawal from the WHO after almost 78 years of membership, which international analysts note introduces a structural discontinuity in surveillance and financing that no complementary arrangement yet remedies

White House coordination office hollowed out:
In 2025, Gerald Parker resigned as head of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, leaving the office with no employees.

Budget Cuts to Core Public Health Infrastructure

The numbers here are substantial and come from multiple independent sources:

•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, ATSDR.

•Most critically for crisis response: CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness program – the primary source of federal funding for state and local emergency preparedness – faces a 52 percent funding reduction.

•Over 100 public health programs and funding lines would be eliminated under the proposed FY 2026 budget, including 61 programs at CDC.

•Independent economic modeling found the cuts would cause public health grants to state and local governments and organizations to fall by $2.0 billion, with an additional $1.8 billion reduction in other costs

Public health experts have been blunt about the implications. As one former public health CEO put it: "Let's be clear—when the next pandemic from an infectious agent breaks, if this budget passes, we will be largely unprepared, and needless deaths will happen. The CDC will be late detecting, tracking, and responding to it, and the states will not have the resources to do it at the state level."

Agency Restructuring Adding Uncertainty

The FY26 budget proposes to eliminate the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) entirely, with its offices and programs—including BARDA, Project BioShield, the Strategic National Stockpile, and Pandemic Influenza programs—transferred to other divisions or CDC. Such reorganizations typically create transition risk and institutional knowledge loss during the shift.

State-Level Readiness: A Mixed Bag

The 2026 "Ready or Not" report from Trust for America's Health offers a more nuanced state-by-state picture:

•The report places states into three performance tiers: 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.

•Importantly, this comes against a backdrop where 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 federal systems built over decades came under significant strain.

•The report specifically flags that federal workforce reductions and funding instability could weaken preparedness nationwide.

Some Areas of Continued Investment

Not everything is being cut. Biodefense-specific research and development has seen more modest changes: HHS spends approximately $23 billion annually on programs covering pandemic preparedness, medical countermeasures, and related biodefense activities, and the CDC's biodefense-specific budget request represents a 4% cut compared to $11.88 billion in FY25 enacted funding — a far smaller reduction than the overall CDC budget cuts.

Bottom Line

The weight of evidence from public health researchers, government budget documents, and nonpartisan watchdog organizations suggests the US is less prepared now than it was a few years ago, driven primarily by:

1.Steep proposed/enacted cuts to CDC's core emergency preparedness funding

2.Withdrawal from international coordination mechanisms (WHO, USAID)

3.Loss of dedicated White House pandemic coordination staff

4.Ongoing agency reorganization creating transitional uncertainty

At the same time, state-level readiness varies significantly, with some states maintaining stronger capabilities than others, and certain biodefense R&D programs have been more insulated from cuts than general public health infrastructure. The consensus among public health experts is one of growing concern rather than confidence, particularly regarding the speed and resource capacity for detecting and responding to a new outbreak.

Citations (14)

1pbs.orgNews and mediaquality 0.87
How Are We Preparing For the Next Pandemic?
Source excerpt: “In 2025, the administration dismantled USAID, the federal humanitarian agency that played a role in global outbreak prevention and response, after sta...”
2pbs.orgNews and mediaquality 0.87
How Are We Preparing For the Next Pandemic?
Source excerpt: “In 2026, the U.S. announced its withdrawal from the WHO after almost 78 years of membership, which it said was in response to “the WHO’s failures duri...”
3academia.eduAcademic
(DOC) International Pandemic Preparedness Protocols: A Critical Assessment for 2026 A Multi-Perspective Working Paper March 2026
Source excerpt: “We find that the Agreement's ambition substantially outpaces its implementation mechanisms; that the withdrawal of the United States from WHO introduc...”
4wikipedia.orgEncyclopedias and referencequality 0.83
White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy
Source excerpt: “[[6]](./White_House_Office_of_Pandemic_Preparedness_and_Response_Policy#cite_note-6) In 2025, Gerald Parker resigned as head of the office, leaving th...”
5aspph.orgNonprofits and think tanks
New Public Health Report Reveals Impact of Public Health Cuts - Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)
Source excerpt: “### Among the report’s findings are: - The President’s proposed FY 2026 budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amounts to a 5...”
6aspph.orgNonprofits and think tanks
New Public Health Report Reveals Impact of Public Health Cuts - Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)
Source excerpt: “Within the total proposed cut, CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness program – the primary source of federal funding for state and local emergenc...”
7aspph.orgNonprofits and think tanks
New Public Health Report Reveals Impact of Public Health Cuts - Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)
Source excerpt: “- Over 100 public health programs and funding lines would be eliminated under the President’s proposed FY 2026 budget, including 61 programs at CDC an...”
8gwu.eduAcademic
Center for Health Policy Research
Source excerpt: “• We estimate the proposed budget would cause public health grants to state and local governments and organizations to fall by $2.0 billion, compared...”
9apha.orgNonprofits and think tanks
For Our Health warns the proposed HHS budget cuts put Americans at risk
Source excerpt: ““Let’s be clear—when the next pandemic from an infectious agent breaks, if this budget passes, we will be largely unprepared, and needless deaths will...”
10councilonstrategicrisks.orgNot yet classified
US Biodefense Budget Breakdown: Fiscal Year 2026 Update - The Council on Strategic Risks
Source excerpt: “#### Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response The FY26 budget proposes to eliminate the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Re...”
11tfah.orgNonprofits and think tanks
Ready or Not 2026: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism - TFAH
Source excerpt: “The report also places states and the District of Columbia into three performance tiers: **20 states in the high-performance tier, 17 states and the D...”
12tfah.orgNonprofits and think tanks
Ready or Not 2026: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism - TFAH
Source excerpt: “In 2025, the country faced the most severe flu season in nearly a decade, rising measles outbreaks, continued H5N1 avian influenza activity, and a gro...”
13tfah.orgNonprofits and think tanks
Ready or Not 2026: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism - TFAH
Source excerpt: “**Special Feature: Preparedness at Risk** This year’s report includes a special feature examining how federal workforce reductions and funding inst...”
14councilonstrategicrisks.orgNot yet classified
US Biodefense Budget Breakdown: Fiscal Year 2026 Update - The Council on Strategic Risks
Source excerpt: “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the largest biodefense budget of all federal departments and agencies, spending approximately $2...”