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

The evidence suggests the U.S. is in a mixed and arguably weakened state of pandemic readiness compared to a few years ago, with significant concerns raised by multiple recent assessments.

Signs of Strain and Vulnerability

Trust for America's Health's latest annual assessment highlights that the country is facing compounding threats while its readiness infrastructure is under stress. 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. A related analysis of this report notes the United States entered 2026 managing its most severe influenza season in nearly a decade, the highest measles case count since 1991, and sustained avian influenza surveillance — all while the federal public health infrastructure underpinning readiness has weakened.

State-level readiness is also uneven. The report places states and the District of Columbia 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.

A particular concern flagged this year is workforce and funding instability. This year's report includes a special feature examining how federal workforce reductions and funding instability could weaken preparedness nationwide. Reductions in federal health agency staffing, public health grant terminations are cited as destabilizing factors.

Structural/Institutional Gaps

Signs of Continued Capability

It's not purely negative — the system has demonstrated it can still mobilize. An Ebola outbreak response in 2026 showed active, multi-agency engagement: the effort, encompassing the Pentagon, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID, the Department of Homeland Security, state officials, hospitals, foreign governments and aid groups overseas, prompted the United States to deploy military assets, build treatment centers and organize airport screening. Funding for core programs like BARDA, the Strategic National Stockpile, and hospital preparedness also continues, though advocates argue the dollar amounts remain insufficient relative to need.

Bottom Line

Watchdog groups and government auditors broadly agree that readiness has eroded relative to the post-COVID peak, driven by workforce cuts, funding instability, a leaderless White House pandemic office, interagency coordination gaps, and reduced international surveillance cooperation — even as the country simultaneously faces an unusually active period of infectious disease threats (flu, measles, H5N1, Ebola). The consistent recommendation across these reports is to restore stable funding, rebuild the federal workforce, and formally reauthorize PAHPA — suggesting that, as of today, experts do not consider the U.S. fully prepared for a major new pandemic, even though baseline response capabilities (labs, stockpiles, agencies) still exist.