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

Based on current assessments, the picture is mixed and concerning to many public health experts. This is a matter of ongoing debate with significant evidence pointing to eroding capacity, though some structural strengths remain.

Signs of Weakening Preparedness

Federal workforce and funding cuts: In 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a major restructuring that would shrink the Health and Human Services workforce from more than 82,000 to 62,000 employees, with the CDC, where cuts are steepest, losing 2,400 positions. This has continued into the 2025 government shutdown, during which a total of 982 employees were purposefully cut from HHS, which includes agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, in addition to CDC.

Former and current officials have voiced alarm. One former CDC official who chairs the agency's Advisory Committee stated: "This seems like the worst time to be taking steps to degrade our nation's preparedness... They are greatly diminishing CDC and the country's ability to respond to emerging infectious threats." A 2026 survey found that in a survey of more than 600 CDC workers, 99% said the Trump administration's cuts to the agency have made it less able to protect the public's health.

Compounding threats in 2025: The strain came at a difficult time — 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. By 2026, the U.S. was also facing the most severe flu season in nearly a decade, the highest annual measles case count since 1991.

Leadership gaps: The White House's own pandemic office has been hollowed out — in 2025, Gerald Parker resigned as head of the office, leaving the office with no employees.

State-level variation: According to TFAH's Ready or Not 2026 report, which 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, states show significant 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. The report warns that amid deep federal staffing cuts, grant terminations, and other far-reaching changes to the federal public health system, there is wide variation in states' readiness.

Areas of Relative Strength

Despite these concerns, some structural elements remain intact:

Legislative Uncertainty

A key law governing preparedness funding and authority — the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) — remains unresolved: the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act is overdue for reauthorization, continuing conversations around regional coordination, stockpiling strategy, and preparedness infrastructure.

Bottom Line

Public health experts, former officials, and watchdog organizations are expressing significant concern that recent workforce reductions, funding instability, and leadership vacancies at federal agencies have weakened the infrastructure built over decades, even as certain structural capacities (accreditation, licensure compacts, stockpile funding) persist. The consensus among these sources leans toward the view that the U.S. is currently less prepared than it was a few years ago, even though it's not starting from zero. This remains a politically contested area — HHS officials have defended the cuts as eliminating "bloated bureaucracy," while many public health experts and former officials warn of eroding emergency response capacity.