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

Is the US Prepared for Another Pandemic?

Based on current assessments from public health experts, government watchdogs, and recent reports, the consensus among most health experts is no—the US is widely considered less prepared than it was before COVID-19, due to a combination of structural, funding, and workforce issues.

Signs of Weakened Preparedness

Workforce and funding cuts at the CDC: Since January 2025, 15% of the CDC's workforce, or 3,000 workers, have departed. More recent reporting found the situation has worsened further: some 80% of senior leadership positions at the CDC still have no permanent officials appointed, and between 25 and 30% of the CDC's entire staff are gone.

Direct warnings from former CDC leadership: Former top officials have been blunt about this. Dan Jernigan, former director of the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, stated: "Are we ready for the next big pandemic? My answer is no." Debra Houry, former chief medical officer of the CDC, added that "we're really moving in the wrong direction."

Massive funding clawbacks: This year's termination of already approved funds clawed back over $12 billion in COVID-19 era grants, funding that in addition to supporting the pandemic response was intended to strengthen public health infrastructure beyond the needs of COVID-19. Separately, HHS has already slashed more than $12 billion in federal grants to states, including $11.4 billion distributed by the CDC, and also cut COVID-19 funding intended for surveillance and vaccines for children and uninsured adults.

Proposed future cuts: 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, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

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

Withdrawal from international cooperation: The US has stepped back from global health partnerships. In 2025, the administration dismantled USAID, the federal humanitarian agency that played a role in global outbreak prevention and response, 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." This matters because the WHO acts as a key "first responder," identifying and containing infectious-disease outbreaks before they spread.

mRNA research cuts: A notable recent decision drew sharp criticism—in August 2025, HHS announced a cut of $500 million in mRNA research, which will impact 22 projects being led by big pharmaceutical companies. Infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm called it "the most dangerous public health decision I've ever seen made by a government body."

State-Level Variation

A recent comprehensive assessment found uneven readiness across the country. The 2026 "Ready or Not" report placed 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. The report warned that federal workforce reductions and funding instability could weaken preparedness nationwide, citing reductions in federal health agency staffing and public health grant terminations as key concerns. Context for this concern includes a difficult 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 to help states prepare came under significant strain.

A Note of Reassurance

Not everything is bleak—some existing infrastructure remains intact. As one analysis noted regarding recent outbreaks of Hantavirus and Ebola, fortunately, the US has infrastructure in place that predates the current administration, and despite cuts to biopreparedness budgets and personnel, there are existing protocols and specialized centers with trained medical personnel able to help Americans during current outbreak situations.

Bottom Line

The weight of expert opinion—including from former CDC officials, academic researchers, and nonpartisan watchdog organizations—suggests the US has moved backward in pandemic readiness since 2020, driven primarily by funding cuts, workforce attrition, leadership vacancies, and withdrawal from international health cooperation. While baseline infrastructure from the pre-2025 era still exists, multiple experts warn that the trajectory is concerning given ongoing threats like H5N1 avian flu and other emerging pathogens.