What We Can Actually Do

The good news: pandemic preparedness has never been more advanced. mRNA vaccine technology proved during COVID that vaccines can be developed in months, not years. Global surveillance networks detect outbreaks faster than ever before.

The bad news: political will fades fast. After every pandemic, funding for preparedness gets cut within a few years. One study estimated COVID-19 would cost the United States around $16 trillion in economic and health losses. Pre-pandemic preparedness budgets were a tiny fraction of that.