Viral Outbreaks Show Urgent Need to Rebuild Disease Monitoring, Pandemic Preparedness

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recent outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola, though unlikely to cause a pandemic, highlight the urgent need to repair the Trump administration’s destruction of our pandemic prevention, preparedness and response capabilities, members of Defend Public Health said today.
 

“On virtually every front, this administration has crippled our abilities to track emerging disease outbreaks and respond quickly so that they don’t get out of hand. Even the ability of U.S. scientists to study pandemic pathogens and make vaccines has been severely damaged,” said virologist James Alwine, a University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus and member of Defend Public Health’s Coordinating Committee. “While these latest outbreaks likely don’t pose a risk to most Americans, we may not be so lucky next time, and there will be a next time.”
 

Alwine noted that in his first administration, President Trump defunded the pandemic early warning system that tracked emerging diseases, which trained staff in 60 foreign laboratories to detect pandemic viruses. Its loss creates a dangerous void in national and global health security. “It’s shocking and dangerous that right now the U.S. is not monitoring pandemic viruses or the rising cases of vaccine-preventable diseases and H5N1 influenza infections, also known as bird flu,” he said.
 

DPH included a section on pandemic preparedness in its People’s Health Platform, released in April, because the current administration has decimated the CDC’s ability to monitor infectious diseases and respond quickly – including surging resources and supplies – to ensure that small, local outbreaks don’t get out of control. In January 2025 the administration withdrew from the World Health Organization and slashed U.S. funding for the WHO.
 

“This deprives the U.S. of emerging pathogen monitoring, as well as coordinated information and responses to international health emergencies,” Alwine said. “The slashing of WHO funding as well as the closing of USAID and PEPFAR has seriously weakened global efforts to control emerging disease threats, such as Ebola, HIV and many more. The administration’s transactional ‘America First’ bilateral agreements for health assistance ignore the fundamental truth that infectious diseases don’t respect borders or passports.These actions will come back to bite the U.S. in the ass.
 

“While we can’t know when the next pandemic will come, there is no serious doubt that it will come, and if we’re not ready, millions of people could die needlessly. If the administration won’t fix the damage on its own, Congress needs to assert its authority and rebuild the global health security infrastructure that can protect the lives of Americans and others around the globe.”

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Defend Public Health is a volunteer-driven network of public health researchers, healthcare workers, advocates and allies fighting to protect the health of all from the Trump administration's cruel attacks on proven, science-based public health policies. We believe that everyone has the right to what they need for a healthy life, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.
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