1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Restore U.S. investment in global pandemic preparedness now. Dismantling USAID and withdrawing from the WHO doesn't make America safer — it blinds us to the outbreaks that will inevitably reach our shores. Scientists estimate a 28% chance of a COVID-19-scale pandemic within the next decade. We are not ready. COVID-19 killed more than 7 million people and left hundreds of millions with long COVID. Those weren't abstract numbers — they were preventable deaths that came partly from gaps in early detection and global coordination. The WHO's Pandemic Fund is currently supporting disease surveillance in 98 countries. Cutting our participation in that network doesn't save money; it shifts the cost onto American lives later. The Center for Global Development called these funding cuts "devastating," and they're right. The lesson of COVID-19 is that pandemics are national security threats. Treat them like one. That means reversing cuts to global health programming, re-engaging with international preparedness infrastructure, and funding the community-level outreach that reaches people before misinformation does. The next pandemic won't wait for us to rebuild what we've torn down.