BLOG POST

Global Health Security Is a Strategic Investment in America’s Safety, Strength, and Prosperity

In grocery stores across the US, shoppers buying eggs face soaring prices—or empty shelves—amid an outbreak of bird flu, caused by the H5N1 virus. Beyond America’s borders, Uganda just confirmed a case of Ebola in its capital Kampala; neighboring Tanzania is facing a Marburg virus outbreak; and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to confront an mpox emergency amid an escalating humanitarian situation.  

Preventing, monitoring, and stopping the spread of outbreaks and other biological threats before they reach the United States is central to the work of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the State Department, and USAID, alongside global organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO). Because infectious diseases do not respect borders, sharing data and communicating critical information in real-time is vital.  

Recent actions by the Trump administration 

With a series of executive orders, the Trump administration is thwarting collaboration and communication that is critical to combating global disease threats.  

Still nursing deep frustrations over the organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House has initiated US withdrawal from the WHO. While the formal withdrawal process will take a year, recent reports indicate CDC officials have already been barred from engaging with the WHO—despite its central coordinating role and access to global data.  

Early last week, acting leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services directed an immediate pause on all public communications, impacting the flow of timely scientific data. While a new administration has purview to make decisions about the policies and messaging of federal agencies, the scope of the directive triggered concerns among the medical community and public health field, since providing timely information to the public in the event of an outbreak or urgent health threat is essential. (The directive issued to staff outlines a path for limited exemptions, including documents or communications that “affect critical health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security functions of the Department”—but did not quell the uncertainty.) 

Meanwhile the State Department’s “stop-work” order on foreign aid programs halts ongoing efforts to mitigate and prepare for emerging global health challenges—even if a new waiver would appear to exempt US support for direct outbreak response work in countries like the DRC and Tanzania. Lastly, the president’s decision to eliminate the Directorate of Global Health Security and Biodefense and its Senior Director from the National Security Council raises questions about who will play a critically needed interagency coordination role on global health security matters. 

Taken together, these actions could limit or delay US public health officials access to critical data on outbreaks of mpox, Marburg, and Ebola, making it harder to assess the risks they pose to Americans. These moves also limit information exchange about bird flu between the US and the rest of the world as concerns about the potential global risks are mounting.

Investments in global health security are in the US national interest   

In recent years, the US has spent roughly $1.5 billion annually on global health security—encompassing funding and technical support for countries to prepare for and prevent epidemics and pandemics. This amount is a modest share of the $60 billion foreign aid budget (which itself makes up less than 1 percent of the federal budget)— but it has outsized benefits on the lives of Americans and people around the world.  

The economic toll of health emergencies is staggering. Research estimates that global losses from pandemics could be in the range of $700 billion, on average, each year going forward. While the benefits of global cooperation on health security may not always be “visible” until a disease starts to spread within our communities, they represent good value for US taxpayer money. Proactive investments can deliver benefit, especially when considering there is a roughly 47-57 percent chance of another large-scale pandemic occurring in the next 25 years. 

In fact, such investments also directly advance Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s stated policy goal to ensure that “every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue” helps to make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous.  

Consider these examples:

  1. Investments in surveillance systems abroad to detect outbreaks help contain them at their source, making America safer.

  2. US leadership on detecting and defeating outbreaks strengths credibility, bolsters strategic alliances, and advances influence in international negotiations, making America stronger. 

  3. Support to strengthen outbreak monitoring and rapid response mechanisms to prevent pandemics helps avoid deep economic losses and disruptions to global supply chains, making America more prosperous.  

Given the immense value of investing in preparedness and prevention, global health security should not be relegated to just a “foreign aid” issue. Bilateral and multilateral funding for global programs that deliver results by preventing future pandemics should be treated as a strategic investment. That’s why past support for global health security has received bipartisan support. 

Emerging disease threats do not abide by delays in data releases, lapses in communication, and pauses on surveillance programs. Efforts that undermine work to detect and contain disease outbreaks, and global health cooperation more broadly, could not only roll back years of progress, but also put lives, the economy, and national security at risk.  

 

Thanks to Erin Collinson, Charles Kenny, and Javier Guzman for feedback. 

Disclaimer

CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.


Image credit for social media/web: Juliana de Fatima da Silva/CDC, via Flickr