Is the World Ready? Pandemic Preparedness in an Era of Rising Threats and Shrinking Aid
Written by: Lily S. Beshawred, Founder and Managing Director, and Dr. Shelemo Shawula Kachara, Senior Public Health Specialist
When the COVID pandemic hit the world like a storm, no one was prepared. It did not matter if it was a developed nation or a developing nation — the shock was felt across the globe. Global and national structures and systems were tested. The ability of institutions and organizations to conduct surveillance, detect outbreaks, and mount an effective response was overwhelmed by the sheer speed of the pandemic. The delivery of protective gear, vaccines, medications, and oxygen became an enormous logistical and humanitarian challenge. The impact was unprecedented and catastrophic. More than seven million lives were lost worldwide (Worldometer, 2024) — though experts estimate the true death toll, accounting for excess mortality, may be significantly higher (WHO, 2021). Systems were shattered, and nations and communities were profoundly affected and many continue to experience the long-term consequences of the pandemic.
And yet, the world did survive. The COVID pandemic presented a hard-earned opportunity to learn — to refocus global priorities on pandemic preparedness and build the systems and structures needed to respond when the next outbreak strikes. The question is: have we? According to WHO’s own 2026 assessment, the answer is both yes and no — progress has been made, but it remains fragile and uneven (WHO, 2026).
The Threat is Not Hypothetical — It is Here, Right Now
As of May 2026, the world is already being tested again — twice over.
In the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization on May 17, 2026. As of May 24, 2026, more than 900 suspected cases and over 220 suspected deaths have been reported, with confirmed cases spreading beyond Ituri Province into North Kivu and neighboring Uganda (CNN, May 24, 2026; NPR, May 24, 2026). The outbreak was spreading for weeks — possibly months — before health authorities detected it, a sobering reminder of how dangerous detection gaps can be (NPR, May 24, 2026). Critically, there are currently no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, making rapid containment and local health capacity the only lines of defense (UN News, May 2026).
Simultaneously, on May 2, 2026, a cluster of severe respiratory illness was reported aboard the M/V Hondius, a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean (CDC, May 2026). The cause was identified as the Andes virus — a form of hantavirus — the only hantavirus known to spread from person to person (Johns Hopkins Medicine, May 2026). As of May 24, 12 cases have been confirmed across multiple countries, including three deaths — a case fatality rate of approximately 38% among those who develop severe respiratory symptoms (ECDC, May 24, 2026; WHO, May 2026). Passengers from 23 countries were on board, illustrating in real time that viruses do not respect borders, passports, or geography (ECDC, May 2026).
We have learned from COVID that pandemics and viruses have no geographic boundaries. We are watching that lesson play out again, right now, in two separate outbreaks unfolding simultaneously.
The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever — and Our Capacity Is Weaker
The economic and social impact of COVID will take decades to reverse. We have witnessed devastating learning loss in children, the collapse of key global health indicators built over years of investment, the near destruction of health care infrastructure in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, and economic and livelihood disruptions. These are not abstract statistics. They represent millions of lives set back, communities destabilized, and development gains erased.
What makes the current moment even more alarming is that our global response capacity has been significantly weakened at precisely the wrong time. The dismantling of USAID, the world’s largest bilateral development and humanitarian agency, will undoubtedly impact the global response to outbreaks like Ebola and the Andes virus. Other developed nations have also reduced their funding levels following the USAID shut down. The absence of USAID is challenging because it has historically been the first responder in global health emergencies, funding surveillance systems, deploying health professionals, and supporting local organizations on the ground in affected communities. USAID also played a critical role in coordinating with other donors and multilateral organizations at the global and regional levels, and in the countries affected. Its absence will be felt immediately and acutely. Our ability to conduct timely surveillance, detect outbreaks early, and deliver assistance including medicines, protective gear, and other critical materials will be compromised at a moment when the world can least afford it.
What Must Be Done
The urgency of this moment demands a clear and coordinated response.
First, given the absence of USAID, there must be a coordinated response plan among major donors and multilateral institutions to fill the gap and ensure no critical surveillance or response function goes unfunded. The cost of early investment in preparedness is a fraction of the cost of responding to a full-scale outbreak (according to WHO, early preparedness costs only US$5 per person annually, whereas COVID-19 alone generated more than US$11 trillion in response costs and an estimated US$10 trillion in future lost earnings.)
Second, regional organizations including the Africa CDC, the WHO, and other continental and global bodies must step up their coordination to guarantee effective and timely response, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected settings where outbreaks, as we are seeing in eastern DRC, go undetected longest and spread furthest.
Third, national governments must strengthen their surveillance systems across major transport corridors, border crossings, and population centers to limit transmission before it becomes uncontrollable. The DRC outbreak’s spread through mining communities, cross-border travel, and population displacement is a textbook case of how quickly a local outbreak can become a regional crisis.
Fourth, national governments and global organizations must invest urgently in public health communications using every available form of media to deliver timely, accurate health bulletins and awareness messages directly to communities. Fear and misinformation, as we saw with COVID and are already seeing in DRC where an Ebola treatment center was burned by protesters, can be as deadly as the virus itself.
The Heart of the Matter: Local Capacity
All of these responses — surveillance, coordination, communication, and logistics — ultimately depend on one thing: the capacity of people and organizations working closest to the affected communities.
While organizations like USAID are critical to the global, regional, and national level response efforts, it is ultimately a country’s own local health system capacity — its health workers, its local organizations, and its community systems — that will determine whether assistance reaches those who need it most. Global responses fail when they cannot reach the last mile. They succeed when local organizations are strong, trusted, and ready.
It is also why DaRe2 exists. We believe that building the organizational capacity of national, regional, and local organizations is not a long-term development luxury — it is an immediate and unavoidable imperative. The ability to respond to a pandemic, to detect an outbreak through a strong surveillance system, to deliver care, and to communicate with communities is built before the crisis hits — through investment in strategy, monitoring and evaluation systems, effective communication, and institutional strengthening at every level.
The world is being tested again. The question is not whether the next pandemic will come. It is whether we will be ready when it does.
Sources & References
1. Worldometer (2024). COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic — Global Death Toll. Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/
2. World Health Organization (2021). The True Death Toll of COVID-19: Estimating Global Excess Mortality. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/data/stories/the-true-death-toll-of-covid-19-estimating-global-excess-mortality
3. World Health Organization (May 17, 2026). Epidemic of Ebola Disease caused by Bundibugyo virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda determined a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/news/item/17-05-2026-epidemic-of-ebola-disease-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-and-uganda-determined-a-public-health-emergency-of-international-concern
4. CNN (May 24, 2026). Inside the Epicenter of the Ebola Outbreak in DRC as the Virus Spreads. Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/24/africa/ebola-outbreak-view-from-drc-congo-intl
5. NPR (May 24, 2026). DR Congo Ebola Cases Rise Amid Distrust, Armed Conflict Zone. Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/24/nx-s1-5833095/drc-ebola-africa
6. UN News (May 2026). DRC Ebola Outbreak: Hundreds of Suspected Cases, No Vaccine. Retrieved from: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167542
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — CDC (May 2026). Andes Virus Outbreak on a Cruise Ship: Current Situation. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/situation-summary/index.html
8. Johns Hopkins Medicine (May 2026). Hantavirus Outbreak 2026: Current Situation. Retrieved from: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/expert-qa/hantavirus
9. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control — ECDC (May 24, 2026). Andes Hantavirus Outbreak in Cruise Ship. Retrieved from: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/infectious-disease-topics/hantavirus-infection/surveillance-and-updates/andes-hantavirus-outbreak
10. World Health Organization (May 8, 2026). Hantavirus Cluster Linked to Cruise Ship Travel, Multi-country — Disease Outbreak News. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2026-DON600
11. World Health Organization (February 2, 2026). Six Years After COVID-19's Global Alarm: Is the World Better Prepared for the Next Pandemic? Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/news/item/02-02-2026-six-years-after-covid-19-s-global-alarm-is-the-world-better-prepared-for-the-next-pandemic
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