Improving pandemic preparedness: lessons from COVID-19

This CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report seeks to do just that, framing pandemic disease as a stark threat to global and national security that neither the United States nor the world can afford to ignore again. It argues that future pandemic threats are inevitable and possibly imminent; policymakers should prepare for them and identify what has gone wrong in the U.S. and multilateral response. 

The Task Force presents its findings grouped into three sections:

1. the inevitability of pandemics and the logic of preparedness
2. An assessment of the global response to COVID-19, including the performance of the World Health Organization (WHO), multilateral forums, and the main international legal agreement governing pandemic disease
3. The performance of the United States, while also drawing lessons from other countries, including several whose outcomes contrast favorably with the U.S. experience.