The past year has offered a clear reminder that global health security is tightly bound to economic security. Geopolitical tensions have escalated, multilateral institutions are under strain and supply chains – though more robust than in 2020 – remain exposed. Public finances are stretched heading into an election-heavy 2026, meaning governments and businesses have less capacity to absorb shocks.
Against this backdrop, pandemic readiness can no longer sit solely within the public-health domain. It is now a core financial-resilience test. COVID-19 showed how quickly a health emergency becomes a fiscal event: disrupting supply chains; reshaping capital allocation and exposing governance weaknesses. If a serious outbreak emerged today, it would meet a more fragmented global system than the one that responded in 2020. That should concern boards and finance leaders preparing their multiyear risk strategies.
A more unstable global system raises both the risk and the cost of inaction
At a recent conference I described the US withdrawal from elements of the WHO’s pandemic infrastructure as “monumental”. For decades, US influence helped ensure that vaccines and medicines reached the most vulnerable regions quickly. Its retreat – alongside rising political pressures in other major donor nations – has left gaps in global emergency response. When lower-income countries cannot access vaccines or treatments rapidly, pathogens circulate and mutate for longer, prolonging global economic uncertainty.
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