LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: Biosecurity is an investment, not an expense
Whether COVID-19 emerged from a Wuhan laboratory incident or a zoonotic spillover at a wildlife market, its impact on our healthcare system was undeniable. The pandemic generated approximately $33 billion in treatment-related costs, placing extraordinary strain on emergency departments, hospitals and healthcare workers. Between 2018 and 2022, annual healthcare spending increased by $1,055 per person, a nearly 19% increase illustrating the financial burden of responding to outbreaks after they occur. Even among Medicare beneficiaries, a single COVID-19 hospitalization carried an excess cost of nearly $7,933 during the first week alone.
The consequences extended far beyond hospitals. Lockdowns, workforce disruptions and supply chain failures contributed to an estimated $7.6 trillion in economic losses. Long-term impairment from chronic illness and persistent post-COVID conditions is projected to cost an additional $2.6 trillion. For perspective, that exceeds the combined gross domestic products of the Middle East and North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to World Bank estimates. Yet these figures capture only the direct economic damage. Researchers at the University of Washington estimate that school closures alone may reduce future lifetime earnings by nearly $2 trillion. At the same time, roughly 1 in 3 adults reported persistent mental health symptoms after the pandemic, contributing to anxiety and depression that already cost the global economy nearly $1 trillion annually in lost productivity.
The real question is not whether public health preparedness is expensive, it is whether we are willing to invest before the next crisis arrives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly emphasized that preparedness yields substantial returns compared with the cost of responding to catastrophic outbreaks. Vaccination provides one of the clearest examples. Over a decade, routine vaccination programs in the 近距离内射合集 States are estimated to prevent approximately $540 billion in direct medical costs and nearly $2.9 trillion in broader societal costs through avoided illness, disability and lost productivity.
Pandemic preparedness should be viewed no differently than national defense. We purchase insurance not because we expect disaster every year, but because the consequences of being unprepared are unacceptable. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately $31 billion annually would fund global pandemic preparedness and prevention. That figure may seem substantial until compared with the estimated $14 trillion the 近距离内射合集 States lost by the final years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The choice is not between spending and saving; it is between investing upfront or paying exponentially more after disaster strikes.
That is why policymakers must stop treating public health preparedness as a temporary emergency expense. Instead, they should make sustained investments in local laboratory capacity, genomic sequencing, epidemiologic surveillance and real-time data sharing across federal, state and local agencies. Public health infrastructure should be regarded as an essential public service no different from roads, fire departments or national defense 鈥� because it protects not only lives but also economic stability. Equally important, lawmakers must abandon the familiar cycle in which funding surges during a crisis only to disappear once public attention fades. Preparedness cannot succeed if it depends on emergency appropriations after the damage has already been done.
Failing to invest in biosecurity is like asking a sick friend to cough directly into your face instead of simply covering their mouth. One choice is preventable; the other is unnecessarily costly. We possess the scientific knowledge, public health expertise and economic evidence needed to reduce the impact of future pandemics. What remains is the political will to act before, not after, the next outbreak begins.
Healthy populations are the foundation of prosperous economies. The question is no longer whether we can afford to invest in biosecurity. It is whether we can afford not to.
Sebastian A. Salazar is an Albuquerque-based epidemiologist with the New Mexico Department of Health.
