Pandemics like the great influenza of 1918-1919 and Covid-19 are often viewed and treated as health care challenges. That view, however, is far too narrow. They should be viewed and combated as threats to national security, too.
Why treat pandemics as national security threats? Because that’s what they are. Framing the danger this way would inform and motivate reforms that strengthen our pandemic defenses and reduce the devastation pandemics inflict.
Though definitions of national security can vary, the U.S. Congressional Research Service notes that it may encompass protecting a diverse range of critical national interests, ranging from counterterrorism to economic welfare to supply chain security to global public health. By this standard, Covid was an unparalleled national security disaster. In the 250 years since America’s founding, all the nation’s wars combined claimed just over 1.3 million lives. From 2020 to 2026, Covid-19 took over 1.2 million. The disease savaged the American economy, set back the education of a generation of American children, inflamed political divisions, and undermined confidence in vital public health protections, including vaccination. The events of Sept. 11, tragic as they were, pale in comparison. And all this happened despite the near miracle of effective Covid vaccines developed in 11 months.
