Sidebar
When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, many nations—including highly resourced ones—found themselves unprepared to deal with the rapidly unfolding public health crisis. Underlying vulnerabilities that had long predated the pandemic—such as health inequalities and flawed communication between public health and healthcare delivery systems—were brought to the fore. Many response plans that had looked good on paper now failed to deliver in practice. The upshot: public health systems were not as resilient to acute threats as had been assumed. Indeed, criticism surrounding the initial response by some national public health authorities to monkeypox1 —which the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on July 23, 2022, suggests there is more work to be done.
Many governments are investing in strengthening their pandemic preparedness. But how will they know if those investments will prove effective when the next crisis strikes? To help leaders gauge and track their state of readiness, identify opportunities for improvement, and ensure adequate funding continues to flow toward these efforts, McKinsey designed a Pandemic Preparedness Survey. In addition, this article outlines four action areas to help leaders contextualize survey findings, as well as broader lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure that public health systems are ready for whatever crises the future brings.
Elements of preparedness
As COVID-19 demonstrated, pandemics touch all of society. Therefore, mounting an effective response calls for specialized capabilities and enablers within and beyond public health systems. Participants in the Geneva Preparedness Forum 2022: Measuring Pandemic Preparedness, held on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in May 2022, noted the importance of a holistic response involving every part of government to counter pandemics.
McKinsey’s Pandemic Preparedness Survey encompasses five capabilities for managing infectious outbreaks: epidemic prevention; threat identification and surveillance; emergency preparedness and response operations; emergency manufacturing, procurement, and supply chain management; and access to innovation. These capabilities are underpinned by a set of enablers that are designed to deliver across many areas of government, but that have aspects specific to pandemic preparedness: technology and data, public communications, finance, talent, organizational design, and partnerships (exhibit). Finally, successful pandemic preparedness is more likely to occur in a high-functioning wider health system and emergency management landscape.
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