I'm William Brangham and this is Horizons.

The COVID pandemic overwhelmed our healthcare system

and killed well over a million Americans.

Fast-tracked vaccines saved millions of lives,

but missteps in our response and misinformation online

has damaged trust.

What is the state of America's public health system today?

And six years on, is the U.S. prepared to handle another pandemic?

Coming up next.

Welcome to Horons from PBS News.

When it comes to the arrival of another pandemic, it's really a question of when, not if.

According to almost all public health experts and epidemiologists, we will see another global contagion emerge that then sweeps across the world.

Six years ago, COVID-19 exploded out of China and rapidly spread to every continent on Earth,

even Antarctica. This brand new virus brought the world to a standstill and caused untold economic

damage. At least 7 million people died. That's the WHO's official count, but it's considered by many

to be a gross underestimate of the real number of people who died. Well over 1 million Americans

lost their lives to this virus.

We want to look at both the legacy of that pandemic, but also more importantly to look at

whether we are prepared for the next one. Joining us for that are two people who spend a lot of

time focusing on that potential future. Josh Strafstein is with the Johns Hopkins

Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he's a distinguished professor of the practice.

Previously, he was the health commissioner for the city of Baltimore, later the state of Maryland,

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