CDC warns of U.S. economic risks affiliated with disease outbreaks overseas

Whether an infectious disease ever reaches U.S. shores or not, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now warning of the damage they could still do to U.S. interests–notably, its export economy.

In articles published in Health Security, the agency noted that there are 49 nations it deems health security priority countries, to which the U.S. exports more than $300 billion in material goods and services. Those, in turn, lead to 1.6 million jobs in the United States., meaning that if an outbreak occurred in one of them, the ripple effect could devastate the U.S. market.

They also laid out a specific example of these effects, looking to Southeast Asia for their test scenario. Were an epidemic to strike nine Asian countries, regardless of that disease crossing over the United States itself, damages to the United States would reach over $40 billion in export revenues and jeopardize more than 1 million jobs. Given that Southeast Asia has a notably higher risk for emerging infectious diseases, it’s a real threat–and one which would impact the largest number of U.S. export-related jobs.

“The results of this hypothetical scenario show that the U.S. economy is better protected when public health threats are quickly identified and contained,” Dr. Rebecca Martin, director of CDC’s Center for Global Health, said.

All of this was used to support a recent budget request from the White House, which called for $59 million to support the Global Health Security Agenda in 2019.