States across the U.S. are turning to artificial intelligence platforms to track disease outbreaks after the Trump administration withdrew from the World Health Organization and cut thousands of jobs from the CDC. Massachusetts now relies on an AI system called BEACON that scans news reports in local languages for early signs of threats like bird flu and Ebola, while Illinois uses AI-powered BlueDot and reports from Brown University’s Pandemic Center to monitor infectious diseases entering through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.
The big picture: Public health officials are scrambling to create makeshift surveillance networks as traditional federal and international disease monitoring systems collapse, leaving potentially dangerous gaps in outbreak detection.
What you should know: The CDC lost nearly 2,000 jobs this year, with the White House proposing to slash the agency’s budget by more than half in 2026.
- States have lost billions in federal funding for public health programs, forcing them to cobble together their own surveillance systems.
- The U.S. withdrawal from WHO means losing access to disease monitoring data from 194 member countries.
- Some states may be told by elected officials “to be more insular and not work globally,” creating inconsistent protection levels across the country.
How AI surveillance works: BEACON pairs artificial intelligence capabilities with human expert assessment to identify real outbreak risks.
- The system scans news reports in local languages and open-source data worldwide for early disease signals.
- BlueDot uses AI to analyze comments from public officials, livestock health reports, and other sources to spot emerging threats.
- These platforms attempt to fill information gaps, especially from “countries where the U.S. might not have the best relationships,” according to Robert Goldstein, Massachusetts’ health director.
Why this matters: Infectious pathogens don’t respect borders, and surveillance gaps in some states could make “everyday Americans more vulnerable” to disease outbreaks.
- A traveler in Iowa died last year of Lassa fever after coming in contact with 180 people, highlighting how quickly exotic viruses can spread.
- Umair Shaw, Washington State’s former health director, warns that surveillance is “only as strong as its weakest link.”
What experts are saying: Public health specialists describe the current situation as chaotic and insufficient.
- “We’re piecing our own plans together,” says Vidhya Prakash from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. “There’s nothing really standardized or organized at this point—we’re working with the experts that we have. But it all feels very haphazard right now.”
- Nahid Bhadelia from Boston University’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases cautions that local AI systems “cannot replicate the outbreak information from the WHO.”
- “We’ve got 50 very different states, and there’s no one with the jurisdictional authority and ability to bring people together quickly,” warns Sameer Vohra, Illinois’ health director.
The limitations: While AI platforms provide useful capabilities, experts worry they won’t be fast or complete enough to keep Americans safe from emerging disease threats without proper federal coordination and international cooperation.
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