As the federal government focuses on the immediate health effects and economic devastation caused by COVID-19, a crucial question is going unanswered: What can we do to ensure a pandemic never again spreads this widely and inflicts this much damage?

Discovering new medicines is one way. But the economics of quickly finding cures and treatments don’t always follow the normal laws of supply and demand. Over the last decade, investments in vaccines and antibiotics for infectious diseases have lagged behind financing to fight oncological disorders and respiratory diseases — 27% of drugs launched in 2018 were intended to treat cancer or its symptoms, significantly higher than the percentage of new drugs meant to fight infectious diseases.