Coronavirus Part V - 34 cases in ROI, 16 in NI (as of 10 March) *Read warnings in OP*

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

The world spends trillions on defense for human against human threats… but peanuts on the defense of humanity as a whole against the infection threat.

Viruses will mutate and jump from other species to humans at fairly regular intervals, as all the lethal pandemics past and present illustrate only too well.

The coronavirus epidemics of SARS (2002) and MERS (2012) were wake up calls, but the opportunities were missed because the outbreaks were brought under control fairly quickly. Work was started on antiviral drugs and vaccines for coronavirus, but they were abandoned because there was no money to be made. If work had continued the chance of effective antivirals and an early vaccine against Covid-19 would be much better now.

Tax giveaways to the ultra-rich and a failure of big companies to pay their fair share in tax has resulted in defunding of many vital services.

The WHO and agencies like the CDC in the states are THE organizations capable of surveillance for impending public health emergencies and coordinating meaningful responses to global health threats. They depend on funding to be able to be able to do their job and it has not been forthcoming recently.

Governments have reduced their contributions to the World health Organization, it's agencies and other public health services.

The money they should have spent dwarfs into insignificance when you estimate the trillions which this pandemic will cost and of course the many lives lost.

I hope lessons will be learned when this is all over.