"If we create...a Swiss cheese-like transmissibility with holes in it—with people going to beach parties, while everybody else is at home with a mask and gloves and huddled in the backroom—those holes will lead to increasing transmissibility.
economist.com/open-future/20…
economist.com/open-future/20…
"I think [America] fumbled, almost unforgivably, in the way they mangled the distribution of test kits; in the way that our leadership...continued to underplay how important it was, as “a hoax,” until finally confronted with the stark reality."
"I think we will have a vaccine that works in less than a couple of months. Then it will be...making sure that it is effective enough and that it is not harmful...[The] estimate of 12 to 18 months before we have a vaccine...is one that I agree with."
"Once we have that vaccine, and we've mass vaccinated as many people as we could, there will still be outbreaks...We will need to have the equivalent of the polio-eradication program or the smallpox-eradication program."
"In the medium-term [we need] an antiviral to treat people...I'm confident we will find an antiviral."
"throughout history pandemics, like rivers, recreate the boundaries of countries....You give...a dictator the power that is needed to conquer a pandemic, the question remains: What will they do with that power once it is not needed for the pandemic?"
Read more of this interview with the aptly-named Larry Brilliant here:
economist.com/open-future/20…
economist.com/open-future/20…
