I recognize that $22,200,000,000 a year to prevent a pandemic sounds astronomical, but honestly we should have been proactive and been doing this way before the #SARSCoV2 pandemic. We have had numerous warning signs over the years this was coming and did not take them. (1/9)
We have seen re/emerging infections increase over the past 40 years. We have had SARS, MERS, Zika, and numerous Ebola outbreaks as warnings this was coming. Yes we did invest after the 2014 W Africa outbreak but it was not on the scale needed to prevent, prepare, for this (2/9)
Look at the world right now, in addition to the #COVIDー19 pandemic we have ongoing outbreaks of Ebola, measles, cholera, plague, monkeypox, drug resistant typhoid along with others being battled which could become a regional epidemic or evolve into a pandemic as well. (3/9)
In fact, I fear that with MMR and DTap #vaccinations at record lows and campaigns taking a back seat we could very well see a resurgence of measles and a secondary pandemic. We need to stay vigilant about these threats and maintain systems to detect and combat them. (4/9)
As we have seen with #COVID19, infections do not have boundaries or borders and can spread quickly. We have a world that is increasingly interconnected and with changes in how we interact with others, the environment and animals we must invest in preparedness (5/9)
My greatest hope is that the partisan politics that has hindered our response will fall to the wayside and clearer minds will prevail to recognize we nned to fund CDC, NIH, HRSA, USAID, Fogarty and most importantly rejoin and find WHO to maintain preparedness. (6/9)
We must also develop and create a committee with legitimate subject matter experts to look at our response to #COVID19 and see where our shortcomings have been and develop recommendations to fix them. This must be available to the public. (7/9)
Finally just like we developed the Department of Homeland security after 9/11 we need a Department of Global Health Security and Biosecurity with the head of this organization being a cabinet level position. (8/9)
We need to have individuals running this organization who have real, practical subject matter expertise, who have been working in this area for years. These people understand high level biothreats, the comprehensive impact they have, and how to keep our country safe. (9/9)
