Good morning Lucy,
Sally and Taylor shared the above TED Talk, 'The next outbreak? We’re not ready | Bill Gates' (~9 minutes). Gates certainly tried to tell us this current situation was coming. This was released back in 2015!
Some key points:
- Today, the greatest risk of global catastrophe is not nuclear war, but rather an influenza virus.
- If anything kills over 10 million people in the next decade, it is most likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war.
- Part of the reason for this is we have invested a huge amount to deter nuclear war, but very little to stop an epidemic.
- We are not ready for the next epidemic.
- A look at Ebola, and how close we came to something similar to what we have today. Three reasons why Ebola did not spread more.
- Our global failure of not being prepared for what is happening today.
- Explains how we could / can build a really good response system using today's advances in science and technology.
- Key pieces of a successful response: (1) Strong health systems in poor countries; (2) Create a Medical Reserve Corp; (3) Pair Medical Reserve with the Military (Pop would love this!); (4) Simulations - Germ games, not war games (Autodesk can help here); and (5) Step up Research and Development in areas of vaccines and diagnostics (Autodesk again see Computational Medicine).
I hope you can find a few minutes to check out the video. In closing, I'm offering a couple of wallet-worthy quotes:
These are challenging times LuLu, but let's do our best to Make it a Great Monday."Don't let the force of an impression when it first hits you knock you off your feet. Just say to it: Hold on a minute; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test!" - Epicitus
"In the meantime, cling tooth and nail to the following rule: not to give in to adversity, not to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases." - Seneca
Much love,
Dad
