The World Is Not Ready for the Next Pandemic On a hyperconnected planet rife with hyper infectious diseases, experts warn we aren't ready to keep America--and the world--safe from the next pandemic 1/4 - ThreadSky

marcveld.bsky.social • 63 days ago

The World Is Not Ready for the Next Pandemic

On a hyperconnected planet rife with hyper infectious diseases, experts warn we aren't ready to keep America--and the world--safe from the next pandemic
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Comments

mkeulemans.bsky.social•63 days ago

📌

embracingcuriosity.bsky.social•63 days ago

Could’ve used this very cover for their choice of “Person of the Year”.

garygoodenough.bsky.social•63 days ago

We are not even ready for the current ongoing pandemic.

marcveld.bsky.social•63 days ago

The genetic sequence of a pathogen is a virtually fail-safe fingerprint, which is why tests can be so effective in diagnosing a mystery illness. Genetic sequencing is especially valuable when an unknown pathogen starts killing people.
2/4

marcveld.bsky.social•63 days ago

Nearly all the new infectious diseases that scientists know about originate in animals, and so will the emerging diseases of tomorrow. HIV began in chimpanzees, SARS in Chinese horseshoe bats, and influenza in aquatic birds. At some point, the animal pathogens jump the species barrier to humans

3/4

marcveld.bsky.social•63 days ago

Yes, May 2017. We seem to be further removed from this now. Interesting to read this back.

https://time.com/magazine/us/4766607/may-15th-2017-vol-189-no-18-u-s/
4/4

akshatsharma.bsky.social•63 days ago

I live in terror of a Candida auris (or similar) pandemic. The current state of antifungals or fungal vaccines isn't nearly advanced enough to deal with something like that quickly.

looftsabine.bsky.social•63 days ago

... “when I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a nuclear war.” But today, he said, “if anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus, rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes.”
I feel the same way too.

amc1.bsky.social•63 days ago

@marcveld.bsky.social should we be concerned about the Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV) infection?

marcveld.bsky.social•63 days ago

Not concerned, but, like many pathogens, we need to monitor and study it. It is a more recently discovered virus, most infections are mild (with symptoms similar to many respiratory viruses), and the same groups will be more susceptible to disease. Most will have built up immunity from childhood.

mariekeepfaithjb.bsky.social•63 days ago

My mom was diagnosed with this last year.

imnotjack.bsky.social•63 days ago

It's a good thing the NIH will be run by an anti-science conspiracy theory anti-vaxx nut job for the next 4 years. What could go wrong? Nice thread by the way

vickiels.bsky.social•63 days ago

We are mammals after all.

joachim123.bsky.social•63 days ago

Have they forgotten that they featured Trump as the man of the year just a few weeks ago? He promises policies that make us unready for the next pandemic.

notjustdna.bsky.social•63 days ago

Yes - it’s an old edition, but you’ve got to say the USA won’t be well placed with the lot they’ve voted in, and who they’re putting in place 😞

veganspacemanspiff.bsky.social•63 days ago

Well, since we are completely unable to learn anything from past experiences, we are doomed to repeat history.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2020/sep/15/covid-farm-animals-and-pandemics-diseases-that-changed-the-world

rsthomas42.bsky.social•63 days ago

The biggest thing I learned from the Covid craziness is when one of these bugs DOES turn out to be the Black Plague 2.0, this country is going down like a sack of lead. Our chances of extinction by disease has increased exponentially.

dankellybluesky.bsky.social•62 days ago

By the way, while it may not have been SO deadly to all of us, in the USA it's 1.2 (more like 1.5 due to undercounting) MILLION deaths. That's actually about the same amount of deaths from our Top 10 deadliest wars in American history. Civil War, Vietnam, Revolutionary...all of them added up!

dankellybluesky.bsky.social•62 days ago

You're not wrong