More Than a Month!
We’ve been hunkered down for a month. A month!
No matter what our president might be saying, a look at the
trending statistics along with the realization that there is no antidote for
COVID-19, indicate that this siege will continue for a much longer time. So, we are “locked
down.” Sequestered. Isolated. Social distancing to “flatten the curve.”
There are all kinds of questions about this situation. How could a
pandemic of this proportion have snuck up on us in this age of knowledge and awareness? Where
did it come from? Who is at fault? What are we going to do? Etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera.
Along with distracting ourselves from the serious enormity
of the situation, it seems a good idea to learn as much as we can about it.
Future Strategy
Sometime in the future we will be drawn into a larger discussion about public
strategy to prevent this from happening again. The only way that we will be
able to participate and contribute to that discussion will be to educate
ourselves. We must inform ourselves from source to solution. One purpose
of this blog is to share some of what I discover in my effort to learn.
What About That Damn Pangolin?
Pangolins are weird, scaly little creatures that are sort of
mini anteaters. They eat bugs. They also emit a skunk-like odor as a defense.
Cute?
This pangolin is the first and only pangolin in the world
that is born by artificial fertilization. He is very very cute.
that is born by artificial fertilization. He is very very cute.
Scientists
haven’t found evidence that the new coronavirus jumped from pangolins to
people, but they do host very similar viruses.
Read more about Pangolins:
- “Pangolins:What are They and Why are They Linked to COVID-19?” by Nina Pullano
Inverse, March 27, 2020 - “Significanceof Pangolin Viruses in Human Pandemic Remains Murky” by James Gorman
NY Times, March 26
Did This Pandemic Actually Sneak Up On Us?
Not really. Listen to what Bill Gates had to say five years ago in this TED Talk:
During the Clinton administration, epidemic threats were elevated to official elements of U.S. national security and an expert in the field was appointed to the National Security Council.
In 1994, science journalist Laurie Garrett's bestselling book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (Farrar Straus and Giroux) continued the warning.
Garrett had been a Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health during the 1992-3 academic year.
I expect that the ignored history of warnings will continue to surface during the time ahead.
On a more entertaining note, I leave you with another book title due to be published in April.
The End of October,
by Lawrence Wright
Knopf, April 2020
"[A] multifaceted thriller . . . Wright pulls few punches and imbues even walk-on characters with enough humanity that their fate will matter to readers. This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
During the Clinton administration, epidemic threats were elevated to official elements of U.S. national security and an expert in the field was appointed to the National Security Council.
In 1994, science journalist Laurie Garrett's bestselling book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (Farrar Straus and Giroux) continued the warning.
Garrett had been a Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health during the 1992-3 academic year.
I expect that the ignored history of warnings will continue to surface during the time ahead.
On a more entertaining note, I leave you with another book title due to be published in April.
Knopf, April 2020
"[A] multifaceted thriller . . . Wright pulls few punches and imbues even walk-on characters with enough humanity that their fate will matter to readers. This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Where Cases are Rising Fastest
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