We are set up. When the next disease comes, we will fall like dominoes

[PurgedVoter]

All over the world, anti-mask and anti-vaccine Typhoid Mary wannabe's are poised to defend their free right to ignore the common good.
If Ebola shows up right now, half the news will be screaming to shut everything down and the other half will be screaming that we dare not get in the way of the gears of commerce.

The few reasonable people saying we need to isolate, track, control, and send aid, will be drowned out, doxxed and politicized.

I seriously hope I am entirely wrong, but it sure looks like we are set up for a fall.

[intrepidity]

1. You may have a valid point here nt

[Texaswitchy]

2. I think you are right.

Good time to keep stocked up on food and essentials.

Trump voters are nothing but plague rats.

[maxsolomon]

3. 2121 isn't my problem.

that's when the next pandemic is scheduled - every 100 years!

[PurgedVoter]

4. We have a solution for this, but there is a lot in the way.

One of the best references I know to start understanding this issue is an interview with Mel Brook's brilliant son, Max.
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/820601571

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. It will depend very much on the next disease.

Ebola happens to be very hard to get. So unless it mutates to become airborne, we have nothing to worry about there.

What probably will matter more than anything will be the actual death rate from the disease. While Covid 19 is serious, it just doesn't kill all that many people. Yes, I know the long-term effects are still unknown, but down the road, they probably won't make much difference.

If something comes along that truly targets the unmasked, unvaccinated, un-socially isolated, and kills them in significant numbers, that will matter. Even if we go ahead and round up the Covid deaths to one million since the start, that's still less than one third of one percent of the population. And meanwhile, the population continues to grow. More slowly than in the past, but that's more a consequence of fewer births and less immigration.

[Binkie The Clown]

6. Nature has it's own way of eliminating stupidity from the species. nt

[Hortensis]

7. I've made this point before too. It's scary. But then there's the rest of it.

We don't just have disorder we didn't have before, we also have order we didn't have before. All the shocking problems that sprang up will still be with us to some degrees, but we know about them now and can plan for them going in.

The responsible people are in pandemic mode, in governments and out, through government actions and business and homes. Pandemic experts are hugely aware of the dangers and have been watching and planning every day for a couple dozen possible breakouts they can name in their sleep, or another new Disease X as SARS-CoV-2 was. Households around the planet have learned how they isolate; they're more resilient, flexible and prepared than before, their relatives and employers also.

As for the Typhoid Marys, they don't want to die and they've had pandemic up to their eyebrows just like everyone else. Most are not crazy. They're defensive, some defiant, not happy or proud. Another disease would be a great chance for many to say, and believe, "But this one is different." That's not to say any particular group would necessarily swing that way, but I wouldn't assume most would leap to replay the last 2 years either. Even tRump is telling them to get vaccinated.

And hardly least, vaccines, treatments, tests, techniques, production, etc. Great advances were made before this pandemic that enabled and required acceleration of more great advances. Science is in fighting mode also, and governments will be turning to it faster and better.

Of course, could be just practice for a replay if tRump decided he wanted one, or just was elected again. Or if Republican powers decided to use the chaos and destabilization of a new pandemic to achieve their takeover. Which I believe they already did. This time they'd have learned from experience also.