What Next: Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?

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Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might think that the wreckage caused by COVID-19 would be enough to make the U.S. take pandemic planning seriously. But a close look at current pandemic preparedness efforts reveals that’s far from the truth. It’s not too late, though, to get ready for the next Big One - if we’re willing to make serious investments beyond fighting germs. Guest: Ed Yong, a staff writer at The Atlantic covering science. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When I told Ed Young that it seems like he's a little bit obsessed with pandemics, he sounded
0:09.6	slightly offended.
0:11.6	Um, well, I think it's been a forced obsession, right?
0:17.2	I've been thinking about them for a while, and of course, I was like...
0:20.8	But before it was cool.
0:22.4	Before, right.
0:26.7	In Rates for the Atlantic, way back in 2018, he published a piece that seems prescient
0:33.1	now.
0:34.2	It was called, Is America Ready for a Global Pandemic?
0:38.8	The answer to that question was, no.
0:41.9	At the time, Ed thought being prepared for a pandemic, it was kind of an abstract concept.
0:48.8	So he went to the Congo to examine how people there coped with Ebola.
0:53.2	He visited a biocontainment unit in Omaha, Nebraska.
0:57.3	Everywhere he traveled, he found creaky systems stripped of resources.
1:03.3	It troubled him.
1:05.1	Three years in a global pandemic later, Ed says he remains troubled.
1:10.0	His latest story is called, Is America Prepared for the Pandemic After COVID-19?
1:16.6	And you can probably guess his answer to that question.
1:20.0	Still, no.
1:21.0	Now, I've been looking at what people have said about public health for the last century.
1:29.4	And the laments are always the same.
1:33.2	In the 1930s, the US was spending just over three cents for every medical dollar on public
	...

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