Bill Gates thinks a coming disease could kill 30M people within 6 months

I think something needs to be tuned up a little, the six months estimate does not mean six months from now but six months after the patient zero and transmission to the surrounding epideme. between natural process, manmade pathogens, weaponized pathogens, and relic pathogens emerging from permafrost older than mankind, we collectively as a species need some consensus. typically overpopulations are inescapably corrected by starvation, or disease.

Pandemic is a great cooperative board game. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic

Perhaps relevant: ebola outbreak 3D from last month:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18393509

Too bad we are not renewing CDC funding for fighting global disease outbreaks.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cdc+funding+trump&source=lmn...

This mentions a lot of great tactics. Rapid diagnosis, treating secondary illnesses, antivirals, vaccines, etc.

This article didn't talk about preventative measures, although I know Gates has committed big money towards toilets and hygiene. That, to me, is just as important as all that other stuff combined. Not to mention bednets to prevent malaria, water filters, ensuring access to condoms, etc.

Additionally, there should be more focus on other types of preventative measures that even affect developed countries. Improved ventilation on public transit, improved hygiene within hospitals, harm reduction sites for intravenous drug users, reducing the amount of unnecessary contact in public spaces (doors, faucets, garbage cans, water fountains, etc), and reducing risks on shared contact tools where touch is necessary like railings or touchscreens.

We also know certain types of products are known to be disease vectors, like bagged lettuce... but there's not even warning labels or any kind of safety initiatives there.

And a pie in the sky dream that I have would be something like a continuous integration system for food safety testing. Every product from every brand could be put through some kind of distributed testing network and regularly tested for pathogens and toxins.

We sort of do this with air quality and water quality testing, but it also could be improved with more frequent reporting, and more redundancy.

The world's immune system at work.

Pandemics are scary.