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Comment by concerned_user | Hacker News Reader

In my humble opinion wake up calls were in 2003 SARS and 2009 H1N1, but we decided to ignore those, now we get the real thing, that has improved and evolved.

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Just like an alarm clock, some nations have hit snooze and others have woken up. It's pretty clear who is ready (Taiwan, HK, SK) and who is not.

Note: I think it's fair to say, SK is/was ready or has responded well, patient 31 notwithstanding.

I think the USA needs to work on the basics, but other nations will have so interesting advanced strategic decisions. i.e. Does ventilator design changes frequently? Does it make sense to have an on-demand factory or just build up a stockpile of ventilators that can be distributed as needed?

If we regularly have virus outbreaks, will we usually need ventilators, or is this something specific to COVID-19? Is viral pneumonia a common effect of these kind of viruses?

The first DIY ventilator tutorial I saw mentioned the avian flu, so I assume so

Always fight the last war! /s

What if we created a more sanitary world, eliminated the seasonal flu too, and it was all for nothing!

> ...a more sanitary world

Be careful what you wish for: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

Maybe, maybe not. I predict we're not gonna take any lessons from this either; 10 years from now people are gonna write comments like this saying "2020 COVID19 was the wake up call, now we get the real thing, that has improved and evolved".

I think at the very least some regulations/restrictions have been lifted which are never coming back. Examples might include allowing doctors to practice telemedicine accross state borders and allowing local labs to create their own tests without waiting for federal approval.

If the following calamity will not fix USA healthcare I don't know what will.

Anytime someone questions a healthcare investment, from now on, it must be met with “this will happen again”.

To many people those were crying wolf rather than wake up calls.

The wolf is not leaving anytime soon. In fact, there will always be a wolf. There are wolves roaming your neighborhood now. And if you take care of 1, it will be replaced. The page has turned and what we need is daily neighborhood wolf suppression now.

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