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Comment by blablabla123 | Hacker News Reader

Yes, it's really weird, also that he is actually supporting the WHO financially. But here's the reality: U.S. doesn't spend enough to WHO (in fact now they even want to leave), so he gives them money - which is actually possible for everyone. Also Bill Gates wasn't the only "Cassandra", practically every popular science magazine (and probably also HN) has written about the possibility of a future pandemic since years. And yet, Government did nothing. Actually in Germany there were even pandemic simulations about 10 years ago, showing how bad Germany is prepared. Still, nothing was done to improve that.

I think the summary is: this is really odd but it is even more odd how governments are unable to work on long-term topics unless shit hits the fan.

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> this is really odd but it is even more odd how governments are unable to work on long-term topics unless shit hits the fan.

Not so odd. This is a common human behavior. We humans are very slow in responding to low probability but high impact events, especially if they require coordination.

E.g. upcoming climate disaster ("climate change" is a euphemism at this point), or nuclear weapons stockpile and the military systems which are effectively a dooms-day device for humanity.

At a smaller scale, various preventable accidents like Beirut explosions or most industrial accidents.

Ironically, a well functioning bureaucracy is one of the best answers, as you can see from Taiwan or South Korea's preparedness and response to COVID pandemic.

> I think the summary is: this is really odd but it is even more odd how governments are unable to work on long-term topics unless shit hits the fan.

This is just because there is no incentive for any politician. It's just like how security is at the bottom of the budget list for most IT companies. Unless we have a framework where people are accountable, nothing will change.

> And yet, Government did nothing.

That’s not true. GWB took it very seriously and put a plan in place. Obama modernized the plan. Trump is the one who ignored his predecessors and set the stage for the mess we are in.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-whi...

I believe you’re downvoted for mentioning politics but it is true. The US had an effective pandemic infrastructure, which got dismantled in 2018.

This isn’t unique to the US. Canada had an extremely effective pandemic forecasting agency. This got dismantled by two separate governments since 2014. I can’t find the article but the globe and mail had a big exposé.

The Atlantic article above is one of the top five articles I’ve read on the pandemic disaster and is worth reading.

The dismantling of pandemic infrastructure is false news being spread. That's not what happened.

You can set google to search articles from 2018, when everyone referred to it as the team being disbanded and warned of trouble. Administration officials have tried to spin it as not disbanding it, but it’s not obvious why they should be viewed as being correct. Some 2018 articles:

* https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/2/23/16974012/tr...

* https://khn.org/morning-breakout/global-health-security-team... * https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/05/white-hou...

Pandemic preparedness was merged with WMD control. The below article refers to it as streamlining but notes

>The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer’s departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack.

https://www.kff.org/news-summary/elimination-of-nsc-global-h...

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