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Gates: Large Epidemics Need a More Agile Response
jones_supa writes: Writing in the NY Times about the recent Ebola crisis, Bill Gates says this disease has made the world realize we are not properly prepared to deal with a global epidemic. Even if we signed up lots of experts right away, few organizations are capable of moving thousands of people, some of them infected, to different locations on the globe, with a week's notice. Data is another crucial problem. During the Ebola epidemic, the database that tracks cases has not always been accurate. This is partly because the situation is chaotic, but also because much of the case reporting has been done first on paper.
There's also our failure to invest in effective medical tools like tests, drugs and vaccines. On average, it has taken an estimated one to three days for test results to come back — an eternity when you need to quarantine people. Drugs that might help stop Ebola were not tested in patients until after the epidemic had peaked, partly because the world has no clear process for expediting drug approvals. Compare all of this to the preparation that nations put into defense, which has high-quality mobile units ready to be deployed quickly.
There's also our failure to invest in effective medical tools like tests, drugs and vaccines. On average, it has taken an estimated one to three days for test results to come back — an eternity when you need to quarantine people. Drugs that might help stop Ebola were not tested in patients until after the epidemic had peaked, partly because the world has no clear process for expediting drug approvals. Compare all of this to the preparation that nations put into defense, which has high-quality mobile units ready to be deployed quickly.
The major reason why ebola was able to grow was simply poor basic health care practices in some countries. Simple rules, like not touching dead or sick people, and washing your hands regularly would have helped a lot more than "databases" and "global warning and response systems".
Agreed.
While yes, the act of moving someone to an advanced care facility would be preferable for the person involved, I would counter that maybe, just maybe, that advanced care facility (or as much of it as possible) should be relocated to where the infected are. The absolute last thing you want to do is to start flying infected people outside of the infection zone to other places.
I already know the problems presented: The infected area is usually in some third-world shithole with little-to-no infrastructure, much of the equipment is big, heavy, and expensive, etc... but much of it can be made portable with sufficient engineering, and a good chunk of it doesn't even have to be brought along, or can be minimized (e.g. the ventilation/filtering systems that the centers here have to keep quarantine).
If Bill Gates wants to do something with all that cash, maybe he can hire a few engineers an medical types to build a deployable care center that can be flown out to $3rdWorldShitHole in less than 24 hours, and be put to use immediately when an epidemic strikes. Hell, build a bunch of them, include a big pile of needed supplies with each, then pre-position them in or near areas that are most likely to see recurring epidemics.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
As I said, not moved far.
Take that as "moved as little as possible".
If they are in a city, move them to the closest hospital IN THAT CITY.
With the last ebola mess, they were flying obviously infected people all over the place.
Do you practice it?
We are a community of motherfucking clinicians who have been humiliated by pseudoscientific quackery for years. Do you know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine, Motherfucker.
We are tired of antivaxxers, homoeopaths, naturopaths, chiropractics, acupuncturists, faith healers, and anyone else getting in the way of Medicine, Motherfucker.
We are tired of being told we're money-grubbing idiots who need to be manipulated to work in a Allopathic Medicine chain gang without any time to explore the natural healing powers of measles and whooping cough because none of the 10 insurance companies that are responding to customer demand for acupuncture coverage can do... Medicine, Motherfucker.
We must destroy these methodologies that get in the way of...Medicine, Motherfucker.
They claim to value / They really value / We fucking do:
Individuals and interactions / Tons of billable hours / Medicine, Motherfucker
Removing toxins and chemicals / Tons of pointless tests / Medicine, Motherfucker
Health Freedom / Bleeding patients dry / Medicine, Motherfucker
Fighting the Establishment / Paranoia and conspiracy theory / Medicine, Motherfucker
We think the shit on the left, is really just the con in the middle, and that we really need to just do the thing on the right... Medicine, Motherfucker.
Signed,
Anon. C. Owhard.
And the Medicinal Motherfuckers.
I am going to post a devil's advocate question, because there are people who will ask this:
Why should we care about an epidemic/pandemic in some other area of the globe?
Two words: Global Travel. Some dude wanting to flee that epidemic may have just enough resources to hop a plane ride or two, to get to safety with his relatives in the US... ...and we get to find out that even he didn't know he was infected until he landed and started spreading the love on US soil.
It's already happened once (that we know of) during this last one.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
With the last ebola mess, they were flying obviously infected people all over the place.
For a disease like ebola, that is no big deal. It is important to keep a grip on reality. There was a lot of scare-mongering over ebola, nearly all of it misplaced. Ebola can easily be stopped dead in its tracks by soap and/or hand sanitizer. It spread in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and (especially) Guinea, because those three countries have basically no health infrastructure, deep mistrust of outsiders, very low literacy, and little understanding of the germ theory of disease. Ebola was never able to gain a foothold in neighboring countries, such as Senegal, Ghana, or Nigeria, which have higher literacy and at least rudimentary health care systems. To think that ebola could spread in first world countries like America, or Europe is not realistic.
Perhaps because gates primary focus has been charity and philanthropy for almost as long as he was in the microcomputer game.
Why was this flagged -1? Bill Gates is president of one of the largest organizations helping to fight disease in the world.
He has as much validity as the president of Red Cross or any other large relief organization. This is why his opinion
matters. He's also uniquely positioned where he can help bankroll what is needed if necessary where most other large
relief organizations would have a much harder time changing their focus.
Depends on the symptoms. Are you going to quarantine an entire flight when a passenger has a fever or is throwing up ?
No, because you are not going to know about it. What possible incentive does a stewardess have to report that illness, when she knows that she will be quarantined along with the passengers, and possibly left to die on a sealed airplane? The problem with draconian solutions is that they incentivize counter-productive behavior.