If you wish to view the TED talk being covered, then click below: http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_disaster_we_re_not_ready#t-223558
"If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it's most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war; Not missiles, but microbes." - Bill Gates
In today's world we are much more at risk for an infectious virus to kill many people than a nuclear attack, but we don't have the proper tools and research to stop a true epidemic from spreading.
If we look at recent Ebola outbreak "the problem wasn't that there was a system that didn't work well enough, the problem was we didn't have a system at all." We didn't have a group of specialists, who would have examined the disease, or seen how it was spreading. "Now the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) did a great job orchestrating volunteers. But even so, we were far slower than we should have been." but if a more devastating disease were to occur we would not only need to be fast to respond, but we would need "hundreds of thousands" of more workers and volunteers to actually do any good. They no one to try and figure out new treatments or use different tools.
Although, this is a "serious problem" we can construct "really good response system"
With all of the advances in medicines and technology we can study more closely examine the "pathogen and be able to make drugs and vaccines" to stop the specific disease. Even with the technology we can't truly have success without a "global health system" to utilize these tools to their fullest extent. We not only need a "global health system", we need "preparedness for when the disease starts to spread. We should look to the military's "war games" and quick "mobilization"
We need "strong health care systems in poor countries' as to see the outbreak early on; a "medical reserve corps" in order to deploy many people that have the proper "training and background", and we need to run "germ games" in order to see how diseases are spread.
After watching this short presentation I believe we need to raise awareness and funds in order to establish a global response system not only will this help save lives, but it will create plenty of new jobs for both doctors and sanitation.
In today's world we are much more at risk for an infectious virus to kill many people than a nuclear attack, but we don't have the proper tools and research to stop a true epidemic from spreading.
If we look at recent Ebola outbreak "the problem wasn't that there was a system that didn't work well enough, the problem was we didn't have a system at all." We didn't have a group of specialists, who would have examined the disease, or seen how it was spreading. "Now the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) did a great job orchestrating volunteers. But even so, we were far slower than we should have been." but if a more devastating disease were to occur we would not only need to be fast to respond, but we would need "hundreds of thousands" of more workers and volunteers to actually do any good. They no one to try and figure out new treatments or use different tools.
Although, this is a "serious problem" we can construct "really good response system"
With all of the advances in medicines and technology we can study more closely examine the "pathogen and be able to make drugs and vaccines" to stop the specific disease. Even with the technology we can't truly have success without a "global health system" to utilize these tools to their fullest extent. We not only need a "global health system", we need "preparedness for when the disease starts to spread. We should look to the military's "war games" and quick "mobilization"
We need "strong health care systems in poor countries' as to see the outbreak early on; a "medical reserve corps" in order to deploy many people that have the proper "training and background", and we need to run "germ games" in order to see how diseases are spread.
After watching this short presentation I believe we need to raise awareness and funds in order to establish a global response system not only will this help save lives, but it will create plenty of new jobs for both doctors and sanitation.