One of the things that shocked me most about the pandemic was that no country had plans in place for the situation. I had always imagined the basement of some boring government building filled with folders containing plans for all kinds of contingencies, how naive of me.
If you make plans on calm, pleasant days, you’ll forget things; if you make them on the fly in a panic, it will be complete chaos. And it wasn’t just one country, it was everyone; nobody knew what to do. From what I can see, we’re still the same.
While there are contingency plans for everything, 1) we didn’t follow them because if they admitted the truth they would need stricter protocols and they wanted the economy moving, and 2) we have all the wrong people in charge.
I remember reading about how Bush 2 was kind of paranoid about a pandemic and had plans made while in office.
And that during the handover to Obama it was one of the things Bush told Obama to not ignore for the safety of the country.
The admin after Obama ignored everything.
[Insert Archer gif of “do you want ants? Because that’s how you get ants.” Bonus if “ants” marked out for “pandemic”]
Anyway, I think about this a lot. Especially with the CDC gutted and measles outbreaks popping up. And now the Andes hantavirus strain.
I mean, kinda, with the exception of countries like the USSR and whatnot. It was one of those “US is the world superpower” things. Obviously that’s not a good thing lately (if it ever was, which I won’t opine on), but it’s true. That’s why, for example, the only places left in the world with samples of smallpox are one lab in Russia and a CDC-run lab here in the US (not too far from where I used to live, actually).
asia did. they already had practices for previous pandemics. Heck people where all going crazy over the super outdoor area cleaning trucks china had going.
One of the things that shocked me most about the pandemic was that no country had plans in place for the situation. I had always imagined the basement of some boring government building filled with folders containing plans for all kinds of contingencies, how naive of me.
If you make plans on calm, pleasant days, you’ll forget things; if you make them on the fly in a panic, it will be complete chaos. And it wasn’t just one country, it was everyone; nobody knew what to do. From what I can see, we’re still the same.
While there are contingency plans for everything, 1) we didn’t follow them because if they admitted the truth they would need stricter protocols and they wanted the economy moving, and 2) we have all the wrong people in charge.
They all relied on the CDC’s lead, and Trump fucked the CDC.
There were plans like that, but Trump fired the people who made them in 2018.
I remember reading about how Bush 2 was kind of paranoid about a pandemic and had plans made while in office. And that during the handover to Obama it was one of the things Bush told Obama to not ignore for the safety of the country. The admin after Obama ignored everything.
[Insert Archer gif of “do you want ants? Because that’s how you get ants.” Bonus if “ants” marked out for “pandemic”]
Anyway, I think about this a lot. Especially with the CDC gutted and measles outbreaks popping up. And now the Andes hantavirus strain.
Bush may have been an idiot about a bunch of things but at least he was smart in some places.
Trump has just been an idiot in every thing.
For all his faults Dubs did seem to understand that millions of people getting sick is a bad
The entire world relied on the US’s CDC? I would think other countries would have their own plans.
I mean, kinda, with the exception of countries like the USSR and whatnot. It was one of those “US is the world superpower” things. Obviously that’s not a good thing lately (if it ever was, which I won’t opine on), but it’s true. That’s why, for example, the only places left in the world with samples of smallpox are one lab in Russia and a CDC-run lab here in the US (not too far from where I used to live, actually).
Inherently there should be nothing wrong with one country having a reliable and effective system in place that everyone else relies on.
The problem is that it only takes one fucking idiot leader to ruin it.
The cdc after bush and Obama was extremely competent and reliable. It was perfectly reasonable to rely on them.
The trump attacked.
Oh, you know, pandemic, plagues and shit have been kind of a recurring thing for centuries here in Europe. We’re kind of jaded.
asia did. they already had practices for previous pandemics. Heck people where all going crazy over the super outdoor area cleaning trucks china had going.
There are plans. But you can’t plan for every detail
But the biggest problem is, that those plans somewhat rely on the population to help out and not turn into complete morons
But your average person is a moron
And most countries still don’t