10 Things We Learned From Infectious Disease Expert Michael Osterholm On Joe Rogan Experience
6. Could This Outbreak Have Been Prevented?
All the way through the interview Osterholm reiterates that not enough has been done to prepare for an outbreak of this scale.
More money is being pumped into military defences than public health and not enough effective tight fitting masks (or 'apocalypse masks' as Rogan called them), vaccines or other useful supplies have been stockpiled in order to make sure everyone has access to the correct equipment or treatments when the virus hits.
This lack of preparation is now being felt worldwide.
At the very least, Osterholm suggested that nurses and doctors in hospitals should have been supplied with the correct protection in order to make sure they were fit and healthy enough to help fight off the disease on the front line. Osterholm likened one of these individuals being taken out by the disease to losing a 'Special Forces person' not another 'soldier'.
Being reactive and not proactive in this kind of situation means that we are constantly on the back foot, as it is near impossible to manufacture enough masks to protect the entire planet before people are infected.
Hopefully this will act as a lesson that the world needs to be better prepared for a pandemic of this type in the future, as a virus of this scale will bring down the economy faster than war or any other stock market crash.