Everybody knows that pestilences have a way of recurring in the world, yet somehow we find it hard to believe in ones that crash down on our heads from a blue sky. There have been as many plagues as wars in history, yet always plagues and wars take people equally by surprise.
Albert Camus, The Plague
Pestilences Have a Way of Recurring
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There has been, among the uninitiated, a massive degree of ignorance: that even if they did not understand science, or believe it, or participate in games like vaccinations, things were under control out there, and would be cleaned up if they got ‘dirty.’ SARS, MERS, and Ebola did not go worldwide.
Face it, guys: we have been very lucky.
And those same scientists have been warning about pandemics, but our politicians, being from the ignorant-in-science caste for the most part (science education takes time and energy and commitment and some brains), ignored the warnings as the shots went over the bow AND cut funding because it didn’t enrich the right people.
Who was it who said that people get the leaders they deserve?
And even when some politicians did listen and did tbe right thing, their successors promptly frittered away the reserves. There are documented cases in the US at the State and Federal Level, France, and other countries.
“Let the next guy deal with it.” Thinking. Politicians prefer to kick the can down the road on basic needs in favor of posturing and vote-buying pork. And then they pop up criticizing others for “mismanaging” the mess they inherited.
A pandemic is the least that is deserved.