[Goose]

That complacency is likely linked to SARS, MERS and even Ebola.   Most in the USA just assumed the oceans would protect us.

For sure true. There is a residual "chicken little" effect.

 Having excess hospital capacity and equipment for pandemics costs money.   And if something hasn't happened for 50+ years it begins to look like a decadent expense.


A politician at any level that said the citizens needed to spend money on those things instead of tax cuts, police on the streets or teachers would eventually get kicked out of office by someone that could fund more desirable things by trimming the fat.

While excess hospital capacity and equipment is certainly desirable, that is not where we blew it. We didn't (and don't) have a way to contain the spread of an epidemic through known epidemiological methods. Taiwan, Korea, etc. kept the number of cases down by having a good track and trace capability with adequate staff to handle a large initial surge of cases and also to continue for the long haul. You are preaching to the choir that previous successes have caused our capability to atrophy out of existence. Without that, SIP is the only tool available, and we know now the costs of doing that (if there was every any doubt). We need candidates at all levels that can remind the populace what happens if you let the county health department just inspect restaurants and have only 6000 USPHS officers for the entire country.

A pandemic staff as you describe would be excess human resource capacity.   Same idea.

If you have 10,000 people sitting around for a decade waiting for a pandemic I promise you there will be a politician that will win an election claiming that by trimming the government fat he can give everyone a tax cut.

The staff you seek would need to do something else, but in the event of a pandemic would be called to service.

You are for sure correct. Korea uses police offices, among others, as contact tracers. They are good at it because it is also similar to their day jobs.  San Mateo County has managed to do their contact tracing by re-purposing other employees. If they had practiced that a few times over the past 5 years, possibly they would have been ready when needed.

All that being said, we do need to overcome the idea that managing epidemics is unnecessary. We do maintain a large military that most of the time isn't engaged in a struggle with a near-peer competitor. The USPHS is a uniformed military service, believe it or not. We need to fund them adequately. States and counties need to do the same. I agree it is a tempting target to cut when it isn't used for a long time, as is the military. However, when you need it there isn't time to generate a new one. It is come as you are. Awareness has to be raised to the point we won't have another disaster next time. Epidemics are bad enough if you are "ready". If you are not, you have what we have now. We should be smart about it, but we should do it.

[Goose]

That complacency is likely linked to SARS, MERS and even Ebola.   Most in the USA just assumed the oceans would protect us.

For sure true. There is a residual "chicken little" effect.

 Having excess hospital capacity and equipment for pandemics costs money.   And if something hasn't happened for 50+ years it begins to look like a decadent expense.


A politician at any level that said the citizens needed to spend money on those things instead of tax cuts, police on the streets or teachers would eventually get kicked out of office by someone that could fund more desirable things by trimming the fat.

While excess hospital capacity and equipment is certainly desirable, that is not where we blew it. We didn't (and don't) have a way to contain the spread of an epidemic through known epidemiological methods. Taiwan, Korea, etc. kept the number of cases down by having a good track and trace capability with adequate staff to handle a large initial surge of cases and also to continue for the long haul. You are preaching to the choir that previous successes have caused our capability to atrophy out of existence. Without that, SIP is the only tool available, and we know now the costs of doing that (if there was every any doubt). We need candidates at all levels that can remind the populace what happens if you let the county health department just inspect restaurants and have only 6000 USPHS officers for the entire country.

A pandemic staff as you describe would be excess human resource capacity.   Same idea.

If you have 10,000 people sitting around for a decade waiting for a pandemic I promise you there will be a politician that will win an election claiming that by trimming the government fat he can give everyone a tax cut.

The staff you seek would need to do something else, but in the event of a pandemic would be called to service.

You are for sure correct. Korea uses police offices, among others, as contact tracers. They are good at it because it is also similar to their day jobs.  San Mateo County has managed to do their contact tracing by re-purposing other employees. If they had practiced that a few times over the past 5 years, possibly they would have been ready when needed.

All that being said, we do need to overcome the idea that managing epidemics is unnecessary. We do maintain a large military that most of the time isn't engaged in a struggle with a near-peer competitor. The USPHS is a uniformed military service, believe it or not. We need to fund them adequately. States and counties need to do the same. I agree it is a tempting target to cut when it isn't used for a long time, as is the military. However, when you need it there isn't time to generate a new one. It is come as you are. Awareness has to be raised to the point we won't have another disaster next time. Epidemics are bad enough if you are "ready". If you are not, you have what we have now. We should be smart about it, but we should do it.