Driving in to work today, NPR reported on a very serious game played by representatives of the US and European nations. It played out the scenario of smallpox breakouts in a few European countries then to many more. The representatives, acting as the leaders of their respective countries (Madeline Albright played President Bush...hmmm) listened to fake but very real CNN-type newscasts tracking the spread and verocity of the smallpox. As more and more countries were affected, the tension heated up among the leaders of France and Germany and the US. Albright said "Why does the EU look to us to supply them with smallpox vaccine? We looked to you to help us in Iraq and you didn't." There will definitely be a certain amount of quid pro quo if it comes down to the making, distribution and sharing of vaccine.
The entire exercise took close to 8 hours and afterwards, the leaders discussed how to not make it about tit for tat and really help each other. Listening to the fake news reports was extremely sobering, and the way the nations reacted didn't exactly instill in me a sense of global confidence. It was akin to the teams on The Apprentice bickering and not helping each other.
Why must we wait for this 'game' to become a reality to decide we don't have enough vaccine for smallpox? Why isn't every nation, right now, furiously making vaccines before we need it?
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2 comments:
I don't think there has ever been confirmation that any small pox has been released from either CDC or Russia, the last two places to have it, so maybe it wouldn't be a good use of time/money to make vaccines-Charles
OK, maybe we shouldn't be making it "furiously" but as the most developed nation on earth not to have enough seems scary.
How about we make the vaccine "casually" rather than not at all? We probably don't have enough gas masks or suits or 'dirty bomb' shelters or ways to prevent a suicide bomber on our streets either, but making plenty of vaccine seems so easy to do.
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