> All of this focus on the point of origin is misplaced. We know that there will be new viruses. What matters is how we respond to them. In this case the US res

> All of this focus on the point of origin is misplaced. We know that there will be new viruses. What matters is how we respond to them. In this case the US response was completely botched. As far as I can tell, there are no grounds for claiming that the response to covid was botched. Botched compared to what? Also, when people talk like this, they always end up saying that we should respond to novel viruses by locking everything down right away, imposing quarantines, stopping flights, and so on. I see two problems with that. First, covid was already spreading globally when we became aware of it. And second, we are unable to tell if a novel virus will turn into a pandemic (scientists disagreed about SARS, MERS, and covid on this count). Adopting a policy that minimizes risks will be incredibly costly and often wasteful. To the extent that we can prepare for novel viruses, it seems to me that we should focus on developing fast and efficient machinery for creating and mass-producing vaccines. We did quite well at this (and so I don't think our response to covid was botched) but we could clearly do better. Imagine if, after isolating a virus in a lab, it took 3 months to create a vaccine and begin mass production. That's what we should aim for.