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And now they know we can't handle an attack of any given scale. I think it is safe to assume that we all thought we were more than ready to deal with ONE patie

And now they know we can't handle an attack of any given scale. I think it is safe to assume that we all thought we were more than ready to deal with ONE patient. Not the case. The President just said we are learning and making changes. Really? Now? You are missing a very important point. It is my fault for not making it explicit. I've been using bio/tech attacks as a general term and yes, there's an immediate association with terrorism. The problem is far deeper than that. What do you think is going to kill us all? Here "us" isn't an egocentric "USA" but rather a "humanity" us. What will kill us all? Nuclear bombs? War? A meteor? Nope. Evolution. Not ours. Bacteria and viruses. We have built a world that makes it easy for these organisms to quickly move across the globe. We already have bacteria that cannot be killed with most antibiotics. And while we spend billions developing weapons to kill each other we seem to be neglecting the reality that we are not the enemy, evolving bacteria and viruses are. In that context terrorism might not be a factor. If viruses or bacteria get past that evolutionary "click" that turns them into, well, weopons of mass destruction, terrorism will be the last thing we have to worry about. Now, what we, the world, have to do is take a 100+ year view of humanity, grow up and start moving towards the things that really matter. I would be shoveling, no, trucking money into programs to develop all manner of systems, products and organizations to fight a war that could be an existential threat to our species. So, you see, when I worry about e CDC or government wasting over a decade getting ready for patient one of an unknown killer event I am thinking well beyond Ebola. I am thinking we've squandered thirteen years of work towards understanding how to effectively protect our entire species. Let's put it this way, we are not going to solve the problem by building more churches. We need to enter an age of intense scientific enlightening and stop building smart bombs and stealth fighters. We are not the enemy.

zimpenfish 12y ago
That's an excellent sci-fi plot but I fear not grounded in any kind of reality. > We already have bacteria that cannot be killed with most antibiotics. The spread of which is blocked by even the simplest of cleanliness protocols. Hardly an existential threat. Although we do already have existential threats to the species - e.g. the potential for a recurrence of the 1918 flu pandemic, for example, is already terrifying the people whose job it is to worry about these things.

zimpenfish 12y ago

That's an excellent sci-fi plot but I fear not grounded in any kind of reality. > We already have bacteria that cannot be killed with most antibiotics. The spread of which is blocked by even the simplest of cleanliness protocols. Hardly an existential threat. Although we do already have existential threats to the species - e.g. the potential for a recurrence of the 1918 flu pandemic, for example, is already terrifying the people whose job it is to worry about these things.