A couple of very interesting interviews with American business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates – one a few years ago warning of a pandemic and one a day ago talking about essentially his prediction materializing; would recommend watching both. The main take away for me are 2 points;
- What we face now in terms of the global pandemic is in many many ways of our own making both in terms of 2 interrelated aspects
- Lack of Preparedness despite multiple warning from people like Bill Gates and from the medical/scientific community.
- Being overly possessed in our politics of the day with things far less consequential/of value like building higher walls at our borders and the go-it-alone ideology that brought us BREXIT. Here is yet another example of the sideshow politics running the U.S. Administrations “during” the crisis and if the other G7 members would allow it a pass it would truly be a travesty; US push to include ‘Wuhan virus’ language in G7 joint statement fractures alliance
- Following from point above this translates to less time/effort/resources spent to develop our health/science/technology infrastructure that would allow us to face future challenges (with the ability to predict & mitigate challenges) like the one we face today.
- Lack of political leadership that has the capacity/experience to take immediate / aggressive / proactive action to mitigate the effects of the pandemic based on worst case scenario from the beginning of this outbreak as mentioned in previous posts.
I suspect/hope that when all this mess is done-dusted we would all take a deep breath, cherish what we have a bit more, and more importantly make sure we select politicians that are far more experienced with solid credentials (rather than single issue/ideology leaders) and capable to work under pressure while maintaining focus on our national interest but within the context of a global community/responsibility.
Anyway hope you find these clips useful.