<story><title>The next outbreak? We&apos;re not ready. Ted talk by Bill Gates (2015)</title><url>https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>slg</author><text>&amp;gt; we needed to shut down the city, and everyone else arguing it would destroy small businesses&lt;p&gt;The problem is that they are right with this.  Shutting down the city will probably destroy small businesses.  Those same people also can&amp;#x27;t do much to help small businesses.  It is understandable that they don&amp;#x27;t want to sentence these businesses to death when they are powerless to save them.  This is why the relative inaction by the federal government is such a problem here.  They are the only entity that has the power to stop the wide spread of the virus and absorb the economic repercussions of the shutdown.</text></item><item><author>merpnderp</author><text>No one paid attention. After the H1N1 crisis, the US burned through its reserves of N95 masks and other pandemic supplies, and never refilled them.&lt;p&gt;We aren&amp;#x27;t even learning now, even after it was obvious Italy needed to lock down more, the US still wasn&amp;#x27;t taking it seriously. I listened last night to my city council argue that it was still no big deal. Two members, a doctor and scientist said we needed to shut down the city, and everyone else arguing it would destroy small businesses and it wasn&amp;#x27;t that big a deal to anyone but the elderly.&lt;p&gt;We just don&amp;#x27;t learn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lifeformed</author><text>Maybe this is a naive question, but... why can&amp;#x27;t we temporarily just stop the whole chain of debt instead of forcing individuals and small businesses to bear the brunt of losses?  Right now the issue is that if we&amp;#x27;re not working, we&amp;#x27;re not making money, and we can&amp;#x27;t pay for rent and debts.  But is the only solution to find a way for the government to give the people money and let the businesses collapse?  Why can&amp;#x27;t we put the burden further up the chain? Doesn&amp;#x27;t it all end up at the banks?  I pay my landlord rent, my landlord pays mortgage on the property to the bank.  Can we pause rent and mortgages and debts for a few months?  Sure, there would be big damage done to the economy still, but why do we have to let the damage happen at the individual level?  I&amp;#x27;m sure there&amp;#x27;s some simple explanation, but I don&amp;#x27;t understand why.</text></comment>
<story><title>The next outbreak? We&apos;re not ready. Ted talk by Bill Gates (2015)</title><url>https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>slg</author><text>&amp;gt; we needed to shut down the city, and everyone else arguing it would destroy small businesses&lt;p&gt;The problem is that they are right with this.  Shutting down the city will probably destroy small businesses.  Those same people also can&amp;#x27;t do much to help small businesses.  It is understandable that they don&amp;#x27;t want to sentence these businesses to death when they are powerless to save them.  This is why the relative inaction by the federal government is such a problem here.  They are the only entity that has the power to stop the wide spread of the virus and absorb the economic repercussions of the shutdown.</text></item><item><author>merpnderp</author><text>No one paid attention. After the H1N1 crisis, the US burned through its reserves of N95 masks and other pandemic supplies, and never refilled them.&lt;p&gt;We aren&amp;#x27;t even learning now, even after it was obvious Italy needed to lock down more, the US still wasn&amp;#x27;t taking it seriously. I listened last night to my city council argue that it was still no big deal. Two members, a doctor and scientist said we needed to shut down the city, and everyone else arguing it would destroy small businesses and it wasn&amp;#x27;t that big a deal to anyone but the elderly.&lt;p&gt;We just don&amp;#x27;t learn.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>davidw</author><text>What happened in Italy is that they delayed... and then ended up shutting down everything &lt;i&gt;anyway&lt;/i&gt; - just with a lot more infected people and deaths, and the exact same economic hardships.</text></comment>