The Pandemic’s Legacy is Already Clear

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Res Ipsa
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The Pandemic’s Legacy is Already Clear

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Ed Yong has done some of the best reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s just published this article on the pandemic’s legacy: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/arch ... cs/671608/

Any person with a smattering of economics should know why taking an individualistic approach to disease prevention won’t work: externalities. If you bear no cost for exposing others to a disease, you have no incentive to make the effort to avoid spreading the disease. As a result, the entire society bears the cost of unnecessary medical costs, suffering and death.

The costs of COVID-19 will continue even though we do our best to ignore them. Right now, pediatric hospitals are being overrun with sick children. Why? It turns out that we’ve known since before measles vaccinations that children who had the disease were more susceptible to other viruses for several years after being infected with the measles virus. It’s as if, just maybe, exposing millions of children to viral infection isn’t a good thing. Who knew? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Will we be ready and do better the next time around? Nope.
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When I go to sea, don’t fear for me. Fear for the storm.

Jessica Best, Fear for the Storm. From The Strange Case of the Starship Iris.
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