In the aftermath of 9/11, there was a lot of scrutiny on the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc., questioning why no one saw the attack coming. It was easy to criticize in hindsight. Yet, everything from security checkpoints to guys taking flying lessons in Florida could have provided clues.
In the 9/11 post-mortem, this was labeled as a "failure of imagination." What that means is nobody in the government connected the dots beforehand because they simply did not think ramming airplanes into iconic buildings was something that terrorists would do. It was unimaginable.
Today, as the new administration settles into our nation's capital, I think "failure of imagination" may be the resting position for this current group of leaders.
What that failure looks like is a mind set that assumes we should cut most aid for overseas programs, including health-related programs, and from the United Nations and, specifically, its World Health Organization (WHO); and domestically, from the National Institutes of Health (NIA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The world of nations is interconnected in ways that were unknown a couple of generations ago. We live in a just-in-time delivery system where products and supplies we use in our daily lives are shipped from points around the globe to our local stores. For that alone, we need the rest of the world to be healthy.
More to the point, a person infected with Zika, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) or whatever ailment is floating around, can hop on a plane in Hong Kong and land at Newark Liberty International in a matter of hours. All the while, the person could be infecting hundreds of others.
So, investing in the organizations and programs cited above is critical to the health and well-being of our communities, even though some of these programs focus on families half a world away. If the NIH and WHO are properly funded, vaccines and other preventative measures delivered around the world will lessen the chances of a pandemic coming to this country.
It's simply not feasible in our interconnected world for Americans to believe that we can protect ourselves by closing our borders to other countries. Until I came across a passage in "Deadliest Enemy: Our War against Killer Germs," a book by Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker, I had no idea how many medicines that we use are manufactured overseas.
A list of these "must-have" drugs includes all or part of our supply of insulin for diabetes, nitroglycerine, the blood thinner heparin for dialysis, lasix for heart patients, metoprolol for chest pain and high blood pressure, albuterol for breathing problems, and a slew of antibiotics.
This means that if a global pandemic of SARS or a similar disease were to cripple our just-in-time supply chain, many people who depend on these critical maintenance medications would be in serious trouble. We simply do not have a domestic stockpile of these drugs.
It's not just about medications. The global supply chain is responsible for a staggering amount of the goods we use, from auto parts, to food, clothing and machinery. So, budget cuts to the very organizations focused on public health in other countries make us extremely vulnerable here at home. We want these organizations to be researching vaccines to stave off the next pandemic. More than that, we want these organizations to prevent outbreaks in other countries so we're not dealing with outbreaks here.
In 1918, there were 1.8 billion people in the world. The Spanish Flu pandemic that year caused 50 million to 100 million deaths, or roughly 3 to 6 percent of the world's population. Today, there are roughly 7.4 billion worldwide and as quickly as we move around the globe, it won't take much.
We might be comforted with the idea that we have vaccines today that didn't exist in 1918. That's true, but for influenza in particular, regulators and vaccine makers must guess which strains of flu will dominate in a specific season. When they guess wrong, the vaccine has limited effectiveness. But even when they guess right, it takes 6 to 9 months to make a full season's worth of vaccine, or there won't be enough to go around. We need more funding, not less.
Whatever being a global leader means, it should include more funding for the very organizations on the frontlines of the next global pandemic. Anything less is just a failure of imagination.
Albert B. Kelly is mayor of Bridgeton. Contact him by phone at 856-455-3230 Ext. 200.
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