The coming storm: America is not ready for a future pandemic HotAir

Every virus or bacteria has a genetic blueprint. With advances in bioinformatics, scientists can use genetic sequencing to identify the variant, spot mutations and chart possible spread among people. This ought to be harnessed into a nationwide or even global trip wire for disease among humans, animals and plants. We already rely on early-warning systems to watch for hurricanes and tornadoes; radars and satellites keep watch for ballistic missile threats; prompt warning is critical to intelligence gathering and financial markets. But so far, early-warning systems exist only in fragments for disease. Also, there s a crying need to build better data-sharing systems to improve the link between genomics (genetic blueprints), health care (what doctors, hospitals and emergency rooms are seeing among people) and epidemiology (the patterns of disease in the population).

via hotair.com

This from the WashPost op-ed page. I agree with what’s said, as much as I can see, but here’s an idea: Let’s stop paying for the science boffins messing about with viruses, trying to make them more deadly. That reduces the chances of *another* world wide pandemic. I know, you would have thought one pandemic was enough, but evidently not.