One expert shares that the United States needs to use this pandemic as a lesson and get ready for the next one.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the FDA, spoke with NPR about how America needs to prepare.
He explained that public health agencies need to be empowered, new capacities at the CDC need to be built, and empower them to be able to act in a health crisis of this size when it happens again.
A recent study looked at the chances of another pandemic happening and found there’s a 2% chance of it happening at any point during any year.
There’s a 38% chance a person will experience a pandemic during their life.
William Pan, a Duke University global environmental health researcher, stated that the most important takeaway from the study is that pandemics of these proportions are likely.
Studies are already underway to try and figure out what may cause the next pandemic, and the highest risk is Coronavirus 229E, which infects bats in Africa.
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