💾 Archived View for zaibatsu.circumlunar.space › ~visiblink › phlog › 20200313 captured on 2024-08-25 at 02:40:03.
⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-03)
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The fact that we're in the midst of a preventable pandemic has me quite disappointed. After the SARS epidemic of 2003, I thought that there were two main lessons to be learned. And if I was aware of these lessons, governmental authorities should have been as well. Epidemic diseases are not my area of specialization. The first lesson involved the handling of small livestock in Chinese markets. It seemed clear after the SARS outbreak that stacking animals in cages, one atop another, offered a dangerous breeding ground for pathogens and a route to inter-species transmission. Urine, feces, and whatever else fell from the upper cages onto the animals beneath. I won't even comment on the humanity of that arrangement. But it was fertile ground for the passage of pathogens from one animal to another, and then to the humans who worked with them. I thought it was clear that those practices had to change. Apparently, the Chinese government was also aware that it was even worse to permit the intermixing of wild and domestic animals in these stacked-cage scenarios, but after a brief prohibition, permitted a resumption of the wildlife trade.[1] Secondly, it seemed clear after the SARS outbreak that employment practices here in Canada were also a big part of the problem. Underemployed medical staff working part-time and casual jobs at multiple locations served as vectors for the transmission of SARS from one facility to another. I wondered if anything was being done to address that practice in the years afterward. Apparently, if anything was done, it was not enough. Staff working at multiple locations are once again carrying pathogens from one facility to another.[2] That's something that should have been addressed through administrative employment practices or collective bargaining. I guess there's one more issue that's irritating me. The Chinese government covered up the SARS epidemic for several months. Commentators at the time wondered whether that was partly because of a shaky transition of power from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao (succession in the CCP has long been problematic, and admitting to a major problem so soon after taking power could provide rivals with an edge). But this time, there were once again efforts to cover up the initial outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic. In 2020, Xi Jinping is firmly in power, holding the titles of President, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and General Secretary of the Communist Party. So I guess covering up perceived failures is just endemic in China's party-government apparatus. I have no great political statement to make at the end of this phlog. It's just disappointing that such easy lessons were not learned and such obvious remedies were not applied. /rant Oh, and a shout out to dgold at the Grey Area phlog. Glad the e-reader is serving you well. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPpoJGYlW54 [2] https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2020HLTH0077-000484