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by saati 32 days ago
The only actually serious one on that list is Covid, and the title and the nyt are lying, they declared an international emergency, not a global one, there is no chance this spreads outside of sub-saharan Africa.
2 comments

>The only actually serious one on that list

Based on what? The final body count?

This isn't a weather forecast, people and ressources flew towards making sure these emergencies didn't spiral into global pandemics.

You are falling face first into the preparedness paradox.

How much effort was thrown at each one in dollars or hours? Can you fill in that context?
The flu kills 300-500k every year, and did not make the list, while absolute bullshit like Zika and Monkey pox did.
Death by infected count, and level of infectious ess both matter. Flue kills more, but its also a lower death per infected count. This is why comparing COVID to flu was a statistic only pursued by those with a wilful misunderstanding.
Flu kills mostly babies and elders, ebola kills at any age. Hence the logistical and cultural and societal impact are nothing alike.
> only actually serious one on that list is Covid

That's the only one on the list that turned into a pandemic emergency.

> they declared an international emergency, not a global one

...you're mincing words in a silly way.

> there is no chance this spreads outside of sub-saharan Africa

Not what the public-health experts are saying! We currently don't actually know where it's gone. Given multi-week incubation periods, we won't know for a couple weeks where it is right now.

Keep in mind that eastern DRC and South Sudan are host to multiple internationalised conflicts right now. There are easy ways this could spread to the Gulf, Russia, America or Asia through troops and trade.

Ebola will never create an epidemic anywhere with a working health care system. And it's not mincing words, a few countries on a single continent is not global in any form, the WHO never said global, that's just something the nyt made up.
What constitutes a working health system? I would say the definition varies wildly.
In this case, it'd be one that says "if you're going to allow people from those countries to enter your country make sure they're quarantined until clear" without being stopped by "it so nazi racist"