Must read NYT Op Ed "She Predicted the Coronavirus. What Does She Foresee Next?"

[NRaleighLiberal]

https://nyti.ms/2zJpPQn

I told Laurie Garrett that she might as well change her name to Cassandra. Everyone is calling her that anyway. She and I were Zooming — that’s a verb now, right? — and she pulled out a 2017 book, “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes.” It notes that Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was prescient not only about the impact of H.I.V. but also about the emergence and global spread of more contagious pathogens. "I’m a double Cassandra,” Garrett said.

She’s also prominently mentioned in a recent Vanity Fair article by David Ewing Duncan about “the Coronavirus Cassandras.” Cassandra, of course, was the Greek prophetess doomed to issue unheeded warnings. What Garrett has been warning most direly about — in her 1994 best seller, “The Coming Plague,” and in subsequent books and speeches, including TED Talks — is a pandemic like the current one.

She saw it coming. So a big part of what I wanted to ask her about was what she sees coming next. Steady yourself. Her crystal ball is dark. Despite the stock market’s swoon for it, remdesivir probably isn’t our ticket out, she told me. “It’s not curative,” she said, pointing out that the strongest claims so far are that it merely shortens the recovery of Covid-19 patients. “We need either a cure or a vaccine.”

But she can’t envision that vaccine anytime in the next year, while Covid-19 will remain a crisis much longer than that. "l’ve been telling everybody that my event horizon is about 36 months, and that’s my best-case scenario,” she said

snip

sorry about the paywall. This essential, and sobering.

[Tactical Peek]

1. Just FYI, they took down their paywall at NYT for coronavirus articles.

Also removed at Vanity Fair likewise, for that David Ewing Duncan article mentioned.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/why-didnt-the-world-listen-to-the-coronavirus-cassandras

[Cha]

2. Good to know.. TY!

[empedocles]

3. 36 months! Hard to get a head around that.

[MFM008]

4. Great....

A future darker than Blade Runner
Very little hope.
😢😢

[Thekaspervote]

5. A lot of prophet types have made predictions. Why focus on the dark?

There are several things on the horizon that look promising
Cures
Treatments that mitigate and save lives
And a possible vaccine says Oxford researchers possibly as early as Sept
Everyday we know more and learn more... let’s stay positive

[SoonerPride]

6. I think the media sell us too much false hope

A vaccine isn’t likely to be ready for years.

This pandemic will almost certainly last 18 months to two years at a minimum.

We should face reality and prepare for that.

If the vaccine researchers hit a Hail Mary pass and we get an out earlier we can rejoice.

But the history of vaccines suggest we are in for a long long period of dealing with this.

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. Maybe because I am a scientist that was in big pharma for 25 years

and don't watch TV at all, I tend to be more of a realist, after critically thinking things through.

[Karma13612]

8. Back in the 90's, I read an

Incredible book called “Phoenix Rising” by Mary Summer Rain

Quite a prophetic piece. Everything in that book is coming true.

Wish I still had it, but with several moves since then, it has been lost.

As I recall, in the end, we rise again as the Phoenix rises.

If you can get your hands on one, read it.

[LisaL]

9. Many people "saw it coming."

Pandemics happen every so many years and we were due for one.

[Buckeyeblue]

10. We haven't had to live with the threat of illness like this for years...

But 70 years ago, there were many illnesses that could strike communities. People just lived with the threats those illnesses posed. We may have to do that again...

[Marrah_Goodman]

11. "The Coming Plague" was a good read

It's not just her. Epidemiologists have been warning us for a long time. The people in this administration just refused to listen.

[cwydro]

12. Read this earlier this morning.

Excellent read, and I’m afraid she’s right.