Word: systemize
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...human flu viruses, we might have seen H1N1 coming. (When it comes to sniffing out new pathogens, says one epidemiologist, "we're like a drunk looking for his keys.") Faster genetic sequencing and the Internet give us the technological means to create an early-warning system. But we need to spend more on animal health and get doctors talking to their veterinarian counterparts. "For too long, the animal side of public health has been neglected," says Dr. William Karesh, vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society's global-health program...
...defense. "The fact that the world is one continuous village now means viruses that would have gone extinct before have the potential to take hold much more rapidly," says Nathan Wolfe, director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI). "But it also means we can create a planetary immune system...
Wolfe's brainchild is a model of what that immune system might look like. With funding from the likes of Google, GVFI has teams on the ground in Africa and Asia surveilling wild animals and the people who live in proximity to them for new pathogens. These "sentinel populations" will provide early warning when a new virus emerges; if a dangerous disease is discovered as soon as it crosses from animals to people, quick action can contain it--but only if we're looking. "Tens of millions for surveillance could save us the hundreds of billions it would cost...
...occasional pathogen will get through even the most vigilant early-warning system. Viruses, after all, are pretty good at what they do. A new flu pandemic is all but inevitable, and while the response to H1N1--the rapid deployment of Tamiflu, the blizzard of advice from the Federal Government--shows we're better prepared for a pandemic than ever before, it doesn't mean we're truly prepared. A virulent flu pandemic--one that spreads throughout the world and sickens 25% to 30% of Americans--would cause our health-care system to crash like an overloaded website. Partly because...
...doorstopper put out by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2005. Increasing our capacity to manufacture and distribute flu vaccines within our borders is also a must. But truly preparing the country for a pandemic means tackling the basic flaws at the heart of the health-care system--starting with the some 50 million Americans who lack any health insurance. They're more likely to flood hospitals for care during a pandemic, further taxing what will be an overburdened system. "They're akin to the Typhoid Marys of the last century," says Columbia's Redlener. "They...