Our approach to combating pandemics must shift to one that prioritizes prevention of human infections with zoonotic viruses, rather than focusing on rapid response once human infection is widespread.
Unless the human mortality rate is much higher than COVID, this is just going to be the same thing all over again. Vaccines take time to prepare and even though this is a flu strain (which should give us a headstart), there doesn’t seem to be much happening with this yet (even the US has only just started getting organised with an order of 4.8 million doses, which is a drop in the ocean if their burgeoning outbreak amongst livestock manages to jump to humans). Waiting until we have rampant human-to-human transmission to order vaccines will be too late.
Unless the human mortality rate is much higher than COVID, this is just going to be the same thing all over again. Vaccines take time to prepare and even though this is a flu strain (which should give us a headstart), there doesn’t seem to be much happening with this yet (even the US has only just started getting organised with an order of 4.8 million doses, which is a drop in the ocean if their burgeoning outbreak amongst livestock manages to jump to humans). Waiting until we have rampant human-to-human transmission to order vaccines will be too late.