As terrifying as it may be to think about, another pandemic is almost certainly likely to affect the world again, and we need to be ready. We are not ready, though.
Alexandra Kelley reporting for The Hill's "Changing America" section, wrote that "New study of 62k hospitals nationwide finds US is unprepared for next pandemic." Considering that the study looks at data from 2005-2014, it is in fact limited. None of the hospitals were found to be "adequately" prepared. No state had secured "ideal readiness" in time for the pandemic.
As Kelley noted about the survey:
Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine led a study analyzing the Hospital Medical Surge Preparedness Index (HMSPI), a metric used to understand hospitals’ ability to respond to a mass influx of patients. Some of the inputs to calculate an HMSPI score include per capita data from the U.S. Census Bureau between the years of 2005 to 2014 and surveys from the American Hospital Association (AHA), among other resources.
Some of the figures specifically looked at the number of hospital staff, beds and equipment.
The study ultimately found that while there have been observed increases in HMSPI scores among county and state hospitals and medical clinics, there is no statistically significant difference in HMSPI scores between 2013 and 2014, implying a lack of updates to hospital surge preparedness.
"Our work links objective healthcare data to a hospital score that assesses the ability to save lives in a disaster," said study lead author David Marcozzi, a Professor of Emergency Medicine at UMSOM and Chief Clinical Officer/Senior Vice President at the University of Maryland medical college. "It attempts to fill a glaring gap in the national conversation on the need for improved assessments of and the opportunity for better hospital planning to assure readiness."
Another piece from The Hill, by Morgan Chalfant and Nathaniel Weixel, "Biden urged to harden government for future pandemics," engaged in a deeper discussion about preparedness.
It basically comes down to funding. "Emergency funding has helped public health agencies fight the coronavirus, but unless that level of spending can be sustained, the country is considered in danger of repeating the same mistakes," the piece reads early on.
Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials is quoted throughout the piece, including and especially on that issue of funding:
Plescia said the U.S. should overhaul antiquated data systems, as well as shore up the public health workforce. That won't take a substantial funding commitment, he said, but the money needs to be consistent.
"What Congress needs to do is just put forward some recurring funding for public health. Sure, that could get cut in years to come, but that's different than sort of the one-time resources we're getting now," Plescia said. "A lot of state, local governments are going to be hesitant to really take actions ... unless they see some kind of recurring funding."
There's talk of the American Rescue Plan and American Jobs Plan from the Biden administration. There's even mention of "a push on Capitol Hill for the formation of a bipartisan 9/11-style commission to analyze the nation’s pandemic preparedness and response," which really had me cautiously optimistic.
Ultimately, though, there was no discussion of how one major way to prepare would be to find out the origins of the virus.
It cannot be emphasized enough that, especially if the Wuhan coronavirus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, it is all the more pressing to investigate it to the fullest extent possible.
At a GOP Doctors Caucus press conference last month, which Townhall attended, House leaders, including Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY), stressed the need for such an investigation, including through committee hearings.
It's not some fringe theory, nor is it a conspiracy to say that the virus may have originated from a lab in China and leaked. As I recently reported, a majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, now believe that the virus originated from a lab leak as opposed to occurring naturally.
Further, American tax dollars are funding the lab and the gain of function research that occurred there.
EcoHealth Alliance, a grantee from the National Institutes of Health, funded the Wuhan lab but has not been forthcoming about how it spends taxpayer money. This has led to the introduction of legislation, such as the Stop Act from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), which will defund such organizations that are not honest.
If we want a 9/11 commission for anything, as Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) pointed out on "The Ingraham Angle" in May, it should be about the virus. "We should demand in Congress, if we're going to form a 9/11 style commission on anything, it should be about the origins of the coronavirus and the negligence on the party of the Chinese Communist Party, and those in our own government that allowed the coronavirus to spread and became a worldwide pandemic like it did," he said.
Last month, former Sec. of State Mike Pompeo spoke to Breitbart's Alex Marlow and emphasized that "the Chinese Communist Party allowed this virus to escape from Wuhan" and "continue to cover it up to this day."
He pointed out that CCP officials should not be able to travel or send their families to the United States, and that "we should impose enormous costs on the local leaders who permitted this to happen and then we should also demand that the world join together and impose harsh trade costs on the Chinese until they permit us to conduct the research needed to figure out who patient zero was, and to make sure that this lab is fixed."
Pompeo also mentioned the World Health Organization in his comments, including and especially how the Biden administration is back to working with and trusting them, despite their corrupted nature and failure to hold China accountable for the virus.
"What are the kinds of things we can do?" Pompeo questioned. "We left the World Health Organization. What a joke to sit beside them at a meeting and have them pretend to be part of the global effort to end pandemics, when in fact they were the providers of the pandemic and covered it up. So, first thing you should do is … get out of the WHO and demand that the world build out a system to prevent this from happening again that doesn’t include the arsonist who is setting all the fires," he said.
Former Donald Trump has said in numerous speeches since leaving office that not only does he feel vindicated when it comes to his theory that the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan, but also that China should have to pay billions of dollars in reparations to the rest of the world. This involves countries canceling their debt to China.
Regardless of the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus, China remains a bad actor. If we want to make sure the level of suffering as a result of the next pandemic is not the result of a leak, we must get to the bottom of it.