Why the ‘just-in-time mentality’ won’t work in public health – PBS NewsHour

Naomi Oreskes:

Well, if there’s any silver lining in this situation, I think one one potential silver lining is that people will now recognize the essential role of vaccinations and public health and safety. We live in a world where many of us no longer remember what it was like when polio was a terrible threat. Many of us grew up with vaccinations for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox. So childhood diseases are something that we don’t really have a personal memory of. And then under that sort of situation, it’s very easy to become complacent. And I think we have good evidence that the American people have become very complacent. And so this is a wake up call. This is a reminder that infectious diseases are still with us. And the strongest things we have to fight them are preparedness, which has been woefully lacking in this case, and vaccinations, which probably vaccinations. If you wait until people are sick, it is too late. It takes time to develop a vaccination and it takes time to test it. Typically, at least a year, sometimes longer. And so this is also why preparedness is so important.

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