PREPAREDNESS The Next Pandemic: When, Not If World Economic Forum In a 2015 Ted Talk, Bill Gates declared, “If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus.”  He probably should have said “viruses.” As humans crisscross the globe with increasing frequency, dive deeper into natural ecosystems, and contribute to climate change, medical experts warn it’s basically inevitable we’ll experience more viral outbreaks.  “You asked what keeps me up at night,” CDC Director Robert Redfield told a House committee. “I know it’s a pandemic flu.” So what have we learned from COVID-19?  That we need to do a lot better next time around. Here are a few proposed solutions from medical experts... More funding: Redfield told Congress that his agency didn’t have the money to fulfill the “core capabilities of public health.” The UN says we need to spend $11 billion more to fight global pandemics. Reforming the WHO: Global cooperation is critical to fighting a pandemic, but critics argue the World Health Organization has serious flaws in its design. Strengthening the medical supply chain to ensure critical drugs are available when needed. More surveillance: As David Ecker writes in Scientific American, “The best way to prevent pandemics is to apply the same principles as we use to prevent catastrophic forest fires: survey aggressively for smaller brush fires and stomp them out immediately.”