Founder of EndCoronavirus.org explains why 'endemic COVID' isn't acceptable, and how to stop it
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When most people think about the future of COVID-19 in the United States, they’re unlikely to think about this: orphanages. “People don’t remember the world as it was a hundred years ago,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam. “To live in that world, a world whereFounder of EndCoronavirus.org explains why 'endemic COVID' isn't acceptable, and how to stop it
When most people think about the future of COVID-19 in the United States, they’re unlikely to think about this: orphanages. “People don’t remember the world as it was a hundred years ago,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam. “To live in that world, a world where orphans are common, and children dying is common, and the destruction of society is ongoing because of disease, is very hard for people to imagine.” Bar-Yam is an expert in complex systems who has consulted on everything from how Wall Street can better handle market uncertainty to how the Navy integrates new defense concepts. But his greatest impact may be in the area of epidemic disease. With social, political, and economic issues compounding the science of transmission and treatment, epidemics stretch the boundaries of complex systems. Finding the best way to deal with them can be extraordinarily difficult. As Bar-Yam showed in a 2006 paper, a small change in one area—like incremental increases in international travel—can have a huge impact on the course of an epidemic. In 2013, Bar-Yam played a key role in ending the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. In 2020, he founded EndCoronavirus.org to advocate for the best way to not just live with COVID-19, but to bring the pandemic to a real and definitive end. On Tuesday, the scientist and activist spoke with Daily Kos about how the science behind complex systems, and the experiences of dealing with previous diseases, can be brought to bear in ending what is already the worst global pandemic in a century. The answer isn’t so much “It takes a village” as it is treating the pandemic as if it’s made of villages. Read more