January 18, 2010 | By Bill Gates A Better Response to the Next
Pandemic The H1N1 flu wasn’t nearly as bad as predicted, but not
because of the effectiveness of the steps taken to contain it.
The inadequate global response shows that we are still
unprepared for a major pandemic. New methods for manufacturing
vaccines quickly and other investments are clearly required. The
H1N1 flu strain got a lot of attention in 2009. Most of the
headlines made it sound dangerous. Early in the epidemic we
thought that a very high percentage of infected people were
getting sick, and it was quite scary. But the real story isn’t
how bad H1N1 was. The real story is that we are lucky it wasn’t
worse because we were almost completely unprepared for it. When
an epidemic breaks out, there are four steps to try to contain
it. The first is to gather data about the disease – where it is
and how it is spreading. Second is to limit the movement of
people from place to place – with quarantine a last option. Once
a disease is widespread thi