With the coronavirus pandemic still a global crisis affecting millions of lives, it may seem like a strange time to be thinking about what the next pandemic might be. But John Oliver thinks now might actually be the the most important time to discuss it.
“Scientists attempted to warn us about the next pandemic long before the current one hit, and we didn’t really listen,” says the Last Week Tonight host, before playing a 17-year-old clip of a scientist making a “hauntingly spot-on prediction” of the disease currently sweeping the globe. “And the truth is, if we’re not very careful, the next pandemic could be even worse.”
Oliver then launches a deep dive into where infectious diseases like COVID-19 come from, starting with the origin (“it’s estimated that up to 75 percent of new or emerging infectious diseases come from animals”) before moving on to the reasons why these diseases are making the jump to humans, citing how humanity is “erasing the buffer between civilisation and wildlife” through things like “deforestation, urbanisation, mining and generally supplanting natural habitats.” There are also issues with exotic pet ownership, and when wildlife is sold for consumption in markets (“conditions in some of those wildlife markets can be ideal for disease transmission,” Oliver says), as well as factory farming.
So, how do we actually stop pandemics? Oliver says there will likely need to be lots of smaller solutions depending on the area in question, citing Thailand’s success at preventing outbreaks by giving farmers a phone app to record abnormal illness among livestock.
“I’m not saying that this will be cheap,” adds Oliver. “One estimate for the cost of global prevention comes between $22 billion and $31 billion a year. But bear in mind, even if it was double that, the cost of COVID-19 in the U.S. alone is estimated to be over $16 trillion, so to put it mildly: it’s fucking worth it.
“The problem is, as we come out the other side of this pandemic there is a real danger that we’re going to start to get complacent — so for the good of future generations, and in all likelihood us in a few years time, we really need to remember the way we feel right now and invest accordingly. Because the truth is, you never know where the next pandemic is going to come from.”