With the current healthcare technology, will we be able to prevent a coming pandemic?

Answer 1

I believe that the current healthcare technology is ill-prepared for a coming pandemic. Although the United States has stockpiles of certain antibiotics in case of a bacterial bioterrorism attack, there are many viruses that we simply do not have treatments or vaccines for. A great example would be the current Coronavirus, where we do not have enough information or treatments available at the moment to really fight this epidemic (that could turn pandemic soon). Anti-virals exist for influenza virus, but we do not have the technology to quickly create anti-virals for this specific coronavirus (if creating such an anti-viral is even possible). And most anti-virals usually slow the disease rather than curing it. We also do not have the technology to properly track the rapid spread of this virus, which can be asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms in many infected individuals. I think access to healthcare is also a major problem, and the lack of advanced knowledge of emerging viruses really challenges healthcare technology of the United States and the globe.