This Pandemic Is Not a "Once in a Hundred-Year Event!"

Just because the last huge pandemic to sweep the United States and the world was the 1918 Flu Pandemic and now it is 2020 and we have another worldwide pandemic does not mean that it will be another 100 years before we have another pandemic.

Quite to the contrary. With humans pushing more and more into the wild of the Amazon rainforest and other equatorial areas of the world there is a much closer animal-to-human opportunity for the transmission and adaptation of a virus that is lethal to humans.

Add to this the ability to travel across the globe and be halfway around the world in a matter of hours and the transmission factors become problematic. It will not be 2120 before we see another pandemic. Like the 100-year flood that happens sometimes three years in a row, it is a misnomer. 

Strengthening our public health capabilities and then sustaining them over time is needed. Will that happen? Not likely! We have historical trouble sustaining surges in preparedness and prevention. We love a good crisis!