The Los Angeles Times has their annual Festival of Books. This year, of course, the discussion panels are being held online. That's my favorite part of the book festival. This was the final panel discussion I watched. This panel discussion was called, "Science & Medicine: Looking at the Coronavirus and Pandemics." Per YouTube, here's the introduction to the discussion:
Here we are – more than half a year into the corornavirus pandemic, and what do we know, what went wrong, and how can we do better? Let’s hear from the experts: science journalist Debora MacKenzie, prize-winning author/journalist Sonia Shah, and sociologist, physician, and author Nicholas Christakis. L.A. Times health-care reporter Soumya Karlamangla will guide the conversation tracking the history of pandemics, how migrations spread disease, and how coronavirus will change the way we live.
The following are my notes from the panel discussion:
Debora MacKenzie - Prize Winning Science Journalist and Author
Coronavirus should never have happened. It was predicted by scientists. Labs were working on this and knew it posed a risk for a pandemic. We didn't continue vaccine research after SARS. All preparation was on a flu pandemic, not a coronavirus. We had rules in place to tell people, but the information didn't get out. People didn't believe something like this could happen.
