<the effort really is pretty minimal considering the pandemic potential for death and disruption.>
$100 billion a year is going into Iraq with no particularly great outcome in prospect.
I doubt that there is $100 billion a year going into defences against lethal pandemic viruses.
If 10 million random people are killed, they must be worth something like $100,000,000,000 at $10,000 each, or even $1,000,000,000,000 at $100,000 each.
With 100 million killed it would be perhaps $10 trillion in just lives, plus the economic dislocation. With 1 billion dead [only a 15% kill rate, which pandemics have done before], that would be $100 trillion in life costs at $100,000 each.
Most Americans would value themselves at more than $100,000 so even $100 trillion might be a low figure.
The economic destruction would be huge too. Total damage of $100 trillion is easy to imagine.
Spending a few $billion to avoid such catastrophe makes sense.
Mqurice |
