Category: Politics, Power, and Governance

September 18th, 2018 2:42 PM GATES ON WHAT KEEPS HIM UP AT NIGHT: 1 – Antibiotic Resistance.
2 – The next Pandemic: “Disease X”
3 – The expansion of third world population such that medical resources are overwhelmed.
4 – The restoration of decline into poverty because of that demographic expansion. Well shared vision bill. ‘Cept that I am absolutely positive nothing can be done about the last two, and absolutely determined to prevent our genocide because of it. There has to remain a reserve of human capital to survive that cataclysm. QUOTES: Joe Shute,The Telegraph•September 18, 2018 —“When I ask which challenges to global health security he fears the most, Gates outlines three: antibiotic resistance, cuts to government funding to improve health in the world’s poorest countries, and the next unknown disease, referred to by the World Health Organisation simply as ‘Disease X’. “We are not fully prepared for the next global pandemic,” he says. “The threat of the unknown pathogen – highly-contagious, lethal, fast-moving – is real. It could be a mutated flu strain or something else entirely. The Swine Flu and 2014 Ebola outbreaks underscored the threat.” There is another threat on his mind, one which has often been treated as the ‘elephant in the room’ in the world of international development. Namely, the population explosion in Africa’s poorest countries and its future impact – either fueling poverty, political instability, conflict and refugees, or sparking a new boom in world growth as happened in India and China. … above all is one simple fact that even the eternally optimistic Gates warns could mean “to put it bluntly decades of progress in the fight against poverty and disease may be on the verge of stalling”. In short, as birth rates falter in the developed world, in the poorest parts of Africa they are booming. By 2050, the ten poorest countries on the continent are projected to more than double in population. “The thing that is mind-blowing is if the demographers who have been very accurate on these things are right about Africa, then you are going from 1bn today to 2bn at middle of century, to 4bn at the end of the century,” he says.”—