The world is not prepared for the major impact of diseases, epidemics, and pandemics. We have to better prepare ourselves for these major outbreaks that could kill us all before it is too late.

When searching “Diseases and Epidemics” in Google News, a mid-September article by a panel of international health experts and officials from CNN becomes prevalent. One writer says global catastrophes have killed as many as 50 million people. When the issue is present we work towards treating the threat, but when the threat goes away we are quick to forget about the dangers.

Have other political and social endeavors led us astray from real-world problems?

Yes, yes it has.

George Dvorsky of Gizmodo wrote, “The current level of preparedness at the global scale was described in the report as being ‘grossly insufficient.’ Community engagement, the authors wrote, is fundamentally lacking across “all aspects of national preparedness planning and response.”

Researchers have seen that there has been a mass advancement in many present diseases throughout the years.

Dvorsky said, “Ebola, SARS, cholera, measles, and influenza were among the many dangerous airborne diseases cited by the group.”

Michael Hughes is an AP World teacher and agrees that millions have died due to the increasing issue and it will keep occurring unless humans as individuals make a change. He said, “You don’t invest until a crisis emerges. It is not popular to spend a bunch of money on prevention. We pay more money once we’ve gotten sick rather than preventing ourselves from getting sick.”

Senior Mya Thomas has seen many struggles with disease and epidemics. She says there are many reasons we are not prepared for these diseases, epidemics, and pandemics. She said, “Because not everybody is getting vaccinations, we don’t have the right ones, and they aren’t researched enough, and politics don’t enforce them enough.”

While everyone worries about other present situations, what about the millions of people that died due to under preparation in the past centuries?

“Like in 1918, 100 million people died from the flu. It killed more people than in World War I. Nobody seems to remember that so when it does break out it is a huge deal. We gotta spend more money on that,” said Hughes.

It is seen that disease, epidemics, pandemics, and many more things can spread in a short amount of time around this world.

Lena H. Sun of The Washington Post reported that health officials, as well as politicians, have been warning people for years that the world is not prepared for the next pandemic. She said, “Infectious diseases can spread from one village to any country in the world in about 36 hours.”

Hughes agrees that it only takes the exchange of one small thing to increase amongst the world and either affect it in a negative way or positive according to history. He says, “We are a connected world you’re always traveling.”

It is apparent that you never know who you may come in contact with.

For example, Hughes said, “You’re never more than a few degrees of separation from some traveling business person who just got back from Africa. So you might think you don’t have much contact with somebody in Ghana but it turns out you have more contact indirectly than you think. As they say its a small world after all.”

Can we do things to change this issue?

Yes, yes we can.

Thomas believes we can do more as a society to stop this issue. She said, “More media about the situation, more vaccinations, and people need to be more informed.”

There is no end to the spread of the many threats we face as humans. If we don’t further prepare ourselves we will be lost in a sea of death.