The Good News That Bears Repeating: We'll Never Have Another 2020,

[ancianita]

because of the BEST things we've gotten out of 2020:

1. Our scientists and other scientists around the world can now map every new virus within 24 hours;

2. Scientists all over the world have the CRSPR biotech to input all new viral genetic maps so that CRSPR Cas9 editings can result in vaccines being developed even faster than they were for COVID-19;

3. We have the infrastructure for manufacturing and distributing enough vaccine to stop highly infectious viruses almost at points of entry, and through contact tracing, so that there's only a cluster, not even an outbreak, nor an epidemic, nor a pandemic.

We've really learned a lot from the scientific and governing ends of this pandemic. We know enough now to be on top of all new viruses anywhere globally that they rapidly spread.

We can thank Jennifer Doudna for breaking down the components of RNA, the scientific work that enabled the already-existing CRISPR to quickly map edited genomes that work against new viruses.

We'll never have another 2020 for the above reasons.

[Walleye]

1. I often remember the quote attributed to Einstein

“More people are killed by bad politics than are killed by bad science”

[ancianita]

2. Good quote. Einstein knew politics, didn't he.

81+ million knew it last November. All we have to do is convince them -- and more -- to hang with the science and infrastructure party.

[hunter]

3. We have the science, we have the technology, yet...

... ignorance and anti-intellectualism are getting in the way.

If too many people choose to live within their own fantasy worlds, expecting capricious gods to save them because they are somehow special, then vaccines won't save us.

[ancianita]

4. Yes. But

people often melt out of the way once 70+% are immunized. There has always been human inertia, mostly unfounded, and mostly because of a fear and conflict driven mindset that has to get dragged along with civilizations' advancements every generation.

Hell, even scientists and technologists get in each other's way; public and private sectors get in each others' way, too.

There will always be those with smaller capacities for progress, for whatever reasons. Right now, corporations are throwing their chips in with advancement and democracy, so there's a forward momentum.

[Jirel]

5. Oh, we will.

We had the tech in the beginning of 2020. It took 4 days to create the mRNA vaccine. It took most of the year for testing and approval. If we are hit by another pandemic, we will still go through that “2020” period. We may shave off a couple “2021” months of dicking around with production and distribution, but not necessarily. We also had the know-how from our experience with polio, and even our international experience with Ebola. Did that help us? Of course not.

Add anti-vax and anti-mask freaks, and this is definitely going to happen again and again.

[ancianita]

6. Can't agree. The science & infrastructure are in place to speed up the whole timeline of 2020.

So no, there will be no repeat of the 2020 timeline, not even for testing stages, because the new and stable accuracies of viral mapping and vaccine development that had never happened before 2020.

As for the freaks, they'll soften through increased national acceptance, the way they have with polio smallpox vaccines.

[Jirel]

9. Go ahead and believe that until the next one hits.

It's sweet that you're so optimistic, but reality is going to give you a cold shower.

[ancianita]

10. It's not about belief. It's about global effort that right now exists. That reality.

If I'm optimistic, so are the scientists and pharmaceutical manufacturers who say they've now got this. So is the governmental infrastructure now set up to do it all faster. DARPA funded Moderna for ten years, and with Doudna's team, produced their vaccine in partnership with Pfizer.

Now that RNA vaccines are here to stay, so are the global scientists who are ready to produce faster results beyond the old school trial structure (90 days with 50% effectiveness and adverse reaction data) that didn't have accurately mapped genomes to produce vaccines (14 days for antibody results and adverse reaction data). Not just faster, but now they have bigger RNA vaccine trials, real time globally communicated trial results across continents, and bigger, more accurate data.

Now that the years of upfront effort have made these breakthroughs, to go ahead and ignore all that.

[Midnight Writer]

7. We'll never have another 2020, unless we elect another "Trump"

Trump destroyed many of the precautions we already had in place, threw out the guidebook in how to handle a pandemic, fired the key people we needed, refused all reasonable advice in dealing with this crisis, and encouraged the American people to not take precautions, to refuse masks, and to reject the vaccines.

Our problem was not with the science, it was with having leadership who actively sabotaged every path to mitigation and recovery.

[maxsolomon]

8. Well, none of us will live till 2121, maybe there will be another 2020 then.

Because 2020 was another 2019.

Every 101 years like clockwork!

[Yavin4]

11. We also re-discovered the cure to Trump.

We turned out and voted.