The Pandemic Taught Us About Preparing and it is Time to Apply This

Humans have been using vaccines for over 200 years since smallpox and continue to use them. Since 2020 vaccines have become a widely discussed topic creating a lot of controversy. Vaccines are very important and helpful for protecting the general population’s health, but this does not mean vaccines don’t come along worry free. Mainly the distribution of vaccines and the availability of them has been a major issue with them and this is currently being highlighted by the Monkeypox outbreak. There have been widespread vaccine shortages and cities have been struggling to distribute them and especially to those in most need. This mainly stems from the government being slow to order the vaccines when cases started to pop up which has delayed the entire process itself. So while the cases continue to rise the government is attempting to keep up with the doses available, but it is struggling to keep up. On top of this there are barriers to getting the vaccine itself that mainly pose issues for the LGBQT+ community. They are often required to answer very personal questions about their sexual life which can discourage individuals from getting a vaccine. Also, many have been blocked from getting it due to city issues or availability. This is very alarming because the cases continue to rise, but the amount of people who are struggling to get the vaccine is rising just as fast.

This makes one wonder, did the U.S. government not learn from the Covid-19 pandemic? We saw what neglecting a disease in other countries and waiting until it came to us did to the country. It has killed over a million people and created chaos in our country. Yet we find ourselves in a similar situation only 2 years later. People are struggling to get vaccines and the country did not properly plan for another major disease outbreak. While the CDC has plans and strategies developed for issues like this, they are clearly not working very well. The National Pandemic Strategy was made in 2005 and some parts of it have not been updated since 2016. Clearly a lot has changed and the CDC should take the time to revise their strategies to be better prepared for the future. It should adopt plans that increase international collaboration with other countries to better understand disease outbreaks from their origins and begin to estimate the potential for impact on the U.S. This can help the country anticipate possible outbreaks and begin preparing not when the disease hits, but before it even reaches us. By waiting until we get hit with a disease it leaves us in a scramble as more and more people get sick. If there were protocols in place that required the CDC to develop a strategy and plan to deal with an outbreak, then it can be administered as soon as we get hit. This would mitigate the risk, prevent more people from getting sick, hence saving lives. It is important that our government’s health departments begin using the experiences from previous outbreaks to continuously revise and improve our strategies and plans for the future. In the case of the Monkeypox outbreak, taking note of its quick spread in other countries and lack of vaccines the U.S. could have been better prepared. Rather than putting in massive orders for vaccines now and making people wait, they could have been ready with some doses to jumpstart everything. History is a very telling and informative experience and the government should use this to make our disease outbreak strategies and policies as efficient and organized as possible.