Business Talk Magazine

CONTACT: 

• John Norris
• 617-680-3127
• John.Norris@Safely2Prosperity.com
• https://www.safely2prosperity.com

February 12, 2024 – (BOSTON) 

As a former FDA COO and Harvard faculty member, and having served in the US military during the Vietnam War, I believe I must help prepare the US and our allied nations—and their critical enterprises— worldwide—to better survive the next pandemic, endemic, or local outbreak of a dangerous pathogen, whether it is nature-made or human-manufactured. 

There is much confusion among the public and senior executives at  government agencies and businesses, both for-profit and not-for-profit,  about the continuing significant risks from infectious disease spread  within their places of business and their employees’ homes. 

Since the interest of the press and their viewers and readers was  saturated by their over two-year almost daily coverage of the COVID-19  Pandemic, they have stopped covering the continuing significant risks of  pathogens, including COVID-19, the flu, and RSV. These and other  deadly diseases aren’t going anywhere. They are here to stay. 

The tail end of the COVID-19 Pandemic still has a punch in terms of 

deaths and significant other harms, such as mental, psychological, and  financial damage—and the overflowing of our hospitals and clinics. The  pandemic did not end, as declared on May 11, 2023. Like many political  

declarations throughout history, that declaration was, at best, wishful  thinking. 

Plus, other significant yet less active infectious diseases, such as  Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria, are still very active in the US, at  least seasonally. 

Of particular concern right now in terms of spread is what the CDC calls  the “Triple-Demic.” This involves all three earlier-mentioned diseases:  COVID-19, the Flu, and RSV. Catching one of them is of significant  concern. Catching all three at the same time could readily be deadly. 

To make matters worse, this continuing and growing exposure to all  these infectious diseases and others is happening when many  businesses have begun requiring their employees to return to their  workspaces at least four days a week, and some employers are pushing  them to do so five days a week. For these employees and their  employers, the “hybrid work model” used in recent years is dead or all  but dead. 

Plus, those who refuse to comply or ignore the corporate rules on this  critical issue are increasingly being fired or at least passed over for  bonuses or promotions. And many businesses have installed attendance  monitoring, which would have been considered an intolerable insult in  the past. So, most employees are complying with the new rules. 

Infectious disease spread is one of the greatest dangers facing  Americans and all people living worldwide. But few Americans and their  bosses realize this. We all tend to ignore it until a pandemic-sized attack  kills millions of “Our” people. It’s called “tribalism”—a powerful force of  nature inbred in us all. 

And even then, we have heavily discounted the value of the deaths of  nearly 1 million elderly Americans who were casualties in the war against  COVID-19. You will see no monuments to them in Washington, DC, or  town halls across the land. They have been long forgotten and are gone  without a single trace. Not even their name lightly scratched on a tablet  remains.

We forget that infectious diseases have killed hundreds of times more  people throughout history than atomic or chemical weapons. 

An estimated 39,000 people died in the nuclear attack on Nagasaki.  66,000 in Hiroshima. Or roughly 110,000. That’s it for nuclear weapons.  No Americans were killed. 

Chemical weapons used in the American Civil War killed an estimated  220,000 American soldiers. (And infectious diseases possibly killed twice  that number, or some 440,000 more.) In WWI, they killed an estimated  53,000 Americans. (And infectious diseases possibly killed some 45,000  more.) In WWII, 220,000. (And infectious diseases, perhaps some  180,000 more.) 

In the Korean War, 36,000. (And infectious diseases possibly killed many  more.) In the Vietnam War, 58,000. (And infectious diseases possibly  killed many more.) 

That is all. So, thus far, it has not been atomic weapons or chemical  weapons that have taken an astronomical toll on American lives. 

Instead, it has been infectious disease spread, either nature-made or  human-manufactured, that has so devastated Americans—and most  other people around the world. 

Accordingly, we must spend more of our national security and defense  funding on risk-managing infectious disease spread. Instead, we spend  almost all those funds on atomic and chemical offensive, deterrent, and  

defensive weapons. How can this make sense? When and how will it  end? 

Of course, the threat of death and destruction from the massive and  widespread use of atomic weapons is high if they are ever used again.  But they have not been used since WWII. And because they are  uncontrollable mass destruction weapons and expose users to equal or  more significant retaliation due to their high and quick traceability as to  source, they might never be used again. 

It was the bubonic plague (the “Black Death”) in the Middle Ages that  killed roughly 50 million people, estimated to be half the people in the  world at that time. And in recent years, infectious diseases have often  been the third most likely cause of death worldwide.

Thus far, COVID-19 has killed 1.2 million Americans. And roughly 7  million worldwide. Most of them were elderly. The so-called  “disposables.” 

The 1918 Flu Pandemic, called “the mother of all pandemics,” killed an  estimated 675,000 Americans and roughly 50 million worldwide. It circled  the globe in less than four months. Most of the victims were 18-year-old  kids to 43-year-old middle-aged adults. Unlike the older adults killed by  COVID-19, they were severely and repeatedly missed by their families  and their communities. 

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO)  announced a week ago at the Davos meeting in Switzerland that a  50,000,000-death-scale pandemic is headed our way, and it is “not if,  but when” it will arrive. We agree. 

The bottom line is that infectious diseases have always been a force to  reckon with. And with our “ever-shrinking” world, their threat to  humankind is ever-increasing and more significant than any other risk. It  is time we pay attention to this and act accordingly. 

My teammates and I have invented and developed a significant digital  tool that provides part of the solution. It is the best in the world. But  everyone must now kick in. You can text me at 617-680-3127 to learn  more—and explore how S2P’s VirusVigilant machine learning (and  soon partially AI) driven digital platform can help protect your enterprise  and its employees. 

The URL for the Full Article on the WHO announcement, really a  warning, is https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/alert-world-health organization-director-general-has-norris-jd-mba-kzrqe. 

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