Quote of the Day (Brilliant, Smolinski, Danzig and Lipkin, on Animal Virus Spillovers and Pandemic Prevention)

“Population growth in both animals and humans, industrialization, urbanization, and modernization have raised the risk that diseases will jump [from animals] to humans and spread. But modern advances have also given the world new tools to prevent, track, and contain infections, allowing us to stop spillover from turning into global chaos.

“In other words, spillover and outbreaks are inevitable, but pandemics are not. Humanity's greatest task now, therefore, is to do everything possible to sever the link between the former and the latter. It is a task made easier than ever by modern science, yet also one that requires crucial elements sorely lacking in the age of COVID-19—speed, cooperation, and trust.  Without overcoming these deficits, the chain will remain unbroken.”—Larry Brilliant, Mark Smolinski, Lisa Danzig, and W. Ian Lipkin, “Inevitable Outbreaks: How to Stop an Age of Spillovers From Becoming an Age of Pandemics,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2023