Thank you for writing this comprehensive proposal. I agree with your conclusion it’s not a case of if but when and we should be improving our pandemic planning now.
Industrial animal agriculture creates conditions where pathogens can evolve and spread rapidly between densely housed animals, potentially creating new zoonotic diseases that can jump to humans. This factor alone raises the likelihood of future pandemics and strengthens the case for robust early detection systems.
The comparison to fire protection spending provides a compelling perspective. It’s striking that New Zealand spent nearly 3 times more on fire protection than pandemic preparedness, despite COVID-19 costing the country roughly 50 times more than annual fire damage. This kind of data-driven comparison makes a strong case for increasing pandemic surveillance investment.
I hope you’re able to get this information to MoH!
Thank you Karen. I have been in contact with people at Health New Zealand and at ESR but unfortunately, due to the current administration’s cuts to the budget they think it is unlikely to be implemented anytime soon. Feedback from one scientist at ESR was that the sequencing cost was still too high, although perhaps he would change his mind when the costs are compared to the estimated damages. In regard to industrial animal agriculture, this may be a problem in New Zealand that I am ignorant of, but it seems most likely the pathogen would emerge internationally rather than locally, hence my focus on border detection, although you make a good point and I’m glad that area is not being completely neglected.
Thank you for writing this comprehensive proposal. I agree with your conclusion it’s not a case of if but when and we should be improving our pandemic planning now.
Industrial animal agriculture creates conditions where pathogens can evolve and spread rapidly between densely housed animals, potentially creating new zoonotic diseases that can jump to humans. This factor alone raises the likelihood of future pandemics and strengthens the case for robust early detection systems.
The comparison to fire protection spending provides a compelling perspective. It’s striking that New Zealand spent nearly 3 times more on fire protection than pandemic preparedness, despite COVID-19 costing the country roughly 50 times more than annual fire damage. This kind of data-driven comparison makes a strong case for increasing pandemic surveillance investment.
I hope you’re able to get this information to MoH!
Thank you Karen. I have been in contact with people at Health New Zealand and at ESR but unfortunately, due to the current administration’s cuts to the budget they think it is unlikely to be implemented anytime soon. Feedback from one scientist at ESR was that the sequencing cost was still too high, although perhaps he would change his mind when the costs are compared to the estimated damages.
In regard to industrial animal agriculture, this may be a problem in New Zealand that I am ignorant of, but it seems most likely the pathogen would emerge internationally rather than locally, hence my focus on border detection, although you make a good point and I’m glad that area is not being completely neglected.