And when that pandemic hits, Americans will find that there are not enough hospital beds -- so-called "surge capacity" is non-existent -- or robust public health programs to cope with it. China has also cut back on public health care programs and, as a result, was initially unable to deal with the 2003 SARS crisis that sickened 8,000 people and killed 800.
Europeans, with their national health services, are better prepared, but even their public health systems have been hollowed out by years of austerity-driven economic policies. But there is a worldwide shortage of medical workers, particularly nurses.
In his "Second Coming," the Irish writer William Butler Yeats seems to have foreseen the future: "Some rough beast, its time come round at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem, waiting to be born."
The beasts are out there, and they will be born. The Trump administration's denial of climate change, hostility to international institutions, and laissez faire approach to governance at home will make those beasts far more dangerous than they have to be.
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