Bill Gates warns on future disease epidemic

For more, <a href="http://fusion.net/story/57515/darpa-thinks-it-has-a-solution-to-ebola-and-all-other-infectious-diseases/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fusion.net&#x2F;story&#x2F;57515&#x2F;darpa-thinks-it-has-a-solution...</a><p>Premise is fair, though more details are needed to discuss the validity of any particular approach.

<i>&quot;Nato plays war games to check that people are well-trained and prepared. Now we need germ games,&quot; he said.</i><p>It&#x27;s actually a bit surprising that NATO or the UN don&#x27;t have practice runs for disease outbreaks or natural disasters.

The Guardian (yeah, I know) had a very in-depth look at how the current progress in fighting Ebola from the viewpoint of Prof. Tom Solomon: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/14/meet-the-man-leading-britains-fight-against-ebola" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;world&#x2F;2015&#x2F;mar&#x2F;14&#x2F;meet-the-man-le...</a>. Long read, so make sure you have a cup of coffee handy.

Google tracks Flu-related search queries to give indications of current flu outbreaks:<p><a href="http://www.google.org/flutrends/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.org&#x2F;flutrends&#x2F;</a><p>I&#x27;d imagine that they track other possible trends indicating an epidemic, and share the result with government health departments and NGOs.<p>Does anyone know if they actually do this, though?

Highly recommended If you&#x27;re interested in this sort of thing: This Coming Plague, by Laurie Garrett. It&#x27;s a very good book about, in a nutshell, how easy international travel is, and how lower investment in medical infrastructure and social services affect us all.

How about to try to cure the proprietary software disease?

“To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”<p>― Mark Twain

Bill Gates, diseases, large contributions to pharmaceutical companies.<p>Me thinks I see an association here that adds up to making lots of money using scare tactics.