Socialized Losses, Privatized Profits

There are a couple of great posts at Effect Measure today. The first is a devastating dissection of recent anti-pandemic recommendations from the Infectious Diseases Society of America, most of which are hopelessly vague or unrealistic, with the prominent and inevitable exception of "strengthen liability protections during emergency outbreak response." Revere asks the essential question:

Why do we always socialize the losses and keep the profits private? Let's socialize both the losses and the profits. I'm sick of hearing about "liability" barriers. How about "affordability barriers" for a change?

The second is a discussion of what pandemic response actually entails, when you live in a society that has crippled its public-health system for the sake of ideological purity: a series of wrenching moral dilemmas that make the Terri Schiavo case look like a walk in the park.