COVID-19 and the Law of Unforeseen Consequences.

Abstract

* Abbreviations: COVID-19 — : coronavirus disease 2019 SARS-CoV-2 — : severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 On January 29, 1964, Stanley Kubrick released to the world one of his most brilliant films, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. America was at the height of the Cold War. Children were sheltering under school desks in drills preparing for nuclear annihilation. The last influenza pandemic was 7 years in the rearview mirror, and the next one to come was 4 years in the future. The film viciously satirized world leaders and foretold an era of dark pessimism that defines the world and America to this day. On January 29, 2020, Peter Navarro, trade advisor to President Donald Trump, wrote an internal memo warning of the threat to the United States of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak that had been recognized in China in late December. On that day, the World Health Organization reported that there were 6065 confirmed cases worldwide, 68 of which were in 15 countries outside of China.1 According to the New York Times , Mr Navarro wrote that, “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil…This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”2 A worst-case scenario of more than half a million American deaths was cited in the memo. By June 29, … Address correspondence to David W. Kimberlin, MD, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1600 Seventh Ave South, CHB 303, Birmingham, AL 35233. E-mail: dkimberlin{at}peds.uab.edu