The Most Dangerous Global Health Threats | Larry Brilliant | Big Think

The Most Dangerous Global Health Threats
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Dr. Larry Brilliant played a key role in eradicating smallpox from the world – so what are the biggest dangers humanity faces now? Brilliant rates politics as on-par with infectious disease.The greatest global threats to health can be divided into two categories, explains epidemiologist and former head of philanthropy at Google, Dr. Larry Brilliant: there is the biological, and the socio-political. In the last 30 years, there have been at least 30 heretofore unknown viruses that have jumped from animals to humans, for worrying reasons Brilliant attributes to modernity and our increase in animal protein consumption. Still, the socio-political threats are the more immediately dangerous. There are centrifugal forces at play that are pushing society to two extreme camps. The domestic and global division caused President Trump’s ‘America First’ mentality and disregard for public health leaves us vulnerable to new viruses that, if they aren’t detected early enough, could be the next pandemic. "Right now because of the re-organization and nationalism… and dislike for the United Nations and its agencies, I think we're in a period of grave vulnerability," says Brilliant. Larry Brilliant is the author of Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History.

Larry Brilliant is the author of Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History.
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LARRY BRILLIANT :

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TRANSCRIPT :

Larry Brilliant: If I were asked what are the greatest global threats to health today I would divide that into two parts. One, of course, would be the biology the Ebola, Zika, bird flu, swine flu world and I will talk about that. But far more than that are the kind of centrifugal forces that are pulling us a part as a nation, pulling us apart as a world, the deterioration of all of the international and national organizations that we depend upon to keep us safe. The World Health Organization, which failed to protect the world against Ebola and didn't do a great job on Zika either and it will have a new leader in May of this year. There are a couple of candidates who are terrific and some that aren't so good, but either way WHO is going to be going through a period of years of introspection and re-organization.

We have a new Secretary General of the UN. He's a good guy. He's from Portugal, Gutierrez. He just started. It will be a while before he can find all the bathrooms in the UN buildings. We've just lost the head of CDC. We have a new acting head of CDC, who is also good. But CDC will go through a headless period. And then we have Trump and we have a White House which would almost reflexively discard anything that had the word of public in it and one of those words is public health. And they have not shown a keen interest in pandemics. And the whole idea of America first, which might be good for many things, is singularly not good for a global pandemic. It's an oxymoron. It doesn't work. These centrifugal forces that put us in a period of vulnerability are the gravest threats.
On the biology side, in the last 30 years we've had 30 novel here before unknown diseases that jumped from animals to humans, they're almost all viruses. In addition to Ebola and Zika and bird flu and swine flu we have coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, we have arboviruses and a lot of other viruses that continue to jump at the rate of about one a year.

[thomassutherland]

The illusion is our separation. The truth is our connections. To live in illusion leaves us open to real and horrible consequences.

[max-beckett]

This man is a living breathing human tangent.

[thrillscience]

It's interesting that he leaves out OBESITY! Hmmmm..I wonder why?

[virgilcaine]

I feel like I'm watching an elitist TED.

[hi-hutu]

„some are horrific and some are not so great“ 😂

[Kung.Pao.Kitty.]

It's December 13th, 2022. As I watch this, I should have stocked up on toilet paper back then. LOL 2020 was bonkers!

[adebrysi]

religious ignorance and arrogance will do us all in #blessed

[AeralHero]

>"greatest global health threats"
>"something something trump hates public health benefits"
>"some thing something ebola, zika"
nothing said about obesity
interesting

[BenRangel]

One thing I don't get is how he makes it sound like there's now a boom of mini farms in residential areas. To me it feels like that was more common in the past. A few hundred years ago 99% of Europeans were farmers and many lived close to the farm animals. Today we're like 1% farmers. Maybe I'm too focused on the West though.
But even if meat consumption has gone up in the East I can't imagine more people are now living with farm animals than a few hundred years ago.

[iainmalcolm]

Strange to watch this in 2021 with SARS-COV 2 raging through the world. He pretty much predicted the global pandemic.

[BenETaylor]

The world population goes up & up & up; the world life expectancy goes up & up & up; the total wealth of the world goes up & up & up (though its distribution is our greatest challenge): so this doom & gloom scenario does not bother me.

[TheTarutau]

Mental and physical suffering. One dealt with through reform the other is dealt with through medicine. Both require a lot of learning then unlearning then learning again and the cycle is continuous. Educating the populace is of such great importance. Learning to properly utilize all resources available is an ongoing process and while circumstances may not be ideal I believe over the long run we are sure to overcome. There was a previous video on big think dealing with how a.i. networks will evolve into a global intelligence but I am of the opinion that humans will continue to do the same and do it better and the human factor at the present moment is of greater utility. Networking is a great tool by which to make the most use of our collective intelligence. Translational buildings of research will go a long way towards integrating our capabilities in the scientific branch. I think they are presently building three of them in the United States alone. Can't wait till they have been up and running for a while.

[jasonbean]

the guy, his name is literally Brilliant? brilliant!:)

[grassyclimer]

is it weird denial thing that people have that makes them feel better if they say trump instead of President trump guess I don't get pretending with words

[ajenni]

I can only hope this guy is wrong about everything