In any crisis, leaders have two equally important responsibilities: solve the immediate problem and keep it from happening again. The Covid-19 pandemic is a case in point.

We need to save lives now while also improving the way we respond to outbreaks in general.

The first point is more pressing, but the second has crucial long-term consequences. The long-term challenge — improving our ability to respond to outbreaks — isn’t new.

Global health experts have been saying for years that another pandemic whose speed and severity rivaled those of the 1918 influenza epidemic was a matter not of if but of when.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed substantial resources in recent years to helping the world prepare for such a scenario.

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