One of my favorite authors is David Quammen. Read his book “Spillover” about how new viral diseases arise, and “Breathless” about the Covid pandemic. Recently he was interviewed for an article in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (he lives in Montana). About the next pandemic (possibly bird flu) he says:
“It’s going to be handled worse. The only thing that will be better is that now we know we can build mRNA vaccines quickly, and that’s really, really good. This country, the electorate of this country, has chosen to turn away from science and public health. The American public has chosen to be badly unprepared for the next pandemic. That’s a democracy. That’s what we’ve chosen.”