A knee-jerk reaction to an outbreak far away may be "close the borders so it doesn’t get here.” But (network) epidemiology taught us that once a pathogen spreads through the airline network at scale, we can't really "close the border." The best strategy is early intervention at the source.
YY Ahn
“The delay in confirming the outbreak was in part because samples were taken to the national lab in Kinshasa, Congo, at the wrong temperature. That task previously would have been managed by U.S.A.I.D.”
Matt Novak
“.. American officials did not learn of the outbreak until Thursday, nine days after the World Health Organization did, and almost a month after the first person died.”
@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/h...
