Ebola’s natural reservoirs are animals, if only because human hosts die to too quickly. Outbreaks tend to occur in locations where changes in landscapes have brought animals and humans into closer contact. Thus, there is considerable speculation about whether ecological factors might be related to the current outbreak. (See here). At this point, at least, we don’t really know. Still, it’s clear that outbreaks of diseases like ebola strengthen the case for forest conservation. Which is also, obviously good for the environment. But that’s not what I want to focus on here.
The Ebola outbreak also highlights the importance of the public health system. In the places where the disease is worst in Africa, the health infrastructure is extraordinarily weak. Obviously that’s not true here. But we’re also seeing the importance of the public health infrastructure in the U.S., as the CDC works to contain the disease now that a case has reached the U.S. What we see in both cases is the public good nature of certain aspects of health care — people who aren’t now sick and don’t know if they will ever be at risk are benefited by the public health system.
That being the case, it is unfortunate that the U.S. has been stripping resources from the CDC in recent years. Consider the follow chart:
2010: $6.467 billion 2011: $5.737 billion 2012: $5.732 billion 2013: $5.721 billion 2013 (after sequestration): $5.432 billion 2014: $5.882 billion
As the saying goes, this is pennywise and pound foolish.
We live in an uncertain world, with a variety of threats whose exact magnitude is unknown. Climate change is expected to pose serious public health threats, as discussed in this RFF report. But climate change is only one of the global threats — let’s not forget terrorist use of WMDs, non-climate-related natural disasters, and possible pandemics. It makes sense to make investments that will help provide protection against all of these various threats, and perhaps against some other, currently unforeseen threats. A strong public health system is a multi-threat defense. As ebola illustrates, we even have a stake in the strength of the public health systems in other parts of the world, regardless of their remoteness or lack of geopolitical importance. It’s time to take a hard look at the adequacy of the entire public health system and its ability to respond to global health emergencies. Climate change is only one of the reasons that we can’t afford to shortchange it.
Showing 2,822 results
Daniel Farber | October 8, 2014
Ebola’s natural reservoirs are animals, if only because human hosts die to too quickly. Outbreaks tend to occur in locations where changes in landscapes have brought animals and humans into closer contact. Thus, there is considerable speculation about whether ecological factors might be related to the current outbreak. (See here). At this point, at least, we […]
James Goodwin | October 2, 2014
Apparently undeterred by all the bad press it has received lately, the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy has cast its controversy-attracting lightning rod ever higher in the air by issuing a feeble comment letter attacking the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pending rulemaking to define the scope of the Clean Water Act (“Waters of […]
Daniel Farber | September 18, 2014
A Texas judge’s award of attorney fees is a threat to all public interest groups, liberal or conservative. A couple of weeks ago, a federal district judge in Texas awarded over $6 million in attorneys’ fees against the Sierra Club. Sierra Club had survived motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, only to lose at trial. […]
Anne Havemann | September 12, 2014
If you own a car, you’re used to paying a registration fee every two years. It may not be your favorite activity, but you do it. And you recognize that the fees and others like it help offset the cost of making sure vehicles on Maryland’s roads are safe, that their polluting emissions are within […]
Erin Kesler | September 10, 2014
Today, the National Association of Manufacturers released a report produced by economic consultants Crain and Crain on the “cost of regulations to manufacturers and small businesses.” CPR Senior Analyst James Goodwin responded to the study: Past Crain & Crain reports on the costs of regulation have been roundly and rightly criticized for unreliable research methods, including basing their studies on opinion […]
Erin Kesler | September 9, 2014
Today CPR Member Scholar and Indiana University School of Law professor Robert Fischman is testifying today for the House Committee on Natural Resources on potential amendments to the Endangered Species Act. According to the testimony: I. THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT SHOULD BE A LAST RESORT FOR CONSERVATION, NOT THE PRINCIPAL TOOL. Though Congress intended the ESA […]
James Goodwin | September 9, 2014
Having thoroughly tarnished their own reputations as well as that of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Advocacy, economists W. Mark Crain and Nicole V. Crain are now preparing to make the big leap from thoroughly discredited academics to straight up shills for corporate lobbyists working to undermine public protections. The National Association of […]
Anne Havemann | September 3, 2014
Monday’s Washington Post article on the massive oxygen-depleted areas in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico promised to uncover how “faltering” “pollution curbs” were contributing to the dead zones. Instead, the article focused almost exclusively on the dead zones themselves, providing nothing on the vital, yet stalled, regulatory solutions. The article mentioned that fertilizer […]
James Goodwin | August 27, 2014
If you’re an antiregulatory, anti-environment member of Congress, such as Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) or Darrell Issa (R-CA), how do you get the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to issue a report that criticizes the cost-benefit analyses that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has performed on some of its recent rules? That’s easy—you simply ask for […]