Healthy Spaces

“Reflection Deficit Disorder” (RDD) is not a disease, but it might be the most important pandemic we have ever faced. The COVID Crisis Group authors think this rampant condition explains why communities and governments are failing to take on needed public health reforms 1 .   Reflection requires examining the root causes of recent events to learn from mistakes to make systems and structures stronger and better.   Reflection is the opposite of playing a quick round of the blame game.   Blaming assumes the system is sound and suffered the bad luck of being operated by a few flawed humans.   Reflection asks how to put in fail safes and checks that will help the system succeed despite flawed humans. The secret to success in communities that had the fewest cumulative COVID deaths over the last 3 years was reflection prior to COVID. Exemplar countries like Qatar and South Korea had both a recent major epidemic and an organized effort to reflect and reform.   After...

  A diabolical plot to spread mayhem has been intercepted and the clock is ticking. An intrepid team with   is fighting to save the world.  We have seen this movie dozens of times.  Screenwriters focus on the heroic act of defusing the crisis. Avengers and X-men rely on superpowers. James Bond uses charm and wit. A chase scene, then a dogfight, then rising chords in the string section come before the credits roll. Hollywood knows to stage action scenes.   Movie viewers do not have patience for the boring data work that goes into detecting the coming threat. They want to see the conflict between the heroes and the villains.   The world of One Health and pandemic preparedness is upside down compared to action thrillers. Scripts for real world plot-foiling are overly focused on the science of detecting and predicting pandemics. But detection is only half the battle. Without a few superpowers or some charm and wit, we will remain at risk of knowing w...