We can also take advantage of the situation right now. “But I think every crisis brings an opportunity as well. The problem is not just in the development and invention of these things, but also how to surge-manufacture. “The real problem is going to be manufacturing enough to make a difference. There are some promising antiviral drugs that may come along before the vaccine does. “Ultimately there will be drugs and vaccines. “In the meantime, we’re stuck in the 19th century in dealing with a virus,” Preston said. But they had to get the child out of the household to save the lives of others.” Old solutions for new problems If a child came down with Ebola, the parents were prepared to give the child away to one of these camps where, very likely, they would never see their child again. “Parents were asked to do the hardest kinds of things. Much harsher than anything we have seen here. “They did it by social distancing - really harsh social distancing. “In Africa - and now we are seeing it all over the world - it was ordinary people who broke the back of the Ebola virus. “What we found out in the Ebola outbreak in Africa was that sometimes the simplest things are the things that do us the most good and protect us - not high-tech. Even in China, there is doubt over the country’s reported COVID-19 numbers.Why we’ll never be able to stop new diseases jumping from animals to humans.This 99-year-old veteran has raised $8 million for healthcare workers.“Those efforts were largely discarded by the current administration of the United States and the White House.

“A lot of people are thinking about this coronavirus pandemic is a singular event. “Mother Nature is extremely powerful, and we know from looking at other kinds of viruses that exist in nature that there could be worse things out there,” Preston said. “I think we know, from the basic situation of the human species and nature, that we are becoming extremely vulnerable to these new kinds of viruses that basically are leaking their way out of troubled ecosystems, and getting into humans and spreading.” Not a singular event “This specific virus came as a surprise - but the general idea of a pandemic is nothing surprising,” Preston said. The book changed the way many people viewed pandemics, leading to shifts in public health policies - and has even been recognised by some as shaping science in the 20th century. The non-fiction story about a highly infectious, deadly virus that suddenly appeared in the suburbs of Washington, DC is a haunting precursor to the current situation. Watch The Morning Show on Channel 7 and stream it for free on 7plus >

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston