Will Our Children Ever Be Safe Again?

As a former COO of the US FDA, the world’s most prominent risk management (RM) agency, and Harvard faculty member, where I taught courses on policy, law, regulation, and RM, I still spend my days and nights worrying about risk managing the health and healthcare of Americans and other people located worldwide.

In particular, I worry about the deaths and significant injuries from the infectious disease war (IDW) that nature is now waging against us—only nature thus far. Yes, we are at war with contagious diseases. They are all but invisible combatants but are deadly or otherwise significantly harmful. And because we have, through inexpensive and swift commercial passenger and freight world travel, become “one world,” the war will likely increase in strength and scope in the coming decades.

Accordingly, I have several RM-related concerns that keep me awake at night. Among the most significant of these concerns involve our taking for granted that the first wave of COVID-19 did not significantly harm most children. They and we were lucky this last time. But how long will our luck hold out?

Absent some breakthroughs like what happened with smallpox, COVID-19 variants will likely be with us for decades to come. Over 100 years later, one or more significant variants of the 1918 Flu continue to attack us yearly.

We pray that the now quickly spreading variants of COVID-19, the Flu, and RSV (what the CDC calls the “Tripledemic” that is hitting the US and many parts of the world right now) will not be too harsh. Or that any other known diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, or polio, or yet to be developed by nature or by humans (for military use), or newly discovered other conditions will not again widely kill or maim in the US or worldwide.

We do not take nuclear or chemical weapons for granted when considering the significant war-related risks. But we take for granted infectious-disease-spread, the far more likely to be used bioweapon. Plus, even if we deter our enemies' use of infectious diseases, which is hard to do because they are the best stealth weapons of all time, nature can still launch a significant attack entirely on its own. In either event, killing or maiming children will, most of all, destroy the fabric of our social order. If not older people, we still care very much about our children.

Regrettably, only some of us, especially risk management experts like me, think deeply about these matters. We do not take lightly the deaths or maiming of our aunts, uncles, grandfathers, or grandmothers, the so-called “disposables,” as many Americans do. And equally so, we do not take lightly the deaths or maiming of our children.

?The 1.1 million Americans killed, a vast number that is hardly remembered in the press or the psyche of our people following the last wave of COVID-19, were older people, and our children were barely affected. But can we count on this with the following variant, the next, or the subsequent after that?

Even if we, as a group, no longer care about the COVID-19 deaths of the elderly, we cannot forget earlier pandemics or endemics that killed or maimed our children. While COO of the FDA, I had the good fortune of being invited to a one-on-one lunch by the inventor and developer of the first polio vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk. Dr. Salk and his team of experts brilliantly put a severe early dent in this US and world bio attack on children.

I grew up in the polio era. My friends and I were rightly afraid of catching polio, and our parents and, interestingly, our aunts, uncles, and grandparents, who we now neglect, were all afraid for us, too. It was a devastating disease. Later, I lived a mile from a polio hospital. Yes, it took a dedicated hospital to manage the harsh disease's long-term effects properly. Yet, again, we, as a people and our media, forget.

I am not talking here about the spread of the bubonic plague in waves from 1347 to 1351 that killed half the world’s population. I understand the loss of memory of even some scientists here.

But polio and other deadly or maiming diseases targeting children are not so old as to properly be ignored by any thoughtful scientists and RM experts. They must be considered, if not directly, then at least as examples of how badly infectious diseases can harm our children.

What is wrong with how we now think? I think there are three principal items:

First, it is hard for us to grapple with the excruciating concept that an invisible object created or spread by nature or humankind can, almost ghost-like, creep up on us at a wedding celebration or in our bedrooms at night. How can that be? Ghosts don’t exist, right?

Second, we do not want to rely on those with the expertise to protect us, at least partially, from these silent, magical killers. We feel so overwhelmed and helpless that we are stunned and unable to act—like the proverbial deer in the headlights. The problem is so overwhelming that we can’t figure out where to start. Most of us cannot even take the first step. And we don’t want anyone to push us off the cliff we know is there but cannot see.

Third, I recall when I was a child, we lived in even more fear of a nuclear attack from the Russians. We absurdly were trained by our teachers, the second most trusted people in our lives, second only to our parents, to put our heads under our desks when an alarm was sounded. Later, we understood how worthless that preventive or mitigative act was. Joined with other absurd promises of protection, this destroyed much of our trust in those in charge.

The discovery of polio and other effective vaccines, tests, and therapies occasionally reversed some of this distrust, but not all. We realized that, in most cases, these were not permanent fixes. Temporary was not good enough. Incrementally, it was all downhill from there. And once politics became involved, things got even worse.

On behalf of children, Founder Dr. Norris asks, “What is the right kind of solution that top CEOs might install and make fully operational to enable their enterprise's preparedness and ability to create and adequately execute reasonable, timely, and effective responses to such an attack? Grammar school or high school students need workspace protection. Children living or working at home need protection from a sibling or parent who brings an infectious disease organism home from work. And children who are inpatients in hospitals deserve all the protection we can muster. Children must not be hung out to dry like seniors were. We must prepare now for the possibility that next it will be children’s turn to be a sole or shared target of a significantly harmful pathogen.”

Thoughtful CEOs must hope for the best but prepare for the worst. This is rule #1. Yet so far, most CEOs, both the sharp and not, have done little to prepare themselves even though the subsequent waves of COVID-19, the Flu, and RSV, what the CDC a few weeks ago named the “Tripledemic,” are already seen rolling swiftly toward us. The light at the end of the tunnel is a fast-speeding locomotive, not a flashlight.

CEO Dr. Land responds, “Only three companies worldwide offer a high-quality solution. If you are not in line when the disaster strikes, which would be irresponsible, you will be punished significantly by employees, families, students, patients, suppliers, lenders, and investors. If you were not sued during the first wave of COVID-19, it might be because you were lucky. That luck might wear out if the next wave or the next or the following after that significantly harms children. Americans are extremely protective of our children.”

What to do?

A few days ago, just in time to prepare us all for the CDC “Tripledemic,” one of those three companies worldwide mentioned earlier by CEO Dr. Haden Land, Safely2Prosperity, launched v2.0 of its infectious disease spread risk management program.

There are 2 million agencies and businesses in America having 1,000 or more employees that require the installation of a S2P Safety Program. Millions more across the world.

Top Chief executives understand the imperative of safeguarding their senior leadership and the entirety of their organization, including employees and their extended families, such as students, patients, and suppliers. And they should proactively understand that their lenders, shareholders, and insurance carriers will be especially aware of the risks of danger, the vastly increased health and liability insurance claims, and other associated risks.

They and their insurance carriers can and should be proactive as a team. First, they should influence or require their customers and suppliers to add sufficient protections. Second, they should then, both as an example and on their own behalf, add the same sound and robust high-level protections and proactive or responsive defenses to their enterprises to reasonably and practicably, but sufficiently, protect their employees and families across the board.

Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. John Norris says, “The alarms, alerts, trend analyses, predictive analytics (soon to be AI ML-enabled), and tailored reports provided by S2P’s advanced digital platform enable company leaders to make better (or anticipate making) swift, informed, and regulatorily and legally compliant decisions before, during, or after an attack or associated outbreak.”

Two recent articles published in world-renowned newspapers illuminate the urgent need for companies to act. One appeared in The Wall Street Journal. It is titled "World War III Will Be Fought With Viruses." The other was published in The New York Times. It is titled "Covid Didn't Take a Summer Vacation."

CEO Dr. Haden Land says, “The most effective leaders address crises head-on and work diligently to prevent or lessen their impact. They then help their customers and suppliers to do the same. Normally, children are the canaries in the coal mine. Good CEOs understand this and want to protect the children for whom they have a moral, ethical, or legal duty to do so. And where they can protect more.”

Safely2Prosperity invites interested enterprises to learn more about S2P and, if they like, to sign up for a demo at Safely2Prosperity.com.

About Safely2Prosperity

Founded in early 2021, Safely2Prosperity (S2P) is an innovative health-tech company conceptualized and built with the help of an expert team by industry luminary Dr. John Norris, who gained expertise as COO of the FDA and a Harvard faculty member. [email protected]. And S2P is led by former Lockheed Martin senior executive Dr. Haden Land. [email protected]. S2P's Pandemic Preparedness & Response Risk Management software as a service focuses on enterprise-wide wellness and user-centric solutions. Safely2Prosperity.com.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning Safely2Prosperity's (S2P's) future operations, financial performance, product development plans, and other projections. Safely2Prosperity undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

? 2023 Safely2Prosperity LLC and Dr. John Norris, JD, MBA. All rights reserved.

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