"[[COVID-19]]’s impact in rich countries in general, and in the [[United States]] in particular, also **illustrates how misplaced some of our highly touted (and very expensive) future-forming endeavors have been**. Foremost among these have been the renewed steps toward manned space flight, and particularly the sci-fi-type goal of missions to Mars; trying to move toward personalized medicine (diagnosis and treatment tailored to individual patients based on their specific risk or response to a disease), with [[The Economist]] running a special report on this topic on March 12, 2020, just as [[COVID-19]] began to sweep through [[Europe]] and [[North America]] filling urban hospitals with oxygen-deprived people; and being preoccupied with ever-faster connectivity, with endless hype surrounding the benefits of 5G networks. "**How irrelevant are all of these quests while (as the cliché goes) the only remaining superpower could not provide its nurses and doctors with enough simple personal protection equipment, including such low-tech items as gloves, masks, caps, and gowns?"** ([Location 4221](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B08SGC3TD3&location=4221)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[pandemic]], [[globalisation]], [[forecasting]], **Source** -- [[202412030828 - B - How the World Really Works]]