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absolutely nothing. Because politics is not a game about learning from mistakes but about getting the votes. And getting votes is about having a cool message not about actual improvements. Or in other words it is about selling not about doing.

ok normally I don't like posts like what I just described because it's basically drive-by bashing but let's be honest here: If a new virus (e.g. H5N1 with viral attributes) or crazy variant comes around, which country would take the lessons from covid seriously? Certainly not US, UK, Germany (where I am from), China. Maybe Portugal, which has astonishing vaccination rates (90% or so), so their messaging and politics - at least for covid - seems to have been top notch. Probably also because there were a lot less social media garbage around in Portugal and probably because their media is less antagonistic than elsewhere. But most importantly because their politicians simply did the right thing and put someone in front of microphones who was trusted with his message (a military veteran).

Are you suggesting retribution, or to learn and prepare for future pandemics?

Punishment is not retribution.

Allowing evil to propagate without consequences is madness.

Ignore the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist