<div dir="ltr">Is this his birth name?  If so, how accidentally accurate!  <div><br></div><div>I suppose the quote in the subject heading just about anyone could have figured out on their own, without the advice of Mr. Brilliant.  Thus the claims coming from some in the US government about the competence of the federal response are laughable in the extreme.</div><div><br></div><div>Interview below from the Economist quoted in subject heading.  Excerpt below:</div><div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div><div>-------------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.economist.com/open-future/2020/04/04/how-society-can-overcome-covid-19">https://www.economist.com/open-future/2020/04/04/how-society-can-overcome-covid-19</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="color:rgb(18,18,18);font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;font-size:20.25px">Countries can test, quarantine and prepare for the post-coronavirus world, says Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist</span><br></div><div><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:1.75rem 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)">WHEN THE makers of the film “Contagion” in 2011 needed to vet the plausibility of the script, they turned to Larry Brilliant, one of the world’s leading epidemiologists. His reply scared them even more than the screenplay: not only was the scenario possible, he explained, it was almost certain to happen. Today, the world is living a nightmare similar to the cinematic description.</p><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:0px 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)">Mr Brilliant’s career stretches from living in an ashram in India and helping to eradicate smallpox with the World Health Organisation to co-founding the Seva Foundation to treat eye disease in poor countries. Around a decade ago he led Google’s philanthropic efforts (including being a co-author of a landmark paper in 2009 that applied artificial intelligence to epidemiology).</p><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:0px 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)">He has been warning the world about the threat of pandemics for years; today his voice on how to respond is indispensable. <em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The Economist’s</em> technology podcast, Babbage, interviewed Mr Brilliant on April 1st. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation, along with a link to the episode.</p><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:0px 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)">* * *</p><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:0px 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:700;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">The Economist</span>: For years you have warned about the possibility of a new global pandemic. Has covid-19 emerged in the way that you predicted?</em></p><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:0px 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)"><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:700;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;vertical-align:baseline">Larry Brilliant</span>: Sadly, yes. There's no credit for predicting this. In fact, probably 30 or 50 or all the infectious-disease epidemiologists in the world predicted this almost precisely.</p><p class="gmail-article__body-text" style="margin:0px 0px 0.875rem;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(18,18,18)"><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></p></div><div><span style="color:rgb(18,18,18);font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;font-size:20.25px"><br></span></div></div>