Susan Rice warns COVID-19 'is not the big one,' future pandemic could be worse
Rice also says she expects Biden to rejoin the World Health Organization and make the U.S. “part of the global effort to stamp out the virus" through COVAX, the global vaccine partnership
By Nicholas Ballasy
Updated: December 18, 2020 - 11:15pm
Former United Nations ambassador Susan Rice, slated to become the Domestic Policy Council chief if Joe Biden assumes the White House next month, is warning that COVID-19 outbreak “is not the big one†and that a future pandemic could be worse.
“In the Obama administration, as I said, we had the 2009 swine flu; we had the Ebola epidemic that could have been a global pandemic; we had the Zika virus, as you'll remember, so we were very prime to this risk. We knew that we hadn't had the big one,†Rice said during a virtual event organized by Stevenson University’s speaker series.
“And by the way, I hate to be a downer here, but this is not the big one, either. This, sorry, but, you know, this would be the big one if it had the kind of mortality rates that you can get with a virulent avian flu. We have a mortality rate of, you know, 2 to 3%, roughly, now for COVID, which is — and you see how deadly that is when it's not under control. Imagine if it were that much higher,†she added.
Rice, former National Security Advisor in the Obama administration, said the U.S. would rejoin the World Health Organization, as President-elect Joe Biden has promised. Rice also said she expects the Biden administration to make the U.S. a “part of the global effort to stamp out the virus" through COVAX, the global vaccine partnership.
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