I hate paying for home insurance. Thousands and thousands of dollars, year after year, just out the window. With absolutely nothing to show for it. And for what, just in case my house gets struck by lightning and burns down? Come on, how on earth is that ever going to occur? What a colossal waste. Think of all the money I’d save every year that nothing happens. Maybe I should just cancel the policy. It’s such a needless cash drain, it’s almost crazy not to, right?

Back in the real world, making adult decisions, we all pay for insurance – a thing providing protection against a possible, even if improbable, eventuality. When one in a position of leadership, however, actually chooses to do away with that insurance, say, by dismantling and eliminating a pandemic response team in a time of relative placidity, houses may one day burn. Then neighborhoods and communities. A risk/reward proposition can only be assessed if one is willing to accept the risk, however minimal, even infinitesimal, it may be deemed (and still, as we now know, experts around the globe have predicted that the chances of a Covid-19-like outbreak occurring were not only not insignificant but likely, a “when” not “if” scenario). No parallel universe will ever allow us to know what might have happened – what decisions may have been made, what actions may have been taken – if such a team had remained in place and available at the outset of our crisis. But, objectively, I don’t see how the results could not have been…better. And better in this context means lives and fortunes potentially saved. Seems like that would have been worth insuring.