Americans love to think of themselves, nationally, as a people who saved the world in 1945 and who continue to possess the capability to repeat this action as needed. We don’t stop to think how willing we’d be if it came to saving Brazil from the Zika virus.
Just imagine Zika produces a catastrophic epidemic that affects 80 million residents of that largely impoverished country. How willing do you think America — or any country, for that matter — would be to allow uninfected Brazilians to enter the country as refugees? It’s hard enough when people are fleeing political repression or economic deprivation; how much harder would it be if it seemed to be something that had the potential for ruining the health of tens of millions of us?
How would we respond to any country that had a health catastrophe? Like Christians?
Hah!