I forecast a point where, if Ebola becomes a real threat, that hospitals are forced to shut because the workers will stay home. As hospitals close the effect will become a cascading disaster as more patients clog remaining hospitals and the remaining staff is overextended.
I suspect that in previous pandemics nurses and doctors saw their job as a calling. I think that many doctors and nurses today see their job simply as that, a job...not a calling. In other words, we’ve moved from faith and love bringing one to the medical profession to it’s just a lucritive job. No job is worth dying for.
I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right. The nurses, allied health and doctors who risked their lives in the great wars, plagues, Spanish flu, polio & measles outbreaks are all gone now. Just as Bowe “Taliban” Bergdahl and Bradley “Chelsea” Manning are probably the new faces of the coming military in some respects.