When a branch fails

: tech, October 29 2020 ▶

I work in IT and when we have a problem, we try to solve it ASAP or the company starts losing money - indirectly most of the time, thus difficult to measure (also the reason why some managers underestimate the importance of having good engineers), but fast. If it is a big one, we work on shifts, until it is resolved. When I am done, I go to sleep, handing over to my colleague, who "returns the favor" 12 hours later. Vendors are engaged, test-scenarios are replayed, workarounds are implemented and so on... So, more or less, this is how IT operates in emergency situations.
And now we go to the healthcare industry. * My thoughts below are made up entirely with the assumption, that there is no conspiracy plot of enslaving the humanity, all actors do their best and their failure is not deliberate.
One year has passed since CoViD-19 stepped in and destroyed our society. And the little sanity, that was left. Hospitals are overwhelmed, medics die, whole healthcare systems are on their knees (US should not worry for the latter). People see nothing, but failure. The political one is more than clear - nobody expects politicians ever to solve a crisis, let alone a global one. The miscarriage I did not expect, was the scientific one. Yes, I give the prize "flop of the decade" to all pharma-scientist and their companies. It is astonishing to see an entire science branch to fail that badly, crushed by its own laziness, bureaucracy and narcissism! Not only they are not pressing enough, while millions of people are dying, but also utterly fail to provide meaningful "root cause analysis". Excuses like "we have to follow the procedures, which will take 2-5 years of testing" and "we cannot estimate how this virus functions" are complete nonsense. Bend the rules! Gather data faster! Engage AI for simulations! Experiment on people more!

If I am working the same way, I will be on the street before noon. Despite what companies claim about the importance and strictness of the IT processes, my entire experience shows the need of a very flexible mindset in 99% of the cases when solving an issue. If drug companies cannot be flexible and adapt to the worst pandemic of the century, then maybe, their ways are entirely wrong. They should at least try different approach.
Another favorite excuse is "human body is so complex...blah blah". No it is not! Ask any down-to-earth surgeon with a broad general knowledge - humans are a sophisticated set of fine plumbing and wiring (and nothing more!). At least you do not need to reach that level of insane complexity. Most of the drugs are derivatives, so you do not work completely from the ground up. Even if there is no such, with enough testing (and motivation), you can assemble some cure in a matter of months and it will work on most of the people. The 1% you will lose anyway.
Shout out to all governments:

I pay high attention when it comes to the origins of the virus. Many scientists (Professor and above and who am I to even question them) say it has been tampered with. Not necessarily like entirely man-made, but tampered to become this highly-infectious, fast-mutating, not-so-deadly-but-very-damaging, elusive monstrosity. And the obvious questions - who and why? Past this, it is a conspiracy theory for now, but whoever did it, either has a cure/vaccine (meaning "it is possible to create one") or is completely insane. All I know is, that science needs to hurry. We do not have 10 years (the usual development time frame), we do not have even 5! You guys, all pharma-research-companies, are filthy rich, so money is not the problem. If "the plan" is to stall for years, we can just all go with the virus and whoever survives...and then we will come back for you with the pitchforks and torches.
To cheer up the mood a little bit, I present you today's number for China. I do not know how low your IQ has to be, to believe this. For comparison, Germany has registered 16000 cases. A country with 1.4 billion people, huge, polluted cities with extreme population density and "a person means nothing" philosophy...Maybe we should ask them: "how do you do it?" - the low number of infected people I mean.