What if nobody ever got sick?
Colds, flu and cancer stop. Doctors have a quiet week. Nobody can call in sick ever again.
Week two. The waiting room has been empty since Monday.
The first fortnight
Nobody notices at first. It takes a week before a family doctor mentions that her waiting room has been empty since Monday, and another week before hospitals confirm it: no new cases of anything.
People still break legs and still get old. They just stop getting ill.
Year 1
Pharmacies sell sun cream and plasters, and not much else. Hospitals shrink to emergency wards, maternity units and care for the elderly. Hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses retrain.
Work changes too. Sick days disappear, and with them the most popular excuse in history. Managers love it. Nobody else does.
Year 10
Children grow up never having had a temperature. Chickenpox and tonsillitis are things from their grandparents’ stories.
The money that once went on illness pays for other things: schools, roads, holidays. One of the oldest worries in the world is gone.
Who wins
- Everyone who has ever had the fluWhich is more or less everyone.
- Health budgetsA huge share of what countries spend is suddenly free.
- ChildrenNo more missing a birthday party because of a fever.
Who loses
- Drug companiesTheir best sellers stop selling overnight.
- Anyone who liked a duvet day“I think I’m coming down with something” no longer works.
- Doctors and nursesMillions of skilled people need new jobs.
Feeling ill is miserable, but it is also a warning. Without fevers and coughs to slow them down, people might push their bodies much harder. In this world the busiest part of any hospital is the one that treats accidents.
Would you live here?
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