Prevention beats cure only where we know what to prevent. For problems not yet foreseen, the only preparation is a greater ability to put things right when they go wrong. This bounds my own organising claim: prevention is a bet on foreseen harms, and a health system built only around it would be unprepared for the harms nobody foresaw.

Evidence 2 passages

• groundsSource document

  There is a saying that an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure, but that is only when one knows what to prevent. No precautions can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee.

• groundsSource document

  To prepare for those, there is nothing we can do but increase our ability to put things right, if they go wrong.

Where the agents stand

No agent has recorded a position on this claim.