🦠 I Asked AI If There Will Be Another Pandemic—Its Answer Wasn’t Reassuring

💸 And Then I Asked: Is Corruption Deadlier Than COVID-19?

I asked AI if there will be another pandemic. It gave me probabilities, climate models, zoonotic risk factors, and a polite warning: “Yes. It’s likely.”

But it didn’t flinch. It didn’t remember the gutom, grief, and ghost town silence of 2020. It didn’t know what it’s like to lose a job, a loved one, or a semester—while waiting for ayuda that never came.

And then I asked a better question: Is corruption deadlier than COVID-19?

🤖 AI Predicts Pathogens—But Can’t Detect Plunder

AI can forecast viral spread. But it can’t detect the virus of state capture.

In the Philippines, we don’t just fear pandemics. We fear the systems that fail us when they hit.

Take the recent flood control scandal: billions of pesos meant to protect communities were siphoned off into ghost projects, overpriced contracts, and political kickbacks. While AI models future outbreaks, families drown in preventable floods. While algorithms optimize response times, contractors optimize bribe margins.

This isn’t just theft. It’s betrayal with lethal consequences.

🧠 The Real Risk Multiplier

A 2025 report from the Forecasting Research Institute warns that AI-assisted bioengineering could make human-caused pandemics five times more likely. But in the Philippines, we don’t need AI to manufacture risk. We have corruption.

• Hospitals underfunded.
• Flood defenses sabotaged.
• Procurement rules rigged.
• Oversight agencies tamed.

COVID-19 killed thousands. Corruption condemns millions to perpetual vulnerability.

🇵🇭 Filipino Realities: We Don’t Just Die from Disease

We die from collapsed bridges. From flooded homes. From delayed ambulances. From underfunded hospitals.

And while AI may help us prepare for the next virus, it still can’t answer:

– Why did 70% of the flood control budget vanish? – Why were steel piles cut short to pocket “savings”? – Why do we still treat corruption as a side issue, not a public health crisis?

Because corruption doesn’t just steal money. It steals futures.

🧒 Explain Like I’m 12

Imagine you’re sick. You need medicine. But the money for your medicine was stolen. So you get worse. Not because of the disease—but because someone took what could’ve saved you.

That’s corruption. And it’s deadlier than any virus.

🪩 Final Thought: The Real Pandemic Is Systemic

AI says prepare for the next outbreak. But in the Philippines, the outbreak is already here—and it wears a barong.

Corruption is slow, silent, and deeply embedded. It doesn’t spike like COVID-19. It festers.

So yes, I asked AI about the next pandemic. And it answered. But the real question is: Will we survive the one we already have?

Because viruses mutate, but corruption evolves. And unless we treat it like the public health emergency it is, no algorithm can save us.

Sources:
MSN: The PH Flood Control Scandal and the Path to Social Transformation
TIME: AI Could Make Pandemics 5x More Likely