Covid is just a practice run for the really bad germs

This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a drug-resistant microbe of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. Sign up here.Today’s Agenda The next health crisi [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a drug-resistant microbe of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - The [next health crisis]( is already here. - Maybe [Putin is trapped]( in here with us. - [Breyer’s retirement]( is a boon for Biden. - Spotify is [playing with anti-vax fire](. Hooray, the Next Global Health Crisis Is Here Two years and 5.6 million deaths into the worst pandemic in a century, I know what you’re thinking: When can we have a real global health crisis? Well, seek no further: A [far more nightmarish catastrophe is already brewing]( in patients’ bodies, hospitals and other places where deadly microbes gather, writes Therese Raphael. And it’s not just one disease but a microscopic [Hydra]( of bugs, all evolving to become more resistant to lifesaving medicines. These ailments already kill millions each year, a toll that will only grow because the bugs keep evolving while the drugs don’t, partly because making new antibiotics is bad business for Big Pharma. (As you might have heard, this industry came here to chew bubble gum and rack up ludicrous profits, and it’s all out of bubble gum. A new generic-drug venture by Mark [Cuban could be a model for pushing drug prices lower](, writes Lisa Jarvis, but it’s got a ways to go to make a dent in the industry.) Meanwhile, we’ll need to take strategies we used to kinda-sorta defeat Covid, for a certain definition of “defeat,” and apply them to drug-resistant microbes, Therese writes. Much of this will involve using government money to make the economics of producing new treatments work for drugmakers, just as we convinced them to make a bunch of new vaccines. Because, seriously, two global health crises are more than enough. Read the [whole thing](. Further Drug Reading: Sure, let’s [test an omicron-specific vaccine](, though its necessity is still in doubt. — Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli In Putin’s Russia, Bear Traps You Now that we’ve caught up with Pestilence, let’s check in with the second Horseman of the Apocalypse, War. The chances of this guy having a big 2022 are rising, with Russian President Vladimir Putin massing thousands of troops at the Ukraine border, threatening an invasion. But the [West keeps sending Putin mixed signals]( about how much it would actually mind, notes Bloomberg’s editorial board. Germany did helpfully offer to send Ukraine some helmets — which Kyiv’s mayor called [a “joke](,” though a Russian invasion does seem like a real concussion risk. But it still seems more worried about its natural-gas supply than about European unity. Short of war, the West can hurt Russia with financial sanctions. Putin allegedly has money stashed around the world and can always just hit up, say, Gazprom if he needs a little walking-around cash. But the West still must [try to make Putin and his cronies uncomfortable](, writes Tim O’Brien. And if targeted sanctions fail, there’s always the non-nuclear nuclear option of cutting Russia off from the Swift global payment system. The best we can hope for at this point is that [Putin realizes he has stepped into the bear trap]( he set for Ukraine, Leonid Bershidsky writes. Unlike Georgia, which freaked out over Russian aggression and gave Putin an excuse for war in 2008, Ukraine is handling this situation calmly. Now Putin is the one backed into a corner, and Leonid thinks he’ll be smart enough to avoid making matters worse for himself. He can always blame those German helmets. Further Russia Reading: - This is Emmanuel [Macron’s chance to lead]( a more forceful European response. — Lionel Laurent - Even when the Russian crisis is over, [Europe will still face higher gas prices]( for a long time. — Javier Blas Breyer Away A year of angry liberal tweets has finally paid off: Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring in time to let President Joe Biden and a Democratic-controlled Senate pick his replacement. Despite losing the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections, Republicans have a 6-3 stranglehold on the high court, thanks partly to liberal justices not bothering to do what Breyer just did. This is [a rare bit of good news lately for Biden]( and Democrats, Jonathan Bernstein writes, giving them a chance to change the conversation and get back into array for a change. Biden said he would [keep]( his campaign promise to put a Black woman on the high court. Some conservatives howled about that, but there is a long tradition of presidents, including conservative ones, [seeking demographic diversity at the Supreme Court](, writes Stephen L. Carter. It’s just that, back in the old days, “diversity” meant “White guy from New York instead of Tennessee.” (h/t to [Jason Shevrin]( for the headline joke) Bonus Breyer Reading: [He was an old-school pragmatist]( and not a fire-breathing partisan. We need more like him. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Telltale Charts It’s understandable Spotify would chase sweet, sweet podcast cash, but [it’s playing with fire backing Joe Rogan]( over Neil Young, writes Lionel Laurent.  [Deutsche Bank’s recovery is well underway](, but some of the hardest gains are yet to come, writes Paul J. Davies. Further Reading [Jay Powell keeps managing market expectations]( well, tightening conditions without hammering stocks too much. How long can he keep this up? — John Authers Thanks to Democratic stimulus, [GOP governors now have lots of cash]( to spend on their states and win re-election. — Conor Sen [Tesla had a great quarter, guys](, but still needs many more to justify its ludicrous stock price. — Liam Denning [Crypto platforms get as much regulation]( as they seek. — Matt Levine [Beijing promised cleaner skies]( for these Olympics. It still hasn’t delivered. — Adam Minter [Un-retiring isn’t as easy as it sounds](. — Alexis Leondis ICYMI Texas believes it has to destroy its electrical grid, by [attaching Bitcoin miners to it](, in order to save it. Another day, [another DeFi scandal](. Gas stoves are [terrible for the climate](. Kickers Maybe it’s time to [get medieval on our sleeping habits](. All [monkeys in the monkey-truck crash]( have now been accounted for. We [got our jetpacks](, but nobody cared. How to use tweets to [guess the Wordle in one try](. Notes: Please send Wordle tweets and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? [Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more](. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022