Quantifying The Thai Cave Rescue
During September 2018 a complicated 15 day rescue of 12 Thai boys trapped in a vast cave system was undertaken. The operation brought together hundreds of volunteers and millions of TV viewers, yielding a truly amazing accomplishment with all boys making out alive, but how does this compare to other critical life-saving efforts? Did we, as a community, have a sensible reaction to the emergency and do we place enough emphasis on other lives? I’d like to explore these questions by estimating the cost of the operation and comparing that to some of the other amazing ways in which people are saving lives today.
While the mission was widely hailed as a success and a moment where humanity united to fight the tragedy I can’t help but feel a sense of frustration at the inefficiencies involved throughout the operation.
At a cost of over $500,000, the money could have been allocated to other sources which could have without a doubt saved more lives.
In particular, over 100 lives could have been saved in Africa with this funding. The humanity that led to all the donations and efforts is touching, and certainly a positive thing, but it’s saddening that it takes an anomaly to spur the community into action. The amount of attention that this operation got shows that…
