There is an opinion that disease research and treatment are not cost-efficient, hence it is better to focus on disease prevention. In my opinion, this strategy might not be as successful as planned, so it is better to stick to researching.
To start off, a lot of disease causes are unpredictable. There are a lot of viruses that appear very unexpectedly, before there can be any preventative measures taken. For instance, Covid-19 in 2020 has taken the world by storm. The pandemic has spread around the world very quickly, and there was no time to prevent it before it got around. The governments around the world had to enforce regulations after the spread of disease. If there is a new and unknown disease that hasn’t been researched properly, then there are no ways to prevent it quickly.
Another reason why it wouldn’t be as efficient is the reluctance of general population to take action before they are sick. There are many people that don’t want to make extra effort while they are still healthy. Healthcare systems recommend patients to have occasional health check-ups in order to know everything about one’s health. However, few people actually do that, so making them prevent diseases would be very hard. One could argue that it should be enforced by law, but I think it would cause even more frustration among people, since they wouldn’t see the point in it.
To sum up, I disagree with the idea to invest more in disease prevention. I believe it is something that is even more difficult to do than proper research and treatment.