Good stuff

Learned:

DK came over and was talking a bit about how his mom was freaking out about swine flu (which I'm now calling "wine flu" for fun) and it reminded me of this article that I read in Harper's at some point. At first I thought it was more recent, but it turns out it was from 2004.... makes me feel old. In any case, it's definitely a great read, it's called "We Are Not Immune: Influenza, Sars, and the collapse of Public Health" and you can find it here.
Also, here's the first paragraph:

Death
is inevitable but not disease,
The difference may be as simple as washing our hands or keeping the wastes
of industrialized farming out of the water supply, but it is often much more
complicated. Bacteria and viruses are no mean adversaries, nor are they eas-
ily defeated. If we fail to be watchful or to protect those most at risk, a
public-health catastrophe is inevitable, and yet somewhere within the span
of the last thirty years the idea of the common good has disappeared from
our national consciousness, giving way to the misconception that we no longer
need concern ourselves with the welfare of our fellow citizens. It is a dan-
gerous conceit, and it leads us toward a future infected with unprecedented
and unnecessary disease.