It's Always Something

For a long time I really didn’t worry about very much. That all changed in 1996 when Hurricane Fran roared through North Carolina leaving billions of dollars worth of damage. Ever since then I have taken hurricanes very seriously.

In recent years there has been a lot more to worry about: terrorism, fuel shortages, stock market collapses, more natural disasters, to name but a few.

Now we have the threat of a global pandemic from Avian Flu. Laurie Garrett, author of the 1995 book The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance gave an interview to Newsweek during which she spoke about the risks. Apparently this flu has not yet developed into a disease that would cause a pandemic, but it has tremendous potential to do so.

I agree that the world, as Ms. Garrett’s book title characterizes it, is indeed out of balance. But it is out of balance in more ways than one. Furthermore, my feeling is that if this flu doesn’t get us, some disease will, eventually. The conditions, worldwide, with the emergence of one new disease after another, just seem to be conducive to fostering and spreading new, virulent diseases.

I’m glad that Avian Flu seems to be on President Bush’s radar, but I really don’t agree with his solution of putting the military on the streets of the United States. I mean, what is it with this President? His solution to every crisis is a military solution? Do we have a deficit of imagination here, as well as our other deficits?

All in all, however, we seem to be pretty much on top of this situation, unless you factor in our not having enough medicine to treat it if it gets out of hand very fast.

We ignored other threats for too long. Right now, at least, it seems that we are not making the same mistake this time.