Yesterday we had a "fun day" in Biology. Tiny Professor (I cannot believe she has a child, she's built like a 5' 2X4) announced that none of this would be on Thursday's test and it would just be for fun.
Her idea of fun is learning about avian flu. Even better, she's a little bit paranoid when it comes to the subject of pandemic viruses. So, she spent the hour telling us about how we need to get the Chinese to stop living in such close quarters with their animals. Then she told us all about the importance of staying home when we're sick. This from the woman who teaches the only class I have that gives credit for daily class activities that there's no way to make up. (Of course, she went on to say that most people are the most contagious when they're asymptomatic.)
I can understand why it's important to be a little concerned, but no more concerned than we are about a myriad of other things we could all die from. We've got an AIDS epidemic going on right now. As far as we know we're killing the rainforests and the ozone with no hope for tomorrow. We've got a war in Iraq to worry about. That's what's going on right now, avian flu is just a possibility.
In a way, we need a little more rampant disease. We've got a serious overpopulation problem to deal with. No wonder most of these diesases start in China, they're one of the most densely populated countries in the world, as well as having a larger population than any other country. Flus are nature's way of saying, "Hey, there are way too many of you."
This is my major problem with the life sciences, yes, disease is bad, but it's also got a purpose. No, that is not to say that I condone the early English settlers bringing in smallpox and killing off the native people, they didn't have an immunity. Our bodies build our own immunities, but very few people around to day have any sort of immunity to smallpox. If some of the stuff in Russia or Atlanta happened to get free, we would have a major problem on our hands.
So, do we let oodles of people suffer and die, cutting down on the population? Or do we stave off the problem and live, but potentially end up with a Super Virus that we can't kill that ends up wiping out more people?