I am currently reading a very informative book titled, THE COMING PLAGUE: NEWLY EMERGING DISEASES IN A WORLD OUT OF BALANCE...
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The author, Laurie Garrett, was and perhaps still is the health and science writer for Newsday (Long Island, New York).
In her 750 page tome, which is packed with medical and scientific information, Ms. Garrett warned some twenty years ago when her book was first published, that deadly viruses like Ebola are eventually going to make their way to North America. That the primary vehicle for the spread of these viruses will most likely be via commercial air travel. For it is inside airplanes where passengers sit together in close confines for prolonged periods of time while having to continuously breathe recycled air. |
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THE COMING PLAGUE seeks to warn the medical community, along with organizations such as The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, to begin to prepare for the arrival of Ebola and other deadly viruses. Yet all this time Ms. Garrett's urgent pleas for advanced preparation has gone unheeded until now.
Now that the fast-spreading Ebola virus has been rampaging through parts of the African continent, those who work in the fields of medicine and Virology have begun to take notice of the very real threat that Ebola and other diseases could have upon the entire globe.
In a similar way, this situation of indifference and lack of an instant response, reminded me of the prophets who spoke for God in biblical times. They were determined to get the people to turn from their sins, and turn back to God, or else face judgment. The prophets would shout their message from housetops and from inside palaces. But for the most part, their words were ignored. And life went on until catastrophe struck.
This now seems to have been the case with Ms. Garrett's warnings. Thus proving, once again, that history always repeats itself.
D. B.
Note: THE COMING PLAGUE: NEWLY EMERGING DISEASES
IN A WORLD OUT OF BALANCE, Laurie Garrett,
1994; Farrar, Straus and Giroux/New York.
Now that the fast-spreading Ebola virus has been rampaging through parts of the African continent, those who work in the fields of medicine and Virology have begun to take notice of the very real threat that Ebola and other diseases could have upon the entire globe.
In a similar way, this situation of indifference and lack of an instant response, reminded me of the prophets who spoke for God in biblical times. They were determined to get the people to turn from their sins, and turn back to God, or else face judgment. The prophets would shout their message from housetops and from inside palaces. But for the most part, their words were ignored. And life went on until catastrophe struck.
This now seems to have been the case with Ms. Garrett's warnings. Thus proving, once again, that history always repeats itself.
D. B.
Note: THE COMING PLAGUE: NEWLY EMERGING DISEASES
IN A WORLD OUT OF BALANCE, Laurie Garrett,
1994; Farrar, Straus and Giroux/New York.
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