skimming through finals period

There has been a lot of interesting news lately. Here is a sampling of what I've been looking at this week:

To Fight Pandemics, Reward Research

Some of My Best Friends Are Germs
This is a really interesting article adding to the growing body of knowledge that being too clean can be bad for your health. My daughter and I were petting goats and rabbits today at the Little Farm and I decided not to have her wash her hands before eating snack. Bring on the dander!


How Austerity Kills
This powerful article describes the impact of economic austerity on mortality in Europe. Pretty sad stuff.


How Drug Companies Keep Medicine Out of Reach

Scary article about a new coronavirus found in Saudi Arabia

The Next Pandemic: Not if, but When

By DAVID QUAMMEN

Published: May 9, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/opinion/the-next-pandemic-is-closer-than-you-think.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

this is a really troubling article about possibly the next pandemic....

U.S. meningitis outbreak way less bad than feared

I'm thinking a lot about outbreaks right now, given that I am teaching that in HS 161 at San Jose State University right now. When I saw this post in the Epi Monitor, I read it with great interest. The main thing I was impressed by here was how the rapid response to the meningitis outbreak resulted in a case fatality rate of just 7% after the outbreak was identified, compared to 40% in the early stage of the outbreak.

 Rapid Epidemiologic Investigation And Public Health Action Credited With Dramatically Saving Lives In Fungal Meningitis Outbreak