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This is so weird. Half of the population of this country has promiscuous and unprotected sex, leaves public bathrooms without washing hands, drives intoxicated, eats food that averages 30-40% pure fat, runs red lights while not wearing seatbelts or on motorcycles sans helmets, smokes, and votes for Democrats...and I'll bet it's almost the same half each time....

And now three cases of anthrax are causing a national panic despite the fact that Tim McVeigh and 19 Arab guys proved there are cheaper and easier ways to get attention. If the terrorists tried to spread anthrax far and wide, they failed or we'd see a lot more of this by now.

They are predicting one heck of a flu season this winter, and we KNOW that flu can indeed be deadly and we KNOW how it spreads, but we keep going to work sick ("What a great employee, 103 fever but he's here at his desk shaking customer's hands") and we congregate en masse to shop right when flu season is kicking into high gear. More than that, we do not emphasize hand washing. There are no magic viruses or bacteria. They all spread to a human by A)air and flying insects, B)close contact (hand to mouth), C)water and food, D)VERY close contact (STDs.) THe first case we can't do a heckofalot about--spraying mosquitos, that's about it. The second is the way flu and colds usually spread and they're best defeated with soap, water, and ISOLATION!!!! Food and water are safer than they've EVER BEEN so we're curiously schizoid--the inevitable sanitation failures that result in food poisoning get an awful lot of attention, while the vulnerability to sabotage is generally neglected, until lately. The last case--well we know, as long as HIV+ people cannot be identified by other promiscuous or needle-sharing people, and sex outside marriage is the NORM, we will have those with us.

People who go to work sick are really like people who have sex without telling their partners they are HIV positive. They are deliberately spreading something that can kill the immune-deficient, young, old, and weak. A real flu virus can knock down vast numbers of the healthy, and there's NOTHING DOCTORS CAN DO ABOUT IT. We haven't been hit with a very dangerous flu virus in about a hundred years. I am not betting against this year being The Year. And really, if a few rather easy behavioral changes can help confine any outbreaks, isn't it worth doing? Wash hands, tell your bosses you don't want to work with sick people, stay home when sick yourself, and keep sick kids home.

These changes in behavior that I am advocating are not difficult. They aren't 100% guarantees of continued good health of course, but they will help no matter the origin of the biological threat--natural or terrorist.