JG - Pandemic

Jamaica Gleaner

Pandemic


Published: Sunday May 17, 2009


Martin Henry, Contributor


It is only a matter of time. There is no if or but, but only when and what, that a pandemic will hit the globe. We have managed in recent times to stave off avian influenza from scaling up into a pandemic. AIDS is a behaviour and lifestyle infection, which, despite its pandemic spread, can be controlled by a change of behaviour. Not so infections spread from person to person by casual social contact.

Read the whole article here.

WP - 5 Myths About Pandemic Panic

From my archive of press clippings:

Washington Post


5 Myths About Pandemic Panic

By Philip Alcabes


Sunday, March 15, 2009; Page B03

Winter is almost over, and it appears that we're going to make it through another flu season without a global disaster. That may seem like a miracle after the hysteria generated in recent years by SARS, avian flu and the World Health Organization's standing warning that it's "a matter of time" before the next influenza pandemic strikes.

Read the whole article here.

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palcabes@hunter.cuny.edu
Philip Alcabes is a professor of urban public health at Hunter College of the City University of New York and the author of the forthcoming "Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu."