Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

by Mark Olshaker

First, as confusing and bewildering as things may seem, we live in a cause-and-effect world. So somewhere, the answers are out there. Second, know the truth—and the first step to knowing the truth is wanting to know the truth, rather than any alternative that seems more satisfying or closer to your own worldview. Third, not one of us does anything worthwhile on our own.

In the real estate business, they say, it’s “location, location, location.” In public health, it’s “airborne, airborne, airborne.”

you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. —DALAI LAMA

“The majority of the problem really revolves around fear. It’s not any more complicated than that. It’s brain-stem-level, sub-telencephalic, not-conscious-thought fear of being wrong. Because we don’t know what our patients have when they’re first in front of us. We really cannot distinguish viral from bacterial infections. We just can’t.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. —SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

It is a high-probability, low-frequency threat. So it will happen; that is a given. The variables are when and how severe; and, of course, how prepared mankind will be to respond. As you know, Mother Nature is the greatest bioterrorist of them all, with no financial limitations or ethical compunctions—at least that we understand—and no limit on the level of effort expended. Our most dangerous adversary will not originate in the tribal areas of Afghanistan or some other remote place. It is everywhere man and animal live in close proximity. Just ask the chickens. As we used to say at HHS: If you’re a chicken, it’s already a pandemic. And for something like this, you can’t turn on a dime. You have to have a ten-year runway. The problem is, with any of these threats, Congress gets worried, they appropriate a lot of money. What isn’t obligated gets taken and put into the next threat, and the next.