Reply #27: As an epidemiologist, I resent the politicization of diseases to keep the population stirred up.

[Fly by night]

I believe that much of the manufactured "bird flu" panic of several years ago is a case in point. Historically, I also believe that the response early on to the HIV epidemic was also very politicized. In neither case were our own public health efforts assisted by that manufactured panic.

I laughed out loud when the movie "V for Vendetta", in showing how the forces of evil used the media to keep the population stirred up (and distracted), hyped "bird flu" prominently in their fictional newscasts.

It is appropriate to prepare for future pandemics. It is also morally imperative that we be truth-tellers. (That's how I used to define "epidemiologist" when someone asked what it meant.)