A fortune-teller looks into a crystal ball. She sees a network of people, and at the center are the trendsetters. They are contracting the flu. The seer predicts that in two weeks their friends will have the same bug. Unlike the fortune-teller, predicting the onset of an epidemic is something the Centers for Disease Control cannot do at this time. In fact, the CDC is usually about two weeks behind the curve. But social network researchers may have found an effective predictive tool — a well-known, but to this point unused, barometer of social interaction — known as the friendship ... Read More
The Swine Flu Vaccine: 1976 Casts a Giant Shadow
December 4, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
America was one raw nerve. An unpopular Republican president had left office, leaving behind an unpopular war to wind down. Democrats now ruled both houses of Congress. The sitting president, a Midwesterner whose ascendancy had been historic, came in without executive experience. The country was deeply divided among itself and cynical distrust of government and corporations alike was rampant. It was 1976. It had been 58 years since the 1918 flu pandemic, called the Spanish Flu because Spain's open reporting on the flu's ravages made it seem more awful than in more censored nations. ... Read More
