Inside the Outbreaks

Thanks in part to the Science Challenge 2011, several months ago I picked up Inside the Outbreaks by Mark Pendergrast.

It's about the CDC's elite team of medical detectives, and very House-like.

The book opens with a parable about two doctors, a clinician (who practices medicine) and an epidemiologist (who studies patterns of diseases).


The two were walking to the side of a lazy river, but as they approached noticed it was full of unconscious bodies. They pulled a few out but there were too many to keep up. The researcher decided to run upriver to the surprise of the other doctor.

"Where are you going?" He yells. "Help me save these people!" Without stopping, she yells back, "I'm going upstream to find out why they're falling in!" 

Inside the Outbreaks is a chain of hundreds of vignettes on myriad researchers and diseases. It begins in 1951 with Alexander Langmuir addressing how the Korean War spurred Korean hemorrhagic fever ("...spread by rodents, not Communists.") in American soldiers, which Langmuir said necessitated a medical response team at the Communicable Disease Center (now the Center for Disease Control and Prevention) in Atlanta.

Langmuir got the funding needed to begin the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS, a two-year program which many young doctors took as a way of avoiding mandatory military service.

The book covers contaminated church picnics, malaria, and explains how the poor neighborhood of Chandler Branch, WV had a lower rate of polio infection than that of its upscale neighbors because:

"Cesspools dumped into" Chandler Branch's drinking supply, thus "most babies were immune to polio."

Other stories were of children eating lead paint chips & breathing in lead particles from smelting factories, clusters of suburban leukemia, hospital infections, aspirin makers in denial of  Reye's syndrome for decades, the fear of Ebola & swine flu, liquid diets that caused starvation, polluted water caused by PCB's, PVC's, DDT, and more.

Just when I thought I had enough bad news, then came relief with the eradication of polio in the U.S. and a race to end smallpox in the rest of the world - only to have the emergence of a brand new disease called AIDS (which was traced back to WWII. Who knew?!).

There's also bad decisions, the politics of abortion, batches of bad polio vaccine, unethical testing on Africans, African Americans, and the heinous Jim Crow treatment of the first black EIS officer Bernie Challenor in 1965 that led him to seek overseas assignments. (He would later become the dean of the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.)

I've been hemming and hawing about grad school for several years now and I think public health might be the thing. It's a good combination of my top three favorite things: communications, health and education.

I'm glad I've always ignored advice like: "Focus on one thing." Out of all the problems around here that need fixin', good health is required before anything else can be done. I'll keep you posted...

Week of Health

We are smack in the middle of National Public Health Week and Thursday is World Health Day. 

USF's College of Public Health has a bunch of activities going on this week (calendar here), from bike safety to film screenings to blood donation. Public health really is the whole shebang. 

I love this year's slogan "Safety is NO Accident." Many moons ago I trained to be a bus driver in the suburbs of Seattle.  I still remember how adamant my trainer was about referring to accidents as crashes. He said there was no such thing as an accident, and because we were the professionals and the biggest vehicle on the roads, we had to drive so well that we'd be able to prevent bad drivers from crashing into us. 

It sounded unreasonable at first, but I'd come to appreciate the accountability of the dedicated bus drivers. I'm a pretty responsible driver today because of them. 

TOMS: One for One

One Day Without Shoes

I'm tempted to go barefoot all day tomorrow in observance of "One Day Without Shoes."  I have a full day of reporting & tutoring (but at least I'm not working in a public building).

I have no natural arches so being shoeless is a challenge for me, never mind the 'ick' factor of stepping on stuff and having people see my weird feet.

But the point of the day is to raise awareness about the children around the world who are too poor for shoes and go barefoot every day. If I don't wimp out, this will be a great way to challenge myself, raise awareness and lead by example.

Welcome to the Working Week

This morning Ronny and I sat in for regular Monday Morning Show host Glen Hatchell on 88.5 WMNF. Music of this sort doesn't usually win industry awards or find its way onto corporate radio play lists, but you don't need a mass comm degree to know that this is the soulful stuff with the power to change the world for the better. 

Thanks to my partner (in justice & life) Ronny for putting this set together on short notice. Our show will be available in the online archives for the next week.



Artist/Track/Album
Dave Bartholomew The Monkey Speaks His Mind Highlight Crescent City
Josh Rouse Bienvenido El Turista
Johnny cash Memories Are Made Of This  Unchained
Josh Rouse It's The Nighttime Nashville
June Carter Cash I Used To Be Somebody Press On
King Pins  It Won't Be This Way  Always
Keely Smith I Wish You Love Spotlight On
Ramsay Midwood Light Foot Larry Buys A Lighter
The Band  w/ Van Morrison  4%  Pantomime
Delta Rhythm Boys Dry Bones I Dreamt I Dwelt In Harlem
Bonnie Raitt & Was (Not Was) Baby Mine
Dennis Wilson He's A Bum Bamboo
Dick Holler & The Holidays Double Shot Of My Baby's Love
Mae West A Guy What Takes His Time  Come Up And See Me
Mavis Staples We Shall Not Be Moved  We'll Never Turn Back
Ray Charles I Got A Woman Birth Of Soul 2
Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry Down By The Riverside
Steppin' In It The Ghost Of Richard Manuel Simple Tunes for Troubled Times
Ike & Tina Turner You Can't Miss Nothing That You Never Had The Kent Years
M. Ward Rave On Hold Time
M. G. Greaves  Fight Of The Century Fight Of The Century
Raul Malo San Antonio Baby Sinners & Saints
Charlie Louvin  Great Atomic Power  Hillbilly Music, Thank God
Buck Owens Maid In Japan
Marty Fouts Working poor Labor & Love
Oliver Morgan Who Shot The Lala
Prince Lala Things Have Changed
Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy Swing Along Chillun Trail Of The Lonesome Pines
Ray Smith Ray Smith Travelin' With Ray
The Movers Birmingham
Kevin So Tonight Life Solo Akoustic
Steve Earle Steve's Hammer (For Pete) Washington Square
Robbie Fulks I Push Right Over South Mouth
Donovan Universal Soldier
Nick Lowe Where's My Everything
The Youngbloods Grizzly Bear Get Together
Johnny Cash Last night I had the strangest dream At Madison Square Garden
The Viscounts  Harlem Nocturne
Lula Reed Watch Dog Blue & Moody
Ken Nordine Chartreuse    Colors
Chip Taylor I Want The Real Thing Chip Taylor's Last Chance
Vienna Teng Grandmother Song Inland Territory
Warren Zevon  Heartache Spoken Here  Mr. Bad Example
Cliff Edwards When I See An Elephant Fly Disney Collection
Chuck Berry Dear Dad  In London
Clarence Henry I Don't Know Why Ain't Got No Home
Ronny Elliott Letter From A Birmingham Jail Poisonville

The Other Side of the Ocean

I've had a busy week doing the usual do-goodery, work and dodging tornadoes. I've also been entertaining a couple of friends from Ireland who are visiting the U.S. for the first time.

George & Manda 

Ronny met Manda and George several years ago when he played the Belladrum Festival in Scotland. The working class couple (social worker and union organizer) had won a pair of tickets to the festival, and when Ronny later toured Ireland he stayed with them at their home in Coleraine. 

The like-minded couple told me this week about Ireland's (great) ban on plastic bags, (sad) intolerance of pit bulls and their Wal-Mart-owned Asda chains stores.

I shared with them books by Native American author Sherman Alexie, pancakes with maple syrup and walking tours of Davis Islands and Ybor City.

We laughed (and cried) about corrupt humans/politicians in both our countries and around the world.  

As a high school U2 fangirl, I became obsessed with Irish culture. I read (okay, watched) In the Name of the Father and My Left Foot. My obsession gave way to my eventual obsessions with other war-torn cultures like Viet Nam, Kosovo, Sudan and Iraq. 




Manda told great stories about living their lives in Northern Ireland despite "the troubles." She had gone on a bus trip to Southern Ireland and as often happened on long trips, she got motion sickness. When the bus was stopped by British soldiers, Manda ran to the front of the bus and opened a window in just enough time to stick her head out before she threw up. It splattered at the feet of one young soldier. Her friend yelled from the back of the bus: "That's no way to show your politics, Manda!"


Another time there was a wedding in Belfast. Because of barricades around town, Manda was late bringing the flowers. The bride's 8-and-a-half month pregnant sister went into labor. When the wedding was over, the happy couple had to plow through a field in their small car to get to the airport on time for their honeymoon flight, but once they were back on the road the car broke down, so George walked to the next town for a cab. They just barely made their flight. 


Meeting Manda and George has reminded me that we humans certainly have more in common than not. With our love of food, humanity, and Ronny Elliott, I particularly have a lot in common with Manda and George. 


After meeting them, Ronny wrote the song "When the Showbands Played Coleraine." 

Mandy's got her hair up and her best Eartha Kitt look and she's okay 'til two a.m. George has got what's left of a paycheck in his billfold and a wink that says, "I don't give a damn!" We may as well stay for a few more songs. We've already missed the half past train. Mandy and George were dancing on clouds when the showbands played Coleraine.

Weekend To Do List

Friday:


Downtown Tampa 

• Friday Market!

• Museum Makeover Day! Get a makeover with vegan-friendly Arbonne products and support the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts. 

St. Pete

• Florida Do-Gooder Grant Peeple's new CD release party at the Hideaway Cafe in St. Pete with Ronny Elliott. 

Saturday:


Downtown 

• Library book sale.

• North Tampa - Ecofest 2011.  

• My house - Usually I stay home and watch Are You Being Served so I'm out of suggestions for this evening.

Sunday:

• Mid-town - Talking Animals Festival at Lowry Park

• North Tampa - Sue Wilson's documentary Broadcast Blues explains why the media is failing American citizens and endangering our democracy.