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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Larry Brilliant on Bird Flu

Here is a video on Bird Flu from Larry Brilliant.
It is about 55 minutes long.

Larry Brilliant is an M.D., M.P.H. board-certified in preventive medicine and public health, and a former associate professor of Epidemiology and International Health Planning at the University of Michigan. After studying religion in a Himalayan monastery, he joined WHO in 1973 as a medical officer and helped manage the WHO smallpox eradication program in South Asia. He was a staff member of the WHO Global Commission to Certify Smallpox Eradicated and served as the last WHO medical officer to visit Iran in search of hidden smallpox.
More Info on Larry
What more can I add, the name says it all.

Larry has a very balanced look at the whole issue of bird flu and pandemics. He says that Pandemics are a low probability high impact issue. The probability is low in any given year but over a longer term approaches certainty. He has a very interesting take on people who are worried about catastrophe and people who want to ignore the issue. He calls them "Chicken Little" and "Ostriches" (both birds).





Here is another article he has written.

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