Someone asked me at the start of the course once whether it was going to be a scary class. My answer was then, and is now, no. Of all the diseases we will cover I think only a single one merits being scared of (more of that in week 4 - and no it isn't AIDS or Ebola). The answer might be different if you lived in a poorer country of course....But in the good old US of A infectious diseases are responsible for barely 5% of all deaths. If you compare that to other preventable deaths then it is dwarfed by smoking and poor diet/lack of exercise that each lead to over three times as many deaths as all infectious diseases combined in the US. The so called 'diseases of affluence'.
I'll talk about this more in the very final lecture but I was reminded of it today when I read in the news that the Wisconsin State Fair has introduced two new food items: Chocolate covered bacon, and deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
So have a good weekend, drive/cycle/walk safely, maybe get some exercise and a nice salad......
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