While I'm out...

I'm dealing with my own little epidemic (daughter managed to catch the stomach bug that's been going around her school, meaning she has to miss her last day as a kindergartener, poor thing). I found one post in the queue that I forgot to publish earlier in the month, so today won't be completely dead. In the meantime, allow me to point you to some excellent flu posts by DemFromCT at the Daily Kos:

Flu Basics: Science And Threats (a nice introductory primer).

Flu Basics II: Politics and Players.

H5N1: A Teachable Moment, And An Open Letter. This is a very good post overall, but the most interesting part for me was an email Dem included:

Nine Reasons Why the Flu Doubters Have It Wrong

We've often wondered why so many people (including friends) who are otherwise perceptive and progressive have such a hard time getting their arms around the genuine threat posed by avian flu and revert instead to denial and charges that the issue is "fear mongering at its worst."

The authors, Dick Brass and his wife, Regina Dwyer, lay out a number of reasons why many people are skeptical of the concern swirling around H5N1, and then (as the title suggests) gives an explanation of why they're misguided--a very nice summary of the issues.

Hopefully back tomorrow, as long as kiddo #2 can stay well...