It's been a long time coming but the time has come. Effect Measure is closing up shop, after 5 and a half years, 3 million visits and 5.1 million page views of some 3500. You commented on them some 37,000 times. It's been a grand ride but to all things there is a season. It's time to simplify my life and while my family has had me all along, at times science got short shrift. Now my time is getting short and I want to turn my attention to my research, the other polar star of my life. "Revere" will continue to post occasionally on Effect Measure's successor site, The Pump Handle (TPH), which will hold down the public health anchor position after EM is gone. We'll provide more details later this week when we officially hand off this spot to our friends and colleagues at TPH. Our archive will be folded into theirs, with details to follow when they are firmed up.
I pondered long and hard about whether to mention names of the many wonderful friends, adversaries, readers, commenters, offline email correspondents, fellow bloggers, forum leaders and sources that made EM what it was. It's a dangerous thing to do because you inevitably leave out people whom you cherish, respect and, despite differences, have managed to develop a great affection for. So we're not going to do that. I hope you know who you are or at least realize now you fit that description even without recording your name. Having said that, we are going to make three exceptions, both for historical and personal reasons.
The first is Jordan Barab, whose occupational health and safety blog, Confined Space, was a model for what can be done with the blogging form in public health. When we started EM, Jordan and I met for coffee at a local coffee house and he couldn't have been more helpful and encouraging. He was a pioneer in public health blogging and a master at it. When he became a senior congressional staffer he gave up the blog, but many of its functions were folded into The Pump Handle, so history is repeating itself. Jordan is now Deputy Director of OSHA. Imagine that.
The other two names are the late Melanie Mattson and Greg Dworkin, known far and wide under his blog name, DemFromCT. When we started blogging about avian influenza at EM back in late 2004 it was a topic barely discussed in the blogosphere. Melanie and Greg, separately, were two exceptions and we began to correspond via email and link to one another. When one of my commenters suggested my ever more numerous flu posts could be collected in a wiki format, I suggested it to Greg and Melanie and Flu Wiki was born. I was there at the founding, it is true, but like a delinquent parent I soon had left it to Greg and Melanie to raise the infant site without much help from me. And they did, in grand fashion. Melanie was a very sharp, deeply concerned and committed person who worried tremendously, perhaps excessively, for her fellow humans. She had a difficult and troubled life, and died too early. She was a blog pioneer and is remembered with deep affection by many of her fellow bloggers. As for Greg, if I didn't know him personally I would suspect he was not a person at all but a group of people. A front-pager at Daily Kos, perhaps the world's biggest blog, and one of the main anchors of Flu Wiki, Greg is a practicing pediatric pulmonologist who sees flu at the bedside but also has a public health perspective. When he blogs on health topics as DemFromCT at Daily Kos he does so with the eye of a consummate expert. His politics are progressive as befitting someone on the front lines of the battle to make this a better world. He is also a friend. My hat's off to you, Dem. You're still at it. I don't know how you do it -- but I'm glad you do.
So that's it, folks. We'll follow up soon with information about The Pump Handle, where you might occasionally catch a glimpse of us. But we can no longer blog day in and day out and sporadic blogs lose their audience quickly. EM is now passing into blog history, a good approximation of oblivion.
So it's time to bid you a farewell and we are doing it in the most literal sense: a wish that wherever you fare, you fare well and safely and in peace. It's what we wish for everyone and what this blog was all about.
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Dearest Revere(s),
I am sad for myself and for the world -- but glad for you and your family(ies) -- that you will be posting less often.
I hearby nominate EffectMeasure to be the first online World Heritage Site. It should be preserved forever.
Many happy years left, and if you post at Pump Handle when you want, that'd be great!!
Thanks so much for your kind and generous words.
I'll miss this very unique and high quality site.
Cheers and best wishes!
There's no way we at The Pump Handle can thank you enough for all you've contributed to the public health community and to us personally over the years. You've been a rock and an inspiration. We can't fill your shoes, but we'll keep applying all we've learned from you.
You have much to be proud of, and we have much to be grateful for.
Rats.
I'll miss you, but thanks for the introduction to The Pump Handle. Agreeing with Liz that (a) You Rock and (b) You Inspire. All the very best...
I have followed Effect Measure pretty religiously over the past 5-6 years, learning much about science, public health, politics and the politics of public health in the process.
You folks have done the world a great service. I will miss these wise voices and I know I'm not alone in that.
I second Jody's suggestion.
Best wishes for the next phase.
Helen Branswell
Originally, I came to this site for a better understanding of flu virus. But it wasn't long before the music and the spirit took me back to the old days. Thanks for the reminder Reveres.
Best Wishes.
Rats, indeed. Now how am I going to justify my blog surfing at work?In all seriousness, I was introduced to EM by a colleague who said it was the only blog he'd ever found worth reading. You have directed me to a few more. I can't count the times I've quoted something that's been said here or linked to a particular post. I'm truly sorry to see you go. It has been a great run. Thanks for everything.MoM
You had a good blog, and I'm sorry to see it go. Your swine flu coverage was great.
Your blog has been a keystone in my Google Reader for years. Thank you for your time and efforts.
I would second Jody's suggestion.
The archives of EM contribute immensely to the Internet's value as a research tool. I go back and use them often myself, and what little I know about influenza and epidemiology I gleaned from your site.
While saddened by this news, I understand how much daily blogging requires in terms of one's life. I wish `you guys' the best, and look forward to your guest appearances on the Pump Handle.
You described it well. It's been a grand ride. Thanks for inviting us along.
I have really enjoyed reading Effect Measure! And The Pump Handle as well, which I'll continue to read. Thank you for all you do.
I'm very sad to see you go. This site has consistently been honest wise writing. You've helped define public health.
I am so sad to hear this news.
It is only fair to admit that my sadness is partly selfish; your collective expertise and skill have been a bright thread that reporters such as myself could rely on to guide us through the worst confusions of the H5N1/H1N1 years. Without your wise counsel, what will we do? But I am sad as well for the loss of a thoughtful and unafraid voice for public health; there are not many, pace Greg and Liz, and y'all leave big shoes to fill.
At the same time, the blog's pace of publication has been phenomenal; it is no wonder you all need â and much deserve â a break.
Looking forward to seeing you at TPH. Warmest wishes meanwhile,
Maryn McKenna
SUPERBUG + CIDRAP
Darn. I will really miss Effect Measure.
A bitter pill.
I've used scienceblogs.com 24 hour scroll as one of my main sources of news, insight and entertainment. IMHO it has been a remarkably well rounded resource. Anything of any import shows up.
In the middle of the rants, conspiracy fantasies and outright lies from the denialist all around Effects Measure was a place to get the facts, the real, reality-based insights, a bit of humor, and a touch of rough justice. You got us, me, through the swine flu and the cross-winds of flying BS. I'm still not sure which was worse. At least there is a shot to help counter the swine flu.
It was a painful loss when Yong and Rocket Science left, I drop by Discovery now and then but I have to make a point of it. Now Effect Measure will be soon but a memory. Adding TPH to my things to do, and making a point of doing it makes it a once in a while event.
Things change. I really wish they wouldn't. I liked reading your blog. It made me feel a little special knowing I had a reliable source for good information. You're going to be missed.
My favorite public health blog or website of any kind, and certainly the one that really got me motivated to delve deeper in to the issues I was learning about in school, although I am no longer an undergrad. If I continue on to any measure of academic success, I can safely say I owe a large part to you, Revere, for helping give perspective to what may sometimes appear to abstract scientific concepts.
Thank you for everything and good luck in the future.
Thank you, Revere. Both for the classroom and continued teaching through EM.
Thank you for all you've taught us, Revere. We'll miss you. Good luck with you work.
We'll miss you. The Pump Handle may take over the public health function, but who will deliver our Freethinker Sunday Sermonettes and blog about manhole covers?
Good luck with your future endeavours!
What Jude said.
I must admit I was only a semi-regular reader, but I always knew an EM post would be worth investing the time in: a place to savour. The scientific blogosphere has lost one of its better corners.
Good luck at The Pump Handle, and in the Real World. We which you well - all of you.
Thank you.
I believe the past tense of Revere is Revered.
Well folks you can forget it. I got about 70 emails this morning after Revere posted this up as to WHO HE WAS ! My answer remains as it has been for years, you can have it over my dead rotting corpse.
As a knight of the church Revere and I batted heads, got people out of prison (Bulgarians) and agreed, disagreed and agreed to disagree. I came from the position of faith, he came from the position of science...Sounds a lot like the Catholics and Galileo a bit doesnt it? But I defended his position as it was with mine... mostly unprovable one way or another. Even my Bishop said that he would have loved to have had him to dinner ... Both the Bishop and I love the discussion of the existence of God and try to get those that disagree to prove us wrong.
But through this all he has steadfastly remained a good blog buddy and he has lost some friends like Melanie along the way and indeed his family must come first. The time he has left should be spent with them. We finally agreed to disagree on mandatory healthcare... it was indeeeed getting old. I will hold a place in heaven for him because his attempts at healthcare were honest, open and were to help humanity. What can be more godly than that?
So Revere... I want you to go with this in your heart and soul if you can find it later (he-he) and remember that with the help of 3000 soldiers, 800 airmen, and the email and phone numbers to the Libyan Embassies in 25 countries you made a difference. I have NO DOUBT in my mind that once we put our heads together that we righted a wrong and got those doctors and nurses released after years of political captivity.
I wonder though if those emails from the nerds in the 4th ID herd were a bit over the top..? We made offers to drop cruise missiles into the back seat of his limo and we told him we missed him badly and that we wanted to visit really bad... Maybe it was those recon photos that showed him going to his girlfriends house?
Well maybe but once the racket started the Libs decided that it was a good idea to release them if for no other reason than to keep their servers up...We crashed them over and over again. One geek had a randomizer going that was offering all sorts of "persuasion" almost 25,000 times per hour. So many dictatorships, so few servers?
But you made the difference Revere and that is all we can ask for in our lives..
You did.
Aw shucks....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcYsO890YJY&feature=fvst
You will be missed. You had a positive impact on my life whether you realize it or not.
Thank you for sharing with me how an atheist thinks and feels, although I am a believer in God I've gained a respect for the atheist community. Now if just more of you could get into governmental positions.
I've been coming here five years revere and will think of you fondly whenever I see an old Volvo moving down the road!!
You have been many things to many people, on-blog and off. Personally, I have always found you to be an inspiration and role model, in science, career, and in giving a voice to one's profession when the public (and some fellow scientists and clinicians) may not fully realize the impact of one's work.
Public health has been one of the most important contributors to our large increase in lifespan since your namesake worked in the field. But we take it for granted in part because we cannot see lives saved.
Maryn McKenna's points in #14 should not be underestimated. While "what a science blog should be" is debated endlessly, Effect Measure has been what a science blog should be and strive to be. Your learned and measured voice in areas from flu to BPA to popcorn lung has provided reporters and writers with an unequaled source for highest quality commentary to understand and translate complex scientific information.
You have many other talents and your readers have only seen a small glimpse of your gifts in conveying the tumultuous sixties. You've continued to live a life of activism and idealism, using this forum to play a role in the release of the unjustly imprisoned Tripoli 6. And your challenge in late 2006 for us scientists to have the humility to consider that chicken soup may indeed inhibit neutrophil chemotaxis led me to write my only post to ever be included in the Open Laboratory anthology. You've helped me learn, you've made me think, and you've helped me appreciate what it means to be a scientist, family man, and a compassionate human being.
And the irony is not lost on me that my favorite atheist should sign off with Pete Seeger's adaptation of the passage from the book of Ecclesiastes.
I could go on but I know there are many others who have their own memories and appreciation to share. I thank you for many things and I wish you well.
You have been an entertaining and very educational read for a layperson such as myself.
Enjoy the family and the science.
You will be greatly missed.
Au Revoir, Reveres!
As sorry as I am to see this blog go, I'm always stunned that good blogs last as long as they do. The amount of work involved is astonishing.
Thank you for providing it, and best wishes to you and your family.
But I love you old hippies to bits. Old school progressive public health isn't easy to find afterall.
shucks.
See you at TPH instead.
Thank you for all the time and passion you've put into this blog. Like Karen, I'm a layperson, one who didn't even know I had an interest in public health until I stumbled across this blog. I've learned so much, and I've forwarded many, many of your posts to friends.
Thank you as well for the links to so much great music. You've got impeccable musical taste!
I will miss this blog dearly, but I am happy that you will gain time both to spend with family, and to do science.
Here's a celtic sendoff for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL9b71aXSk0
Simply - Thank you for everything for all the years. All the best to you and your near ones. âTruly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.â
Awww, too sad. I'll miss you guys!!!!
Me and Alex, who also commented here in the past, started reading your blog about 4 months ago. At the time, we thought H1N1 was just some meaningless disease blown out of proportion by the MSM and the WHO. You convinced us that getting vaxxed was important. By browsing through EM, we found out what an important health ressource we had stumbled upon. But this was not it. Little did we know that the authors were big fans of math, physics and atheist comedy. Thanks a lot for the incredible amount of time you spent posting all this. We can't wait to read your posts at TPH. =)
You all will be greatly missed.
You have provided an invaluable moral compass for the blogosphere for so long it's hard to think of who could possibly pick up the banner. You already know how much I admire your knowledge and collegiality, but yours is the first blog I check every sunday morning, and the first one I consult for public health and ID questions. Without you to refer to, I'm at a loss. I hope those of us who care about public health, ethics, and humane politics can come close to picking up some of the slack you've left...
All that being said, you certainly deserve (whatever that means) a respite, given the tireless work done here. There must be a dozen of you to do the research and writing.
Well, darnit. I'm gonna miss this blog.
Oh wow, Revere, what a shock. This blog will be missed indeed. I first came to it last fall, finding it an oasis of sanity amid the misinformation in media and on the Net regarding the so-called swine flu. The sanity in your progressive politics and the informativeness and gentleness in your replies to comments has continued to be a great contrast to certain other public health and health policy sites, and, again, will be much missed. You have provided us with a regular dose of sanity and information. Wishing you the best.
Revere
Thank you so much and best wishes to all of you. I have found your blog to be a place of professionalism and insight and will miss you all very much.
Regards and kind wishes
Denise
Add me to the list of "well, bummer" thoughts. You've been a blog I could consistently point to when it came to how public health blogging should be done. Enjoy your retirement and know you will be missed.
I'm really sorry to see this blog go, but also very grateful for the time that it was here. Thanks, Revere, for providing this terrific resource!
Hey, Reveah--great job!
Totally understand the direction.
Glad to have encountered you. And will look forward to seeing you around elsewhere when you have the bandwidth.
Congrats on a great run. It mattered.
Revere,
This blog, through it's run, has been amazing, and it's equally amazing that you've kept it up for so long. Before your blog, public health was just a passing interest for me, but you've really renewed it as a passion. I might switch my major track from straight-up evolutionary biology to pre-med.
So thank you. :) And good luck with whatever you have in the future. I'll be looking for you on TPH.
thanks, you made my day for many days..whenever I needed an intelligent, logical fix because of the lack of it near me..It made a difference in my life. and i learned alot too!
Add me to the long list of folks who will miss you - and hope to see you turn up on TPH. You made a difference in the swine flu pandemic, and I hope that if (when) the next one pops up, you'll be willing to lend your counsel.
Warm regards and deep thanks to you and the Mrs. Revere(s).
Oh, and as a historian, I bristled when I read the word "oblivion." This blog deserves to be preserved for posterity. Historians of science, medicine, and the media will all find it a valuable source.
Thanks for so many interesting and thought provoking blog posts.
*now* what am I going to read first things Sunday mornings...???
I'm sorry to hear this. I only discovered you only quite recently, when I had a career shift from bioinformatics into public health statistics. (The "cook" bit is my hobby, not my profession.)
Best wishes, and I look forward to gathering at the Pump Handle. Hope I don't catch typhoid!
I already follow The Pump Handle, and I'm glad you'll be putting in the occasional appearance there. There really aren't very many high-profile and high-quality epi blogs to begin with, so it's a shame to lose this one, but I understand that blogging's a lot of work. Thank you for your time and your thoughts, and good luck with whatever comes next.
I am extremely saddened by this news, and will miss you all. Thank you for your responses to questions, for your knowledge that you shared unfailingly, and for an excellent place to visit and hang out here in the internets....best to you!
Hi Revere/s
Sad news. So long and thank you for all the posts; I'll miss you.
Godspeed in your travels and endeavours.
G
best flu-pandemic science blog over 2006,2007 and maybe before. Also probably since 2007, but more and more other
topics became discussed too.
Maybe it needn't die completely, some few short posts occaionally should be possible ?
Also just as a place where readers can comment and talk to each other,
will it be possible to post comments here in future ?
So, does that mean, the (H5N1)-pandemic danger is finally considered less serious
and personal things became more important ? That would be even good news ...
posts+comments until mid 2007 in one big file:
http://tinyurl.com/pvlf9 effect measure blog , 8.3MB compressed(28MB)
http://magictour.free.fr/em.gz
maybe I can make an update with the stuff since 2007, if revere allows
Sono troppo triste per trovare le giuste parole in inglese. Per questo lo farò in italiano.
Grazie Revere per l'immenso lavoro fatto con EM. Un blog di riferimento. PandemItalia è nato per lo stimolo che ho ricevuto leggendo EM. Che altro dire... viene a mancare un blog importantissimo per me: da oggi la mia personale blogosfera si impoverisce, non posso che essere triste. Capisco la decisione presa e vi auguro ogni bene.
Having read EF daily since its inception, I shall most definitely feel the void now you are wrapping up.
It's been a good run and I thank the Reveres, one and all.
Damn.
Well, just...damn.
I understand needing to take more time for your primary efforts, but you WILL be missed. This has been such an informative place, I've learned so much here. Will read TPH and look out for posts by you.
A few years ago a paper I wrote was given a surprising amount of media coverage and was covered in a post here. Seeing my research discussed in Effect Measure (a blog I already followed and respected) in a fair, balanced, and overall positive light was honestly one of the biggest thrills of my professional career to date. Your insightful commentary has deepened my understand of countless publications and policy decisions over the years and will certainly be missed.
Best of luck, reveres; you will be missed. Besides all the information, it was all the discussions of the importance of public health measures that made this so valuable. Will follow The Pump Handle.
... a wish that wherever you fare, you fare well and safely and in peace.
#58 posted before I could add: back at you.
I'm sorry to see you go. This blog has been a valuable resource for me in countering health-based paranoia and disinformation, and distributing good information. I've cited it often in my own writing, and sent the link to many people. It has also always been an interesting read. I'll miss you guys.
I will miss you, Revere.
Good luck, godspeed and best wishes...
Thanks so much for all you have done. I'm a lay reader -- "Just a Momâ " and your hard work has educated me and made me more interested in public health.
I'll miss you guys- I'm mostly a lurker, occasional commenter. I've appreciated the writing, the insight, and the info. Take care.
We will miss you! Your blog was one of the absolute best for public health issues -- it was always my first stop. Best of luck in the future!
-Association of Public Health Laboratories
noooooo!
You have been at the top of my Sciblog list for 3 or 4 years and often the only one I check on busy days.
You have all been a source of rational commentary on the health of our country and the overseas community. I will miss you.
Best wishes.
Thanks and good luck!
Damn.
I am sorry to see you close this blog, but look forward to your postings at The Pump Handle. Thank you for your hard work so far.
I have been a regular reader since I found your blog. I appreciate your ability to get past the technical jargon but at the same time providing technical insight that I wouldn't have found otherwise.
I also looked forward to your Freethinker Sunday Simonette every Sunday morning like I looked forward to the Sunday comics when I was a child.
Thank you for the information, education and especially the entertainment you have provided.
Thank you very much for all your efforts here. I am sad to see you go but understand why. Along with those above and below me, I wish you all the best as you go forward. You will never know how many people you have helped and informed these past years, but you made a real difference in this world for the better.
Make that Freethinker Sunday Sermonette. I shouldn't have trusted my spellchecker.
Words fail me, but for more than five years, yours never did. I'll miss you. Farewell dear friends.
You will be missed. Thank you for so many fine blog articles.
For auld lang syne, Revere,
for auld lang syne,
weâll tak a cup oâ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And thereâs a hand, my trusty fiere!
and gie's a hand oâ thine!
And weâll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.
Auld lang syne is forever.
I haz a sad. I didn't say much here, but I sure liked this blog and always recommended it to my colleagues.
Will follow the (immune) herd to The Pump Handle.
All I can say is thank you for all the great information you've provided. I have really enjoyed reading your blog over the past many months and am sad to see you go, but I wish you well. :)
Well, now I really feel old when one of you youngster blogs folds it up. You will certainly be missed, but your final song summed it up well, there's a time to blog, and a time to do other things, to move on to new obsessions. And I'm here to tell you that there's life after blogging. A whole new world will open up and I'm sure Mrs. Revere will thank you.
On the other hand, you can take the person out of the blog, but you can never take the blog out of the person. I can't tell you how many times over the last 3 1/2 years I've cried "Where's my blog when I need it?" At least you'll still have an occasional outlet when that time comes.
So good luck on your next endeavors. I still remember that day in the coffee shop, glad that I didn't tell you the truth about how it would enslave you. So go softly, because when it comes right down to it, the world is a better place because of your Effect Measure.
Reveres, respect.
I'll be missing this blog, enjoyable, inspiring, and reliable. Thank you and best wishes.
Sorry to hear it! Effect Measure has been an invaluable source of information, but more important, it's been a firm but humane voice for sanity and reason.
Beyond that, EM has been a huge help to me, emotionally and intellectually, and to the friends and family members I sent here during the recent pandemic. I'm grateful for what you've done here and I'm glad you'll continue to write elsewhere.
And I agree with everyone else who says that the site should stay online forever.
Thanks again.
Au revoir , bon vent Revere
Merci pour ces 5 années passionnantes à vous lire.
Ce fut un mauvais jour quand j'ai appris que vous partiez.
As a professor of Medical Virology in a Medical School, an MD involved in viral diseases with a PhD in molecular virology, I will deeply miss this blog that I used to read. I wish you all the best. Sorry you are leaving, but I do hope you will find the best.
I suppose everyone contributes to the world just by being her/himself, but some do that publicly and extraordinarily. That takes courage and, done successfully, a dash of the rogue â and Revere, you delivered consistently. Your wit enlivened the conversation and your passion has always been refreshing in a world of dry policy-speak. You are, in a word, memorable!
Thanks for the info and thanks for the fun. I look forward to more at TPH.
Thanks for all you've done, best wishes in all you do. EM will be missed.
So sorry to see you go.
Thanks for all I have learned.
Best wishes for the future.
Thank you for all of your fine work. I learned a lot from your blog! We will miss you!
Sad news, Revere! But I'm heartened to know that you will still be a Sb contributor. Three cheers for five years of great blogging!
Thank you Reveres for all rigourous analysis and hints you have provided.
Even at times of confrontation, all reliants posts to give a hand to public health officials in many countries and languages I have forward too.
We cannot calculate all the public health policies you have contributed to implement, in India, in Africa, some latests datas in Europe, and all your beacon references relayed to Medical Forums of so many countries.
You have succeeded to transmit a lot of knowledge.
A tout seigneur et tout honneurs.
Merci Reveres, you have indeed have created a source of Authoritative references and inspirations for so many.
May you now enjow the rising sun, the wind of Natures, Serenity it conveys but mostly the reduction of morbidity and mortality you have generated in so many coutries.
I just cannot extrapolate all the Goodness you génerated but I can assure you, First Hand, it has been highly significant.
For all this and your Constance ans yes at times much Courage you have manifested did, are and will inspire many more.
With deep sincerity, I thank you for many.
May you come back if you see a treath with your lamp so we have the time to contact our lists of Public Health Directors and yes keep making a difference.
I hope you will keep the precious posts of yours accessible.
Again thank you to you and Miss Revere.
Hearth Felt,
Snowy Owl
I second Jody Lanard
In nominating EffectMeasure to be the first online World Heritage Site. It should be preserved forever.
Snowy
We'll meet again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxrWz9XVvls
What else can I say that hasn't been said already? Ho scoperto EM solo l'anno scorso, ma da allora è stato sempre il mio blog di riferimento per molti aspetti del publich health ma anche della filosofia della ricerca. Complimenti per l'enorme lavoro, per la grazia e la complessità , e per l'umanità . Accompagno l'uscita con Luciano Berio: Sequenza II, per arpa (1963). Buona vita
Thank you for all you have given to so many people in the creation of this blog. Good bye and good luck from this mostly lurker.
Thank you Revere/s. I am sad to hear this news, but understand how much work went into this blog. I want you to know how much this blog has meant to me and so many others. I wish you all the best and hope I'll run into you at TPH.
I am having a little difficult trying to grasp exactly what this means. When things arise, which fall within the realm of items I think might peek your interest, and I am not sure what I think about them I tend to come here first to get your take. As our perspectives are usually similar and you generally think about, and write about, it so clearly it helps me crystallize my own thoughts.
I have dreaded this day for years, but had expected it sooner, as I have no idea how anyone manages to keep up this volume of posting while maintaining such a consistently high standard.
I, 28th, or what ever we are upto Jody's comment as the body of posts is something I quite often search for a reread. Within the last month I have been back looking at the 'Turkish mutations' posts and I think they were from 1995.
Anyway thank-you all, I am in your debt.
Jonathan Jackson.
P.S. Where am I going to go now when I want to rattle Randy's cage.
Ah Revere, I will miss your blog! I have relied on it many times, and learned much from it. Best wishes with turning your focus back to the other parts of your life!
Thank you for all you did here. I hope you receive your just reward in the next life, or the one after that. ;)
Lovely song to leave with us, Revere. Thanks.
I keep coming back for another peek and it keeps being true. I'm going to miss you-all. I used your information to explain to people why they should get the swine flu vaccine and why they shouldn't fear MMR vaccines or preservatives or adjuvants. And before I could do that, I needed your information to clarify my thinking on those topics. So thanks again!
And thank you for pointing us to another health science resource. Best of luck in whatever you tackle next!
Good luck at The Pump Handle, and in the Real World. We which you well - all of you.
At the risk of double posting, I want to make sure I signed the right book (in case we have a National Heritage web site at stake here) ;)
Reveres,
I haven't visited in a while as my job hunting has been ALL consuming, with travel and such.
I'm very sad to see you go, but totally in support of the decision.
Being one with ADD, I've never been able to figure out how you were able to do so much, so well, so consistently. But I was a HUGE benefactor of those (seemingly effortless) efforts.
I will miss being the smartest person in friendly get together's where I deftly steer the conversation to topics I've perused here. ESPECIALLY during flu season.
Being an educator you may be comforted to know that having had you as a "teacher" has motivated me to doggedly research subjects on my own that I didn't fully understand and in so doing, have REALLY exercised my brain, keeping it in much better shape than it would have otherwise have been in.
I am in a totally unrelated field (creative) and EM has been a welcome much needed get away for my way too restless brain.
You will be sorely missed, and I'm so thankful I got here before the moving truck pulled away.
Thanks for all you've done for all of us, you've been very generous role model.
Have a GREAT life,
Glock
Dear Revere,
Life's distractions took me away from here for the better part of the past month (or has it been two?). I've just this minute returned to the sad news. But how could we expect it to last forever? All good things are ephemeral.
The others (1-100) are so much more eloquent in singing your praises, so I will just say, simply, Thank you! Know that you have made a difference. Can any of us ask for more?
Mark
Dear Revere,
You've been a great blogger and I've been reading your posts for years now. I've been learning a lot from you and my remarks and questions were patiently answered most of the time. As a Dutchy I've made some translation bloopers as well, and I'll never forget the right English words since.
A lot has been said in the comments above mine, but also a lot of what you've meant to others in EM will never be made explicit.
Especially in the flu times I've been looking up what critical stance you took about news and scientific publications. It helped to develop my own point of view, to do some research and to understand what was going on.
Thank you very much for everything and I hope to find you at TPH sometimes again. And my best wishes for you and your family and friends!
Thank you so much for your excellent work, which has provided us at ReportingonHealth.org with great ideas to share with journalists covering health.
Barbara Feder Ostrov, deputy editor, ReportingonHealth.org
When I first learned of Avian Flu, I was hungry for information. Henry's site, Flu Wiki, Effect Measure were all places I turned to. There was a time, when I was obsessed with HPAI. Times (especially during cluster scares) that I was perhaps worried to the point of it effecting my health.
Through it all, you were a cornerstone of information. I owe you a debt a gratitude (more than you know) for teaching me, calming me, and many times, helping me to cope.
Along the way I learned a great deal about public health. Even had a lively discussion or two on social, political and religious issues. I have enjoyed and appreciated all you have done here.....agree or disagree.
I came here to be healed and I was. But I also learned so much!
Thanks!
Patch
I am sitting here with tears in my eyes.... Thank you for all that you do and have done.
I came to Effect Measure later than many who have commented here, but am just as sad to see you bow out.
Over the past 3 years I have found Effect Measure to be an excellent source of information and analysis, and you were one of my primary sources of good analysis dureing last years swine flu outbreak.
It's sad to see you go, but you can be justifiably proud of what you have done here.
Well done!
Be well and prosper. Thank you all for the incredible contributions you have made.
Does this mean the 60's are really over?
We'll miss you. Good luck with your work.
I'm extremely heart broken. Have to find some other good health related blogs to read. Good luck to you man.