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Quote of the day August 15th
Epidemic death
I’m reading The Misfit Economy (Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips, 2015: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks) at the moment. I will be reviewing it later for the next issue of my monthly column, The Book Mark but I just came across this quote that made me pause.
‘After leaving his prestigious job at San Fransisco General Hospital, Dr Gary Slutkin spent ten years working to stop the spread of infectious disease in Africa. After a decade, he was burnt out from witnessing so much death and disease. “Epidemic death has a different feel to it — it is full of not only fear but panic.” ’ (p 207)
Slutkin worked in Africa during the 1990s, fighting the spread of tuberculosis, and cholera in Somalia, and then HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Essential work but work that comes with a high personal toll from always operating under crisis conditions. This book, published five years ago, precedes the coronavirus pandemic that has swept across the globe. Paradoxically, this pandemic has worst affected the United States of America, the country most likely to offer humanitarian aid to others. Hospitals in the United States have seen their intensive care units overwhelmed as the virus spreads through the community.
Eight months into 2020 and the number of coronavirus deaths around the world has now surpassed the annual average…
