Are you a 3rd world bird handler? If so, then yes, you are at risk for the avian flu. If, however, you do not fall into this category, then according to the Centers for Disease Control, and me, you are not at risk. Wheww! That’s a relief. So why all the angst? Well some I’d guess are just worried about Donald Rumsfeld’s holdings in Tamiflu. But the rest of us calloused individuals really don’t care about that; our excuse is that we have recently moved into the 2nd century of a constantly repeated mantra devised around 1796 by Edward Jenner, and then later perfected by Louis Pasteur: and that is that the ability to ward off disease is some thing created by the medical community and sold to you. Whether it is tablets, capsules, medicated liquids, powders, or vaccines, the message drilled into us is that without the medical and pharmaceutical industries, we have no immune system. It’s all just a crap shoot, nothing you can do about it, and anyone of us could be the next victim of some wicked pathogen, So line up, see your Dr., get your shots and take your medicine.

Meanwhile, a banner across my tv screen this past week informed me that according to govt officials, within the next decade, 1 out of every 5 dollars will go to health care.

Is it just me, or is there something screamingly wrong with this picture? This, in my opinion, is up there with kids in L.A. getting days off from school because the air is so bad. Or, closer to home, the ban on swimming in Lake Ontario because of the pollution. These things you would think would result in banner headlines, inspiring insurrection and immediate demand for accountability and restitution! But no. Instead we tend to see a collective response manifesting signs of shock: a sort of no reaction, its bad but there is nothing I can do about it. Like we are all waiting for someone or some group somewhere to do heaven knows what and make things right again.

If we, as a nation, need to spend that much (est. trillion dollars), then one thing we can conclude is that we are not a well group of people, and what we are doing as a nation is not working. This is logic. Healthy people do not have to spend one fifth of their entire earnings on healthcare, aka disease management.