[lit-ideas] Re: The Shape of Fear
- From: Robert Paul <robert.paul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 18:07:53 -0800
Andy Amago wrote:
Far be it for me to compete with Scientific American. I would, however,
like to quote a line from that site (I don't know who said it), "Influenza,
on the other hand, is transmissible before and during the early phases of
illness." That seems to invalidate a virus' need to not kill its host,
since it will have found another before its first host dies. Human hosts
are also limitless. No matter how many humans it kills, there will always
be another.
Think about this, Andy. A rapidly lethal virus produces a dead host. One
would have to be in fairly direct contact with that dead host (or,
depending on the type of virus, the dead host's bodily fluids or feces)
in order to acquire the virus. Moreover, there is no such thing as
'influenza' which is not a particular strain of influenza. One cannot
generalize 'across strains,' so to speak. (For example, HN51 does not,
has not yet, spread in aerosolized form.)
There isn't an infinite number of human beings; there is not an infinite
number of sort of countable things. But even though there are lots of
human beings, the image of there being a crowd of persons jostling to be
the next in line to come into close contact with a very, very sick flu
victim is a bit strange.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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