Silver Flu Bullets By Anne Applebaum
Americans and their leaders
will have to get over their love affair with intelligent design. Polls show that most don’t believe in evolution. But
it is actually impossible to talk logically about bird flu, or any other rapidly evolving and constantly changing virus, without
using the language of evolution — specific words such as “mutant,” “recombination,” “genome” and “selection.” Without that
language, a sensible popular or political discussion, let alone a scientific discussion, is impossible: We’re stuck talking about the
virus “jumping” from birds to humans, as if it were a magic bug with a mind of its own. We’re stuck thinking that a virus is a hex that
can be lifted with a single lucky charm, not something that will change over time.
We’re also stuck with magic solutions: silver
bullets, protective amulets, Tamiflu prescriptions. And until we are willing to elect the politicians, pay the businessmen, and support
the scientists and science educators who can come up with something better, that, I’m afraid, is all the flu preparedness we’ll ever
have.