Polio even closed the Minnesota State Fair just 60 years ago. AIDS has lived in Minneapolis for 15 years. West Nile encephalitis now lives in East Coast mosquitoes and kills people in New York. Leprosy, first seen in early Norwegian immigrants to Minnesota, now comes with immigrants from other countries. Our prosperous nation contributes the tiniest fraction of our wealth to the world's public health.
Epidemics are man-made.
They are the grade on a report card on the adequacy of public-health systems. Prospero's castle cannot lock its doors. Steven Miles, a Minneapolis physician and former candidate for Senate, is in Africa.