July  UTC Hello more great summer weather here Were in the middle of shorebird migration and herons seem to be on the move Two evenings ago saw a blackcrowned night heron a great egret and two greenbacked herons in addition to the usual few great blue herons just at our one local pond Ive been reading books about historical epidemics and the threat of new ones bird flu pretty interesting It had never occurred to me that all epidemics are political hot buttons but now of course it seems obvious as they can have huge economic effects Nobody wants to be the first to admit their country village town state etc is infected because people will then avoid the region and the stigma and economic damage can be long lasting Apparently epidemiology routinely has to deal with public relations governmental actions news control etc in addition to the purely biological issues Back to our subject I just edited a couple of sentences of my comments  one that I had mentioned before that I thought was impolite and one at the end of my post of  June which you havent answered yet I thought maybe the second question that I have withdrawn was too difficult and that was keeping you from responding If thats not it could you let me know what the problem might be and maybe I can think of a way around it so we can continue our discussion of Lyme disease testing Thanks very much hope alls well with you