Wednesday.

I don't have anything to say about the elections right now.  The pundits are still digesting the results--those that are in.  Several races won't be decided just yet.  I will let it simmer for a while.

But this is an interesting development in Man's war against bacteria.  Most of us should know that we have a world now of resistant bacteria thanks to our over-use, mis-use and abuse of antibiotics over the last 70 years.  Many strains of disease causing bugs are resistant to multiple antibiotics and a few are resistant to almost all antibiotics.  The problem with antibiotics is that, no matter how well or conservatively used, bacteria will develop resistance.  A couple of Swiss researchers have found a way to combat bacteria that doesn't lead to resistance.

Fabius Maximus has a good summary of the ebola crisis, which is a crisis in west Africa--not so much in western countries.  I am always amazed at how easily some of us panic and how little some of us think critically about anything--terrorism, disease, whatever.

I have been reading about this possibility for a while now.  Not many now can remember the polio epidemics of the last century.  Anyone my age were too young and anyone older got the vaccine.  I was remarking not long ago that part of the problem with vaccines is their success.  I remember having measles, mumps and chicken pox.  My youngest siblings were vaccinated.  I remember my father talking about his baby sister who died of pneumonia long, long ago.  That is outside my memory.  Now many of those diseases are making a return.  Part of the problem is people are now more afraid of the possible side effects of the vaccinations than they are of the diseases themselves.  But if the viruses are evolving a way around vaccination they may become the problem they once were.