Does Michael Jackson have the right idea with his gauze mask?
They don’t work. Back in 1918 many cities passed laws that you couldn’t go out without gauze over your mouth. It was useless. The virus passed right through. So we need space helmets? We need to really barricade ourselves in our houses like survivalists or something. There’s no way to predict when a new virus will break out, is there? That’s really frightening. First of all, I think AIDS was really humbling for the 20th century. Around 1980, scientists were in this phase where they said, ‘Oh we’re conquering everything.’ And here’s a new virus breaking out. With flu there’s always new viruses breaking out. If it’s an old one then everybody already has antibodies to it, so the virus has to keep changing to find a new population to infect. There are so many animals and so many people that can have flu viruses mutating away in them, it’s inevitable that every year there are new flu viruses. The medical establishment is always worried about new influenzas. Do they know enough? Are they pre
