Bird flu

After a bit of a dry spell, work has suddenly ramped up full force. In fact, I'm still on a conference call (my fourth of the day) as I type this. I'm still paying attention; at the moment the discussion is about whether a porta-potty is a resouce or an asset. I'm multitasking. And what, you ask, has prompted this flurry of activity?

Oprah.

That's right. Oprah had the expert generally referred to (though not always nicely) as "The King of Public Health" on her show today to talk about bird flu. Suddenly my company is talking about new funding streams, products, tasks, and so on and it looks like I'll be spending my free time working. If it seems a little strange that Oprah could have such an impact on the company's plans and the public health priorities for the next few months then you don't know public health. It's one of the special little quirks of this business that you swim with the current and there's a new current every other day, all leading to...well, I don't know where. Perhaps because it's the government. Perhaps because it's the business of prevention. When I worked for the state, I prevented bioterrorism one week and prevented SARS the next and guess what? There was no BT nor SARS either week.