When pandemics hit the Gap, it’s Core bar the door

ARTICLE: “As Bird Flu Spreads to Africa, Health-System Gaps Raise Risks,” by Nicholas Zamiska, Wall Street Journal, 9 February 2006, p. A4.

Forty thousands birds dead in Nigeria from avian flu. It wasn’t recognized at first, and frankly, even if it had been, don’t expect AIDS-ravaged Africa to view it in the same light as the Core.

The World Health Organization has long held its breath on this subject, hoping against hope that avian flu wouldn’t make it to Africa, because of the rickety and easily overwhelmed medical nets. Fighting avian flu in the Core is one thing--an entirely other one in the Gap.

More than anything else, avian flu will push Core countries to explore more and more the sort of sensor networks designed to detect bad stuff. Security experts want to sell all this on the terror threat, but the reality is that in a globalized world, the usual threats suffice to justify such R&D.