Vegetarians and Epidemics.

One of these things is not like the other ones. One of these things just doesn't belong... Hanta, Plague, Ebola, Crutzfeld Jakobs, Avian, Nepah, West Nile, Rift Valley, Anthrax, Norwalk, SARS, Marburg. Give up? The only one of these disease outbreaks since 1993 that does NOT come from from animals is Norwalk virus.

More discussion of the intersection of poverty, food sources and disease outbreaks follows that observation.

(Another view of how this relationship works produces a different conclusion, however. One widely held view of the diseases that wiped out much of the Native American population is that Europeans had developed immunities to many animal born diseases after millenia of farming, while Native Americans, who did not engage in nearly the same level of animal husbandry, lacked these immunities and were devistated when exposed to a plethora of animal source diseases all at once.)

So, the next time you see the people outside KFC at Alameda and Colorado Boulevards protesting its treatment of chickens, remember that these folks are not fringe envrionmentalists, they are Patriots, trying to save us from the next plague.