“It is horrible. You can stand to see one, two or twenty men die, but to see these poor devils dropping like flies gets on your nerves. We have been averaging about 100 deaths per day, and it’s still going on.”     -An army doctor near Boston in September, 1918

The first documented case of Ebola in the United States is being treated in Texas, and that’s bringing intense media attention to the deadly illness. It has killed 3,300 people so far this year in West Africa, with Sierra Leone alone reporting a new infection every twenty minutes.

That, in turn, is triggering new fears of some deadly pandemic marching unrestrained across the globe.

But here’s the thing: it happened once before … and it happened where you live. Continue reading →