Subject:  revised T/168 talk at Berlin RKI RKI  10/20/01


revised 10/19

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I am deeply grateful to our hosts for this opportunity to talk
about the evolutionary aspects of infectious disease.  But it is
impossible for me to erase what has been on my mind since September
11, unforgettable images of the collaps of the WTC within the line
of sight from my own home in NYC.  Since then, we have the further
calamity of of the inversion of medical science, of the use of
cultivated microbes to kill.  But I come here not to unload my
anguish, but to return to our scientific agenda.


On the positive side, we have the example of Emil von Behring
himself, the scientific hero we honor today, and the foundations
he laid for the scientific development and use of prophylactic
vaccines.  One hope I do see for global civility is organization
in a really serious way, for the application of the most advanced
technology towards the control of the world's most grievous
infections, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV and several others.  The
altruism that would reflect would in fact enhance our personal
security, and would even at enlarged scale entail investments a
tiny fraction of what is lost from terrorist attacks and the
indispensable military responses to them.

Well let me turn now to my narrower topic, the natural history
of our relationship to pathogenic microbes, or more broadly to
our microbiomes -- the entire ensemble of microflora which share
our body space, for better and for worse.

..  Satrt with the conventional history of our "war" with infectious
disaese.  As we shall see, this military metaphor may have a secondary
consequence, what I call an attitude problem, which may obscure a
broader biological perspective.  [Recall Koch's monomorphism, and
its denial of Darwinian evolution].

  .. 20th C. Life expectancy -- US -- would like European if
accessible.  Prussia probably better off in 1900 a/c Bismarck reforms..
o============

Above revision after vehement non-response to press clamoring for
comment on BW.