A new academic year

Well, the big news is that we now have a new academic building, named after the principle donor, Dr. Sanders. I taught with Dick the whole time he was at Eureka College, mostly in western civilization and culture. If any alums are reading this, and you were in that course "back in the day", you know what I'm talking about.

In those days, the course was basically a history course, so Dick took the lion's share of the lectures, which was quite a job. Whenever one of the other team members did a lecture, he always took the time to write a note thanking that person for her/his efforts. Pretty thoughtful, and I'm embarrassed to say that I never did the same.

The big biological news is the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, which has killed at least 50% of the people who contract the disease. This may be one of the worst diseases (in terms of mortality rate) in the whole world. However, it's not easy to become infected; one needs contact with an infected individual's bodily fluids. If the disease ever became infective via aerosol, we'd be up a creek without a paddle. We have vaccines which protect us against some viruses, but for the most part we're helpless against viral infections. Many people believe that antibiotics also kill viruses, but that is not true (otherwise, we'd be shipping tons of antibiotics to west Africa right now).

And speaking of vaccines, the idea that vaccination "causes" autism still won't die. A recent report, since removed, indicated a higher risk of autism for African American male children who had been vaccinated with MMR. You can imagine how the anti-vaccine crowd responded to that! Here's the deal: nothing is ever proven in science. So while the bulk of evidence supports the idea that vaccination does not "cause" autism, the question must forever remain open. Science tells us that our best avenue to avoid crippling and potentially fatal viral illnesses is to vaccinate our children; the risk of autism from such vaccinations is vanishingly small. Which certainly doesn't help a parent who has a child with autism and wonders what could have been done to prevent it.