To Catch a Deadly Germ (NYT)

every DAY 100,000 people die in the world, 10,000 americans

it's the large-population effect, where something that isn't an important risk can be magnified to a crisis

there follows political power and funding for something nobody sane would worry about

creating and taking ownership of ``public problems'' is the way to political success

By BETSY McCAUGHEY

What kills more than five times as many Americans as AIDS? Hospital infections, which account for an estimated 100,000 deaths every year.