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Showing posts with the label germs

Guns, Germs and Steel

The  links  connecting  livestock  and  crops  to  germs  were  unforgettably illustrated  for  me  by  a  hospital  case  about  which  I  learned  through  a  physician  friend.  When  my  friend  was  an  inexperienced  young  doctor,  he  was called  into  a  hospital  room  to  deal  with  a  married  couple  stressed-out  by  a mysterious  illness.  It  did  not  help  that  the  couple  was  also  having  difficulty communicating  with  each  other,  and  with  my  friend.  The  husband  was  a small,  timid  man,  sick  with  pneumonia  caused  by  an  unidentified  microbe, and  with ...