Sparks: Central Africa: Did US aid cuts worsen Ebola outbreak?

A system designed solely for calculation will fail to predict a viral mutation, just as the Difference Engine fails to foresee the melody it could produce from a sequence of numbers.

First, record the precise date of the first symptom, the instrument used for diagnosis, and the atmospheric conditions; only then can we measure the delay in the response.

Observe the branching pattern of a river delta and the spread of a contagion; both follow the same law of seeking the path of least resistance through a permeable medium.

What do you mean by 'aid,' and does a cut in one nation's funds absolve all others, including the afflicted, from their duty to prepare?

When a republic abandons its treaties of mutual aid, it hollows the very institutions that protect all nations from the plagues that recognize no borders.

A surveillance network, like a species, thrives on minute, continuous investment, and its rapid decay under slight resource pressure reveals its fragile adaptation.

The habit of mutual assistance, once severed by a doctrine of isolated interest, leaves the democratic body vulnerable to contagions both physical and moral.

You do not debate the cost of the lantern after the path has grown dark and the first traveler has already fallen.

The cold arithmetic of a budget line item translates directly into the burning fever of a child in a mud-brick hut.

Design the whole resonant system of prevention and response first, or you will forever waste energy chasing sparks after the lightning has struck.

Hegemony is the widespread belief that some populations are naturally vulnerable to catastrophe, making the withdrawal of external support seem like a tragic inevitability.

List each clinic closed, each surveillance officer laid off, and each month of silence before the outbreak; the columns of data will accuse.

To deny a population the means of its own health surveillance is to assert its perpetual infancy, a tyranny disguised as economy.

Do not tear down the fence of international cooperation until you can explain why it was built in the first place, during the last plague.