I continue to be fascinated by speculation of what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. may do when he’s in charge of the country’s public health systems-if, by “fascinated”, you mean running down the middle of the street, screaming like Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And this story, from Forbes, prompted several city blocks of high-speed, high-volume “speculation.”
The disease, currently referred to as Disease X by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to be limited to the Kwango Province, a remote area in the southwest of the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]. But broader spread certainly is possible. The exact magnitude of the outbreak is unclear. Some reports indicate that 79 people have died. Reuters has reported that 143 people have died. The first case apparently occurred in late October. The timeline of the other cases has not been clearly reported.
