Posted by Nicholas at February 26, 2006 09:40 AMGovernments thrive on infectious diseases, because only governments, or institutions that are very hard to distinguish from governments, can contain them. Which is why I always suspect that such "pandemics" (pandemic seems now to be the regular word for an "epidemic") tend to be somewhat exaggerated. But if I were a politician, I would never dare to say such a thing.
Brian Micklethwait, "Not a good time to be a chicken", Samizdata, 2006-02-21
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