In the middle of the first big jschool event of the season, a weeklong conference on Covering Infectious Diseases, most of which we’re webcasting. As usual, being run ragged — 13 hour day yesterday, endless logistics, schlepping and setting up equipment, managing details, etc. Exhausted already.
Funny story last night during a presentation by the head of the Center for Disease Control’s West Nile Virus division, Lyle Petersen… who ignored his own advice (stood outside at dusk without his DEET) and contracted West Nile himself, thus making himself even more of an expert than he already was. He left town right afterwards. Journalists tried to look him up to cover the irony, but there were two Lyle Petersens in the phone book, and the other Lyle Petersen had coincidentally died shortly before. Many journalists called the wrong house, and ended up talking to the wife of the dead guy. “He’s dead!” she told them. And so the story spiralled.