I went along to a stand-up comedy club (where else?) on West 78th Street in Manhattan on Thursday last week, to hear our very own Michael Greger do his gig on Bird Flu, and how it threatens to bring down civilization as we know it. His powerpoint presentation has evolved, like a virus indeed, since I saw it a couple of months ago, and features moving (in both senses of the word) footage of confined animals and talking heads. Like his excellent book, the powerpoint had people amused and then a kind of "oh shit" pall fell over the room, as it began to sink in just how serious the situation was. Michael, however, ended his talk with a Jon Stewart sketch on the flu that, somehow, made it all seem that much more surreally real.

What was pleasing about the talk were how many professionals (MDs, emergency management folks, risk assessment people) there were in the audience, and the fact that Michael sold twenty books to the assembled fifty or so members of the audience. What was scary was that nothing, except for the clarity of Michael's presentation, had changed.