How I know I've become fully integrated into the science nerd world at the Petting Zoo

Yesterday and today, I've been sneezing and blowing my nose a lot. Clearly, I've caught some sort of cold -- some sort of run-of-the mill, ordinary upper respiratory infection otherwise known as the Common Cold.

You know what my first thought was when I realized this? "Oh, wow ... I could have a coronoavirus. Cool!"

Seriously, I thought this.

One of my current analysis projects is a mini report on how science informed public policy during the 2003 SARS outbreak. I've been reading a lot about coronoaviruses. It was a new and peculiar one that caused SARS, but garden variety coronaviruses also cause about 30% of cases of the common cold.

So ... cool! Sort of ... except for the sneezing and coughing ...

When I first left academia just under 2 years ago, I never thought that a year into my postacademic life I might be spending time thinking about things like reinsurance, which was something I thought a lot about at Think Tank. I'd never even heard of reinsurance before! But, then, a year ago, I never imagined that one year later, i.e. now, I'd be thinking about coronaviruses. I'd never heard of a coronavirus!

You know what I think I might like best about my particular variety of postacademic life? Learning new stuff all the time:



a coronavirus