June 20, 2008
'Epi… What?'
A world-health adviser explains how she found her calling
When people ask me what I do for a living, I say: "Sex and drugs." I used to say I was an epidemiologist, which is also true. But most people looked blank. Epi… what? Perhaps something vaguely distasteful to do with skin.
Saying I do sex and drugs saves me from explaining that epidemiology is the study of how diseases spread in a population. It saves me from the social suicide of admitting that I am a scientist, a
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