Philip Alcabes is Professor in the Department of Allied Health at the School of Nursing, Adelphi University, in Garden City, NY. Alcabes studies the history, ethics and policy of public health. In addition to his book, “Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to Avian Flu” (2009), he has written essays on these topics for The American Scholar, Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as peer-reviewed journals.