[MrTonyD]

I think we do forget it. More specifically, we forget the responses to disease which work, and as a result have dismantled our ability to respond. I read Laurie Garret's book "The Coming Plague" where she described the many things which were done to control the spread of disease. None of those things exist anymore, and would take a lot of time to re-create. No consideration is given to them in a "profit oriented" society, where return on investment is more important than people's lives.