William Williams

On August 4, 2020, Lebanon suffered one of the worst man-made disasters in its history when a dockside warehouse containing almost 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate caught fire from a nearby welding accident. The resulting explosion, occurring around 6:00 in the afternoon, leveled the port and devastated surrounding structures. It shattered glass and caused destruction, death, and injury within over a kilometer radius. Noise from the blast was heard as far away as Cyprus, with only a smoking, flooded crater remaining in the middle of Beirut’s port district.

Every year, especially during the “flu season,” millions of people come down with a host of preventable diseases like colds, influenza, and various respiratory infections. Most of these are considered “common” illnesses and are not as impactful as unusual outbreaks in years past of diseases like SARS and Swine Flu, not to mention the ongoing struggles with MRSA and, at the time of the initial publication of this article, the major pandemic of coronavirus—which continues to shape policy and global response.