One fact that has emerged clearly in reporting over the last thirty-six hours is how many critical gaps there are in our knowledge of just what's happening down in Mexico -- where the outbreak began, how it spread, how many people have actually been infected, and so forth. This story from the AP goes through some of the key points, including the fact that many of the families of the dead still haven't been visited by public health officials -- a key step both for investigating the origins of the outbreak and arresting its spread.

On one level it's very unsettling because you see how little we know and how haphazard the response has been. More broadly, though, it's a reminder that the most highly developed countries are not islands. We're vulnerable to the weakest links in the public health preparedness web that spreads around the globe.

Late Update: This article in the WSJ explains why some of these links are so weak.