Aaron Desmond will personally save us from the bird flu

Once upon a time he was a Backstreet Boy, at the peak of the Internet bubble an international peddler of toilet paper sweepstakes, a college TV show host, and now he is going to save the world from the avian flu - while preventing an outbreak of martial law in the United States. Or something like that. Aaron works at the University of Minnesota's CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) these days, which I was reminded of when his director, Michael Osterholm PhD, appeared on CNN and NPR in the last couple days as the influenza outbreak spread to Turkey and Romania.

Aaron apparently coordinates coming up with the bling to keep millions from horrible deaths. not bad at all. His CIDRAP webpage:

Aaron Desmond

Mr. Desmond is the coordinator for licensing and new business development at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).
He previously worked at a marketing firm performing a variety of functions, including managing the production and distribution of a monthly communication to top executives across more than 50 divisions of a $19 billion company. Prior to this he ran his own Web marketing and consulting company, with the primary revenue stream generated through an international sweepstakes boasting more than 120,000 subscribers. Mr. Desmond has experience in business planning and development, opportunity recognition, market research, Web development, marketing, and law.
He serves on the board of directors for two nonprofit organizations, chairing marketing and membership committees. He graduated from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, with a BA in business administration, concentrating in entrepreneurship, and a legal studies minor.

Arthur Cheng, meanwhile, is currently deep in the interior of China perfecting the new SARS v2.0 Avian Swine pseudostreptococcus that will wipe out much of western Canada in 2008.