Lethality!

October 5th, 2024| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

James Bond has more lives than a cat. So it is claimed in “No Time to Die: An In-depth Analysis of James Bond’s Exposure to Infectious Agents,” published in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, by scientists from Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.

These enterprising researchers (for want of anything better to do, apparently), studied heath risks in all James Bond films made by Eon Productions, and found that over the course of 25 films (from 1962’s ‘Dr No’ up to 2021’s  ‘No Time to Die’), James Bond could have—should have—died 25 times!

In particular, the authors looked at whether the fictional agent ‘adhered to international travel advice’ during the 86 international journeys he made over the course of the films into 47 ‘geographically identifiable countries’ in those 25 films (around 3,113 minutes of evening hours for each of the three study authors).

It seemed to them that any real-life agent in Bond’s shoes would have suffered from sexually-transmitted infections (from his rather casual attitude to that activity: almost every movie—59 on-screen sexual liaisons, i.e., an average of 2.4 per film), alcohol poisoning (given his predilection for vodka martinis: alcohol, shaken or stirred, are problematic, but only three times was Bond observed to be drinking something that wasn’t alcohol—orange juice in ‘From Russia with Love,’ coffee in ‘Dr. No,’ and salt water in ‘Casino Royale’), and infections from tropical diseases (eating unwashed fruit: ‘Thunderball’; using another’s face-mask: ‘You Only Live Twice’), as well as other lethal dangers, including, of course, smoking (pretty much all the time, though not in the Daniel Craig era), food poisoning (eating unwashed fruit, and raw oysters—but, hey, he never had diarrhea!), malaria, dehydration, not to mention being shot at, run over, stabbed and otherwise attacked by assailants various and sundry.

Overall, we found Bond poorly prepared for travel-associated health risks and particularly naïve to the threat of infectious disease. Despite the increased availability of online travel advice, Bond’s risk of acquiring infectious diseases unfortunately did not decline in recent missions. Given the central role that agents with the double-0 status have in international counter-terrorism activities, and given the limited time Bond receives to prepare for missions, we urgently ask his employer MI6 to take its responsibility seriously. We only live once.”

Amen! (And die, too!)

Unless you count living forever which, BTW, happens to only to those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ as their only God and Savior from sin.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

The problem with not having eternal life stems from an even greater lethality than alcohol, or dehydration, or malaria, or bullets, or knives, or sexually-transmitted infections. Yup!

Sin.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23

The result? Eternal separation from a holy God, eternal death away from the One who is the source of life.

And there is no remedy for that affliction, apart from the rescue mission undertaken by God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8

Nothing we patients could do. Everything God did cured us. And faith alone in Christ alone saves.

Eternal life. You only live once. Live it eternally!

SOURCE: Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease; Daily Mail; Essentia