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Gina Greenlee
What To Do Instead Of Getting
Smallpox Shots
October 1, 2002
In the coming months, thousands, perhaps millions,
of Americans may find themselves with a downright un-American amount
of free time.
We may become alarmingly inert as our neighbors, colleagues and
families chase, like frenetic puppies, the bouncing smallpox
vaccination-on-a-stick being yanked by our federal and state
governments.
We won't be queued in clinics or stymied in traffic in response to
the security threat du jour. Neither will we fight for our lives in
crowded, understaffed hospitals - because some of our immune systems
may not be able to handle a vaccine classified as "investigational,"
one that can cause severe, sometimes fatal, side effects.
But in the fashion of our culture, we must keep busy.
In lieu of obtaining a smallpox vaccination, I suggest we choose
from the following list of alternatives to engage our days and
exercise our spirits:
De-Clutter
Toss our stash of Amoxicillin, gas masks and rubber gloves.
Boost Memory
Recall that the crowd yet to credibly enlighten the public about the
source of last year's anthrax spores - the crowd whose revealed
number of missed opportunities to fortify the country against the
Sept. 11 attacks increases weekly - is the same crowd that is
mobilizing volunteers to wield smallpox hypodermics.
Get Fit
A terrorist-precipitated smallpox outbreak would not result in mass
vaccination remotely resembling order or "strategy." Airports would
lock down. Roadblocks would throttle vehicles, leaving only the fit
to flee on foot.
But we, the newly leisured throngs, don't exercise for such ghastly
reasons. We pump up our muscles and our cardiovascular systems
because that bolsters our quality of life and revs our ability to
combat stress and disease.
Now we have no excuse. Our calendars are clear.
Dial Digits
Call folks you haven't chatted up in a while. Not only because the
phone lines will be inaccessible in a real emergency, as those of us
who tried to contact loved ones across the United States discovered
in September 2001, but because you aren't spending your days at the
ER bracing for the antidote to the antidote. See, you really can do
lunch.
Visit The Doctor
A doctor today might keep the goblins away, those terror mongers who
prey on the ignorant - those who lack information. A conversation
with a doctor augmented by some research may reveal that not
everyone benefits from a flu, hepatitis B or smallpox vaccination.
It might also reveal that not every physician ingests scary anti-malarials
when trekking in the Thai jungle. Some just wear long pants and
spray down with Deet.
Risk Within Your Control
What have you been avoiding? Where can you set better boundaries?
Who could you love some more? And what's on that list? You know, the
one titled "Someday When I Have the Time."
Now you do.
Gina Greenlee writes a twice-monthly column for The Courant. She
lives in Hartford. To leave her a comment, please call 860-241-3841.
Or e-mail her at gdg70@hotmail.com.
E-mail:
gdg70@hotmail.com
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