trumps public health
When I was a small boy and had measles, medically rubeola, a large QUARENTINE sign went up on the door. The same went for other highly contagious diseases. This obviously was before vaccines nearly eliminated the illnesses. (Smallpox lingers in areas of ignorance and religious superstition.)
When I was a teenager I was a pearl diver in a local Walgreens. For those not in the know, a “pearl diver” is a dishwasher. I also did a little short order work and occasionally manned the counter.
Before I could don an apron for my first day at work I had to prove to Walgreens – because the State of Florida insisted upon it – that I had passed a VDRL screening.
VDRL stands for Venereal Disease Research Laboratory ; in other words, a test to see if the person being tested had, or ever had, syphilis. Although syphilis could (then) be cured by antibiotics, a trace always lingered as a Scarlet Letter.
In addition to the VDRL, a urine sample was taken to check for gonorrhea, a/k/a “clap” or “drip.” Antibiotics also are the medication of choice to eliminate this malady.
When I enlisted in the Air Force I was poked and probed six ways to Sunday.
Later, when I married, the State insisted that both my bride-to-be and I had a VDRL before we could go to the county courthouse to buy a license. Back in the day.
Today, outside of hospitals, quarantine signs have gone the way of Burma Shave doggerel, you might find one in a museum or on an on-line nostalgia site, but never on a residence door.
With Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) more rampant than syphilis or gonorrhea ever were, pre-employment tests for food handlers and prospective brides and grooms are passé.
People with common contagious diseases no longer are isolated; only a few diseases, treated in a hospital environment, rate isolation.
Maybe isolation – quarantine – never was necessary for the patient with the disease on the idea that once the disease manifested itself, the contagious stage had passed; the isolation was to protect outsiders from the caregivers in the house.
That, of course, fails to explain why tests to determine if a person is an STD carrier have been eliminated for food handlers. Likewise the elimination of premarital tests for STDs.
Are tests for HIV or AIDS required for any job?
Can a person with hepatitis be deprived of employment in a health care setting? According to the US CDC, “Hepatitis B is usually spread when blood, semen, or another body fluid from a person infected with the Hepatitis B virus enters the body of someone who is not infected.” A sneeze to crown a tuna fish sandwich will do the job.
Times they are a’changin’ – and I’m not convinced they are changing for the better.
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For want of a light that lasts
I just changed a CFL that was “guaranteed” to last 5 years.
The US government has banned incandescent bulbs as energy INefficient to force its citizens to buy Compact Florescent Lamp bulbs – all Made in China by the way.
I keep replacing the “5 year” bulbs after anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.
I thought China already owned the United States; why are we still buying faulty products from them? Are D.C. politicians getting a kick back?
