ithacation

It was getting to be so obnoxious that I would have to leave the room in the middle of class to hack up a lung. This lingering cough of mine wasn’t showing any signs of disappearing, so I stopped by Gannett Health Services on Friday after my last class got out. Not only was the building surprisingly crowded, but the first two people to enter my waiting room after I had arrived turned out to be two fellow editors from the Daily Sun. The image of the three of us sitting, mask-over-face, squinting into the late afternoon sunlight in the waiting room, was partly entertaining but mostly just a reminder that it was November, a month in which final assignments start piling up and sleep deprivation is on the rise. We Sun editors had been warned about this earlier in the semester, when swine flu filled more headlines than it does now. The last thing we need is for a significant chunk of the editorial board to get some flu-like illness at the same time (although we could probably put out the paper from our respective beds using nothing but Google Docs, Gmail/GChat, and Google Wave).

The situation was worse than I anticipated when I arrived for our weekly editorial board meeting on Sunday and found the room surprisingly empty; even our fearless leader was bedridden. Those of us who were there were either a) hacking up a lung (count me in), or b) desperately trying not to get sick by whatever means possible (turtleneck over mouth, etc.). I boldly claimed at the meeting that I was “only congested”, yet, about six hours later, just after I got home from my evening at the office, I came down with a fever. Monday was spent in bed, and I unfortunately missed out on what ended up being an epic photo shoot for this Friday’s winter sports supplement in the paper. By Tuesday I was fever-free and rejoined my hacking and sniffling peers on campus. Now we have a little less than a week ’til Thanksgiving break (my first in two years), which promises everything from an intense hockey game to a high school reunion this year; should be a nice respite as it always is.

Today, wearing only one layer of clothing (ONE LAYER! ON NOVEMBER 9TH! IN ITHACA!), I made my way to Gannett Health Services, Cornell’s center for everything health-related, for a travel clinic appointment in anticipation of my trip to India in January with IARD 6020. Having traveled to various parts of tropical Latin America before, I’m no stranger to getting a shot here or taking some pills there to ward off malaria or something of the sort.

But what I was met with today was an extensive list of the health risks that face me upon arrival in India. For example, the mosquitoes that transmit malaria only are around from dusk to dawn, BUT their counterparts that carry other diseases for which there are no pre-exposure pills or shots happen to be flying around from dawn ’til dusk, ensuring that the visitor is constantly surrounded by tiny airborne menaces. Of course, everything in the world of travel medicine errs on the side of extreme caution and assuming I take the correct precautions, I should return to Cornell in one piece (as IARD 6020 students have for years) for the spring semester. That said, this list of health risks was matched by an equally impressive list of shots and pills that I should be taking: 4 shots and 2 sets of pills!

My arm might be a bit sore now after getting three of those shots today, but hey, I got the seasonal flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine without having to wait in an epically long line, PLUS the added bonus of inching towards immortality.

H1N1 has been a hot topic on campus since last April, but with the tragic death of junior Warren Schor last Friday, the nation’s eyes were turned on our campus as a prime example of how the flu is affecting colleges across the country. Freshmen who only recently discovered where their classes are held are being confronted with yet another stressful element to add to the already taxing transition to college life: a pandemic.

The response can be seen everywhere. Gallons of hand sanitizer are strategically positioned at every conceivable nook and cranny on campus. Cornell is branding small bottles of hand sanitizer with the University’s logo and distributing them to students living in on-campus housing. Today’s career fair in Barton Hall was a handshake-free event (see inset photo). Cornell’s infamous, massive sleepover for season hockey tickets has been called off. The list goes on.

While the fear of becoming seriously ill is definitely present in everyone’s mind, the real concern among most students seems to be fear of missing so much class. How will I ever catch up after being bed-ridden for a week? Those in-class quizzes, essays, readings, discussions are sure to add up. There are plenty of students circulating themselves on campus for that reason; they’re probably better off in bed, but they can’t stand to get so far behind. My professors have been somewhat understanding of students’ illness, but the reality is that most of the class is still showing up and there’s material that needs to be covered. It’s sometimes difficult to strike a balance, but in the interests of your fellow students, I ask that the swined-out zombies hacking up a lung on campus take a while to recover at home.

At the offices of the Daily Sun, staffers and editors are under strict orders to keep away if they show even the first signs of swine flu. If the entire editorial board were to become sick all at once, putting out a daily paper would be quite a herculean task. That’s why the top drawer of the photo department’s desk is now home to some heavy duty antibacterial wipes.

Here’s to hoping it doesn’t get much worse.

[Photo: Mark H. Anbinder]