Public Eagerly Anticipating Next Infectious Disease Panic

 

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ On the heels of heightened public concern after a series of infectious threats, there is growing sentiment that the current lack of an impending contagious outbreak has left the public unsatisfied and wanting more.Ý

ÝÝÝÝ

ìI was pretty stressed out when that whole anthrax thing came out,î said Davenport, Iowa mechanic Bradley Waller. ìI would only open my mail in the negative pressure room that I had built.Ý It was difficult to track down a gas mask but I found one at an army surplus store in Des Moines.î

 

Mr. Waller was left unfulfilled as the anthrax scare dissipated.Ý ìSo after only senators were getting the stuff in the mail, all I had to show for my panic was a gas mask and about ten kilograms of Cipro.Ý Iíve been trying to sell it on the black market to young women with urinary tract infections, but what I really miss is the sense of unbridled doom.Ý God, I wish someone would bring back the plague or flesh-eating bacteria or something.î

 

Following the anthrax scare was hightened awareness about the West Nile Virus.Ý As the disease spread across the country, the publicís sense of panic was once again restored.Ý People like Memphis school teacher Marlene Harmon were able to redirect their energies to overreact to the new infectious threat.

 

Said Ms. Harmon, ìThat West Nile Virus really had me moving.Ý The name had it sounding all foreign and stuff.Ý It took me days to drain all of the still water in my yard and I had to send away for mosquito netting.Ý When I found out that it was only killing the elderly and the immunocompromised, I was devastated.Ý Yet another infectious disease outbreak, and I missed it.î

 

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Like countless others across the country, Ms. Harmon was left with a feeling of emptiness that she was unaffected by the contagion.Ý ìAfter West Nile, I started reading all of those Richard Preston novels.Ý Ebola.Ý Now thatís a virus I can sink my teeth into.î

 

ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Although less renowned than the anthrax and West Nile scares, the Listeria outbreak of this past fall was able to hold over the publicís appetite for panic temporarily.Ý As Mr. Waller attested, ìWhen I heard about Listeria, I was sure that this would be the one.Ý You know, like King of the Bacteria, or something.îÝ

 

ìIn the end, all I had to do was return some meat I bought at the grocery store.Ý I tried to savor the feeling of abject fear as long as I could.Ý I ended up returning all of my grocery items and subsided on bread and canned beans for as long as I could hold on to the panic. It just didnít quite do it for me.î

 

Like Ms. Harmon and Mr. Waller, Americans across the country are eagerly anticipating what microbiological terror will revitalize them next.Ý Some, like Mr. Waller, are not done looking.Ý ìIíve been buying as many old blankets as I can find, hoping that one of them was contaminated with the small pox that killed all the Indians on the Trail of Tears.î