Les Jones: Word of the Day: Vaccination Time Travel

March 10, 2006

Word of the Day > Word of the Day: Vaccination Time Travel

Tam writes of her recent bout with the flu:

Now imagine the clock being set back eighty-eight years to 1918. Would I have had the strength to pump a well? Saddle a horse? Chop firewood? Walk to market to get food? How bad would I have felt without the over-the-counter drugs I'd already taken? Little wonder that an influenza pandemic could have such a devastating effect; it made folks too weak to do the things they needed to do to go on living. Not only that, but there are all the infections that tag along with the flu; in those pre-antibiotics days, pneumonia was as good as a death sentence.
Every now and again I'm reminded that the past may be a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to get sick there.

Vaccination time travel - The idea - introduced by Douglas Copeland in his book, Generation X - that it would be great to travel into the past, but only after you've had all of your vaccinations.

And maybe if I could take some good anaesthetics. Pre-20th century surgery would bite.

Previous WOTD - Captcha

Posted by lesjones | TrackBack

Comments

I've always said I'm not stepping into no time machine without antibiotics, local and general anaesthestics, a water purifier, a dentist, and a bunch of pamplets I can hand out to any doctor whose services I may need explaining why they need to wash their damn hands before touching me.

I'm adding a full suite of vaccinations to that checklist.

Posted by: Steve K. at March 10, 2006

"they need to wash their damn hands before touching me"

Aw, c'mon, Steve. If doctors had to wash their hands every time they delivered a baby or performed surgery they'd never get anything done.

I kid, but apparently that was a major vector of puerperal fever (childbed fever) - obstetricians not washing their hands between deliveries. But you probably knew that already.

Posted by: Les Jones at March 10, 2006