I learned at a recent routine physical that I needed a booster for my tetanus/diphtheria vaccination. I was given a charming handout written by the Center for Disease Control back in 1994 (really) to help me mull over the benefits and risks of the shot. As I pondered the sheet in front of me that had obviously been copied hundreds of time (perhaps from the original in a monastery some place in Italy), I couldn’t get over the pictures on it.
The first one (above) is obviously of a child, arms wide up, thrilled to be receiving a vaccination. It’s a simple ironic tale where you know the end won’t be particularly happy. More problematic for me was the second picture (to the right of this paragraph).
Try as I might, I could not figure out what an older couple serving coffee could have to do with a tetanus/diphtheria shot. This started to bother me so I began asking everyone if they had any ideas. The nurse who brought the shot in didn’t know. The doctor that administered the booster had no idea. The two phlebotomists in the lab wouldn’t even begin to speculate. No one else seemed to even care about this enigma burning in front of me in all of its mimeographed glory.
I left the medical center that day with no answers and a slight dismay over the lack of curiosity left in today’s medical system.
P.S. The whole sheet can be found here. If you happen to bump into the Surgeon General, would you be so kind as to ask about this for me?