The Terminal

Above: Passengers in the O'Hare International Airport Concourse C just coming off their flight arrival. Try to count how many places disease can spread in this picture.

IN THE PICTURE ABOVE...
A BATTLE IS TAKING PLACE

I'm about to head out on my flight to MIA for a second shot at this thing they call the COMP. Last time around, Jo brought me a Chicken Dinner right before I took it. This time, I'm sitting in the terminal, to take the exam at the Test Administration Site in Miami, potentially to grab Mickey D's from my friend Zubin who's picking me up at the Miami International Airport.

[And not to mention listening to the over the air advertisement for Chicago's 2016 Candidacy for the Olympic Games.]

However, as I'm waiting, I'm just looking out and watching people walking up and down the walkways, some buying magazines, others listening to the James Taylor sampler playing back at the music kiosk about halfway down the terminal. All of a sudden, over the loud PA system, it is echoed:

"Please take precautions by washing your hands after you cough or sneeze."

[Right now, I'm totally amazed that nobody is taking the oh-so-convenient moving walkway.]

And that's when it all makes sense how a little action can make a difference at preventing spread of a disease. First let's test you: Where do you think you'll find more bacteria? A public computer or a public toilet seat. Think about it: A recent report (sorry I forgot what news network) said that there's ACTUALLY more bugs stuck on...

...........

A public computer. Yes, when you're at your dorm or university computer lab, or even a public terminal offered to you at an international airport, there's a exposure to loads of bugs everytime someone is just typing away at their e-mails. And then (follow me here) each and every one of those people who type on the computer go out, and do exactly what I was describing before (touching the handlebars on the moving walkway, punching buttons on the music jukebox, or picking up the latest issue of Maxim) have just spread the bug to even more people. It's like a pyramid scheme, well where everyone loses, except the bug.

[Okay, now they're taking the walkway.]

Those nice little microbes that they paint a color red on the news, really pack a punch, with mechanisms to attach to the outer membranes of your body, toxins that throw off your body's own molecular mechanisms, even with "shields" that throw your body's own defense mechanisms that throw your body off course.

And that's how a battle is taking place in the terminal of O'Hare International Airport. However, do yourself a favor and give your immune system and its various troops a rest. Prevent the battle before it happens by preventing the organism from entering yours and others bodies. Wash your hands, and you can give yourself (and others) the glory of a (temporary) win.