History -
Tales from Today's PHAs
Ed's 34 Years in 65 Lines:
The First of Many More Newly Volunteered PHA Tales?
I Remember:
In 1963, a college newspaper article: a recent graduate did immunizations
with the CDC in Africa. An observer noted - the added lifespan
of the newly immunized made them more likely to die from starvation
or civil war than from a vaccine-preventable disease.
A 1964 interview, a letter on official USPHS stationery – Venereal
Disease Control. A choice – Harrisburg, PA or NYC? My NYC experience
was limited to the NJ PATH tubes and the Peppermint Lounge – I
chose Harrisburg.
Chelsea clinic – the see-through mirror; the Chelsea Hotel.
Harrisburg detectives bracing me in the home of a 16 year old girl
at 9:00 PM.
First plane ride – a prop job to Minneapolis-St. Paul; meeting
Dr. William J. Brown at one of the national seminars. “It is better
to have a VD Investigator waiting for a syphilis case than to have
a syphilis case waiting for a VD Investigator ? ”
I Remember:
Lancaster, PA, a grid map to locate homes to survey about Polio.
Virgil Peavy.
Migrant blood testing near Gettysburg: long lines shifted when
a novice botched a vein. Filled Shepherd tubes in the refrigerator
next to baby formula.
Pittsburgh: sharing fortified wine on a scorching radiator in
a gas station to “fit in”. Driving from the Hill to the Forbes
Avenue
VD Clinic with a station wagon full of mechanics. The North Side
Go-Go bar at 1:00 AM. Sweet potato pie in Homewood-Brushton.
Martin Luther King died – my black colleague warned me not to
stop if we had to run; he was coming right over my back if I
did. My
other black colleague, my FLS, checking with my wife to make
sure she and our kids were safe while I was away.
A TB interview in NYC – but we couldn’t be reimbursed for miles
driven outside of Pennsylvania.
I Remember:
Newark, 1968. Dirt floors and heroin.
“Red Dog” epidemiology.
Two days looking for 125 Norfolk Street - it was 125 North
Fourth Street – an Alabama native in Newark said: “Nawff Ffawth
Squwreet
. ”
Tony Imperiale, a tank in a neighborhood, Hugh Addonizio, LeRoi
Jones before his name change, Mayor Kenneth Gibson, Rolex watches
for sale cheap. Dashikis and the Little Red Book.
The unforgettable Runyonesque characters of the Newark City
VD clinic at 102 William Street. Ten men in a cubicle; one
command
heard over the partition.
Procaine penicillin reactions - men
with bare buttocks with a needle projecting, pants around ankles,
horrid
premonitions
of death - that cleared the clinic waiting room instantly.
Skin clinic – a doctor’s advice to a patient with a likely
skin cancer: “Go over to Martland’s ER and lay on the floor
until
they take care of you”.
I Remember:
NYC – a supreme labor lesson: you do not furlough the Shop
Steward.
A City car crushed between two floors on a parking elevator.
The lad who called after the stolen City car was retrieved
– could he pick up the TV sets he left in the trunk?
Forgetting to specify bi-lingual when advertising for Spanish
speakers – no one to interview the applicants.
The atypical CDC Program Reviewer: “I don’t think I need
to see your quarterly narratives; I just spent two days in
four
of your
VD clinics. Let me tell you what your staff is doing.”
The book “Darkfields of Venus”. The Museum exhibit on VD.
The HR person at CDC – “Do you mean to tell me that you’re
hiring known HOMOSEXUALS?”
The Program Coordinator at a Senior Staff Meeting: “I’m thinking
of renting the Playboy jet to go to the National VD Conference”.
I Remember:
Harrisburg, 1976 – David Fraser, the CDC epidemiologist,
looking like Sherlock Holmes.
Human tissue on commercial planes to Atlanta – pre 9/11
security. The Governor in the Communicable Disease offices.
Late night
unexplained
gaps in the social histories of the Legionnaires.
Three Mile Island. And an ongoing epidemiologic study of
birth defects in Central Pennsylvania. Amish without knowledge
of
TMI. And initially resistant to administering vaccines.
Swine Flu and more EIS officers. Pittsburgh, vaccine and
Guillain Barre Syndrome.
Being called “Germ Busters” in Chester, PA, when the criterion
for who got Bicillin in the syphilis outbreak investigation
was simple – if you stepped into the Health Department
van you were
eligible.
My Public Health Advisor interviews on college campuses
– and the sense of pride that still accompanies seeing
a familiar
name in
an award ceremony. Or a promotion list.
Edward J. Powers
1367 Princeton Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Syphilis@aol.com
June 1964 – July 1998, Public Health Advisor
August 2006
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