Yellow Peril Threatens Students

The Hong Kong flu has come to Harvard. In the elevators you see people sniffle, and in the Yard puddles of nausea mark the paths from the Union. One sufferer told the University Health Services, "I think I have the flu"--and a nurse broke in, "You and fifty million others."

At Stillman Infirmary, admissions policies are unclear. None of the Stillman officials admit that they are turning flu cases away for lack of bedspace, though there was clearly a rush on rooms.

One girl, walking out the door remarked, "They told me me what I already knew. All last week I said, 'No, they'll just tell me to go home, take two aspirins, and drink plenty of fluids.' So today they said to me, 'Go home, take two aspirins, and drink plenty of fluid. For this they went to medical school?"

In the waiting room, things are worse. People sneeze continually, blow their noses, and cough. One student said he counted 11 sneezes in one minute. He added that he called four girls at Wellesley, trying to get a date for Friday. "Two of them were in the infirmary, one was just out, and the last had just been turned away," he reported.

After a twenty-minute wait, a nurse calls each patient and takes his temperature. Asked about rumors of a 102 degree admission cut-off, one nurse replied, "Well, everyone does get to see the doctor ..."

After her fever was read off the thermometer, one girl asked, "Where are the beds? Everyone said they have beds in the lobby, and lines to get in." There are no beds in the lobby. In one hour, twenty patients were processed and none were admitted to the Infirmary.

The doctor calls for each patient about an hour after he signs in. He asks routine questions about nausea, runny noses, bowel movements. If the answers are convincing, the doctor puts on his relaxed, reassuring, professional manner, and tells each patient to go home, drink about ten glasses of water a day in sips, and take his temperature hourly. "If you're not better in five days," the doctor says, "come back again. Goodbye."