Thousands March Against the Common Cold
September 21, 2014
FROM today’s New York Times:
Under leaden skies, throngs of demonstrators stretching as far as the eye could see moved through Midtown Manhattan late Sunday morning, chanting their demands for action on the common cold.
With drums and tubas, banners and floats, the People’s Common Cold March represented a broad coalition of ages, races, geographic locales and interests, with union members, religious leaders, scientists, politicians, manufacturers of tissues and students joining the procession.
“I’m here because I really feel that every major social movement in this country has come when people get together. And besides I had nothing better to do with my life than protest something,” said John Tipton, the president of a teachers’ union. “It begins in the streets.”
“I’m here because I believe the common cold is caused by auto emissions,” said Jane Blankenhorn, a schoolteacher from Brooklyn, who said she had one cold that lasted for five years.
Cold marches were held across the globe on Sunday, from Paris to Papua New Guinea, where no one has ever been known to sneeze, and with world leaders gathering at the United Nations on Tuesday for a rhinovirus summit meeting, marchers said the timing was right for the populist message in support of limits on transmission of germs. Marchers are also asking that all Western countries immediately transfer their national treasuries to countries where the common cold is relatively rare. The signs that marchers held were as varied as the movement: “Colds Are No Fun,” “I Have Tried Everything But I’m Still Coughing” and “Health, Justice, Clean Noses.”
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Perfesser Plum writes:
