This morning, as I came off a plane in Rio de Janeiro, health authorities gave me a short form to fill out. At the top it said SWINE FLU in Portuguese.
In the last ten days, have you had
COUGH _____
FEVER _____
NONE _____
As a matter of fact, I have had a cough during the last ten days, a leftover from catching my dear son’s case of croup. Do I have any other swine flu symptoms? No. Do I want to spend time in a quarantine or get sent back to the USA? No.
I decide to be honest and check the COUGH box. When I get to the health authority, she says, Do you have a cough? No, but I’ve had one in the past ten days. Do you have one today? No. Then let’s fix this: You don’t want lots of trouble. She scratched out “cough” and marked the “none” box.
As I waited for my bags, I coughed. [Oops; but I hadn’t as of when she asked me.] But why didn’t they make the question for the day, then?
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