Is Randal O’Toole a Hypochondriac?
by Leroy W. Demery, Jr.
My father, the coffin-builder turned physician turned funeral director, had a low threshold of patience with those who voiced “morbid concerns about one’s health, esp. when accompanied by delusions of physical disease” (as my desk dictionary puts it).
Remarkably, the (self-styled) Antiplanner’s ongoing pursuit of “truthiness,” justice and the American way has caused him to sound like a hypochondriac - or, as my father might say, a “blankety-blank” hypochondriac.
A few hours ago (SBB time), O’Toole posted a virtual “sound byte” (“The Hazards of Collective Travel,” here) that seems appropriate for the date - April 1. He described the current state of his health as “temporarily subdued by a raging cold or flu.” He then questioned whether he was infected by another passenger aboard an airplane or “one of the trains I rode in Chicago” - or some person “in one of the dense cities I visited.”
(For the sake of precision: the clinical term for abnormal fear of infection, contamination or dirt is molysmophobia; sometimes spelled molysomophobia.)
He concludes:
There are many reasons for people to select personal conveyances over collective travel and to live in low-density areas instead of crowded in multi-family housing. Relative immunity from disease is not the most important one, but it helps.
Hmmm ... anti-logic from an antiplanner. No surprises here.
As noted previously, the appeal of “truthiness” might be expressed as follows:
Parrot these arguments, and you too will be a singular, creative, reasoning individualist (Huben).
One might sound like a hypochondriac - or a fool. It would appear that this is not a concern when one is looking for fun and feeling “truthy.” However, in this case, the approach has backfired.
O’Toole appears to understand the health-related “downside” to his preferred lifestyle:
I did not suffer a cold last winter because I spent that time in my ultra-low-density neighborhood writing the book that I am now out publicizing.
But he cannot bring himself to admit this. Moreover, he tries to “spin” certain unpleasant facts away. (Anti-facts from an antiplanner ... again, no surprises here.)
“Immunity from disease,” whether absolute or relative, is a characteristic of one’s physiology. One’s “selection” of “personal conveyances” or “ultra-low-density” housing does not bestow “immunity from disease.” Choices might reduce the probability of person-to-person transmission of certain diseases colds, flu and so forth - but might also increase one’s susceptibility to such diseases.
Edson L. Tennyson, P.E. (former Deputy Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and former Deputy Commissioner for Transit Engineering, City of Philadelphia), put it as follows:
I have been a transit rider all my long life and I doubt I have been any sicker, if as sick, as motorists who travel alone.
People who have little contact with others are likely to have relatively less “immunity from disease” than those who come into close, frequent contact with others - sick and well. This is a consequence of human physiology. If there is a conflict between one’s ideology and one’s physiology, then the latter prevails. Inevitably.
I do not consider myself a paragon of health - but it is likely that I have more “immunity from disease” than Randal O’Toole. As a child, I was exposed to a litany of pathogens that might terrify today's parents - some of them, anyway. After all, my father's office was on the first floor of our house (a short walk from downtown York, PA) and the family lived on the second floor. It was easy to visit "Poppy" at work, and my sister and I did so - regularly. We didn't get to do this every day, and not for very long at any one time. However, we did meet his patients, they met us - and exposed us to whatever germs they might be carrying. This was during the latter 1950s; penicillin had been in mass production for little more than a decade. My father understood the risk, but never gave the slightest hint of disquiet.
Many people believe that, with reference to medical issues and health risks, "you can never be 'too careful'."
Yes, you can.
I remember hearing my parents discuss a number of medical problems (including some that are probably not suitable for casual discussion). However I do not recall hearing about are food allergies. Not one word about peanut allergies, and the potentially-fatal anaphylactic shock that may result. No surprises: the rate of allergic disease in this country has been increasing for years. The explanation considered most likely today is the so-called “hygiene hypothesis,” which was first proposed in 1989. This states that lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, microorganisms and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic disease. (A concise explanation, written by an allergist - immunologist, is here.)
Contrary to the anti-facts spouted by the Antiplanner, people who comes into frequent contact with members of the general public develop immunities from disease that others do not.
Meanwhile, those who carry the "ultra-low-density" lifestyle sufficiently far, for sufficiently long, might find themselves facing unintended consequences. Consider the grave peril faced by the population of an entire continent - in fact, two continents - from a well-known date: October 12, 1492.
One more thing: I remember listening to my father, decades ago, describing an exchange with a particularly insistent patient - who believed that s/he had some disease or condition that was simply not present. By his own account, he said, eventually, in frustration: “You’re a g_____ hypochondriac and you need to cut the s___.” Hearing this, one or more of my brother, sister and I set the “punch line” to music (“The Yellow Rose of Texas”).
Just in case you are reading this, Mr. O’Toole: Thanks for the memories.
References:
Bayuk, Jonathan, D.O. Too Clean For Our Own Good? Hampden County Physician Associates, LLC. http://www.hampdencountyphysicians.com/articles.php?aid=8
Libertarianism in One Lesson (Mike Huben).
Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary. 1976. Springfield (MA), US: G&C Merriam Company.