*originally published September 2005 [X]press Online
When I was warned at orientation not to bring my car to San Francisco State, I laughed.
How did they expect me to survive without my car?
So I ignored the advice of my elders and packed all my worldly possessions in to my little 10-year-old Toyota and moved to the land of fog.
It was the ultimate moving to college cliché, complete with pillows pressed up against the back window.
Soon after moving to San Francisco I experienced yet another familiar tale: The small town girl who gets robbed upon moving to the big bad city. Within a week my back window was shattered, and my brand new stereo was ripped from the front dashboard.
Since the beginning I have learned the hard way that this is not the most car-friendly area. I spend most of my time downtown searching for parking spots on the street to avoid paying $20 and up to park in a lot, only to be slapped with a $50 ticket because I left it there for longer than three hours.
My current debt to the city’s department of parking has just about reached $1250. Every time I see a cop behind me I fear they finally put that warrant out for my arrest.
The school doesn't make it any easier for us either. All of the spots near campus have one, two or four hours maximum time limits.
And this year they’ve found a way to truly kick us when we’re down; I almost cried the first time I set eyes on the row of new parking meters along Holloway.
Those spots were never easy to secure; you usually has to stake one out all day and get into a slap fight with another hopeful student to ensure your car’s place in the world.
But the satisfaction gained in the days of not having to get up close and personal with everyone on the BART shuttle has passed. These days just be prepared to bring a pound of quarters to school.
Or at least enough gum to share with the twenty other people standing in the shuttle aisle so it's less awkward when they fall on top of you at an abrupt stop.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Monday, September 26, 2005
4 out of 5 People Have an STD; the Future Doesn't Have To
Sabina Pfister tightens the tourniquet around the young girl's arm and clucks in sympathy at her discomfort. "This will only hurt for a minute," Pfister murmurs as she disinfects the area with an alcohol swab. She holds the syringe up to the light for a moment before plunging the needle into the reddened skin. Pfister has just injected the girl with herpes.
Pfister works for Quest Women's Clinic, a clinical research center currently studying the vaccination of herpes and human papilloma virus (HPV) for two major pharmaceutical companies.
HPV is a lesser-known sexually transmitted disease which spreads through skin-to-skin contact, so it can't be prevented with condoms. The virus is responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts worldwide. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that by the age of 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired the infection.
The vaccine to combat herpes contains one piece of the virus, just enough to encourage the immune system to fight off infection. Quest is one of the leading test sites for Glaxo Smith Kline's (GSK) Herpevac vaccine and one of 41 locations in the United States and Canada. The vaccines are currently being tested on healthy women between the ages of 18 and 30 with no history of oral or genital herpes.
"The Herpevac vaccine is in its third phase and has already been safely tested on over 15,000 women," explains Dr. Jacob Lalezari, director of Quest Research, the parent company of Quest Women's Clinic. "We're trying to do what we can to make it publicly available. After all, 75 percent of people in the U.S. are affected. It doesn't matter if you?re rich, poor, black or white; everyone is susceptible."
Allison Pasciuto has been involved in the study for more than six months. Though she assumed she was not infected, it was still a relief to receive the good news. "When it was time to call for my results, I racked my brain trying to remember if I've ever had a cold sore," she says. "At first I had the irrational fear, you know, "Am I going to get some bizarre disease from this? But the work they're doing at Quest will be so important down the road."
"Our goal is to have 250 people enrolled in the study; we only have 130 right now," says 24-year-old Clinical Research Coordinator Erin Schwartz. "It's difficult to reach the numbers we want. Out of 10 people screened, only four are eligible and the other six already have herpes in some form or another."
The numbers of ineligible test subjects prove Lalezari's point that 90 percent of infected individuals don't even realize they have the virus. "Most of the time it just looks like a little tear in the skin," he says. 'But those little tears are responsible for the fact that everyone has herpes."
The American Social Health Association has established a confidential hotline in partenership with GSK to inform test subjects of their results. Counselors are on-call to help with the startling news. "It's funny how some people react. They've had cold sores their whole lives but they freak out because they're not ok with calling it herpes," Schwartz says. "One woman who tested positive came back to the office and demanded her test results because she wanted to 'sue the bastard' who gave it to her."
Despite the frequency of herpes, Lalezari claims HPV is an even greater threat to sexual health. "HPV is the most common STD in the world," he says. "Close to 80 percent of sexually active adults will contract it in their lifetime and most people don't even know what it is. It's so much worse than herpes. With over 100 different strains, it's the leading cause of cancer death among women around the world."
Luckily, there is some good news on the horizon for sexually active adults. Both GSK and Merck have developed a vaccine to combat the two most deadly strains of the virus. Out of the original study involving 2,300 women, half were given the vaccine and half were given a placebo. At the three-year checkpoint in the group given the placebo, 82 women already had either the infection or pre-cancer, while the group given the vaccine was 100 percent unaffected.
"HPV is a big deal in the U.S., but it's an even bigger deal worldwide," Sarah MacKay, a 30-year-old nurse practitioner at the clinic says. "Here in the U.S. we have way more access to preventative medicine, but the issue with cervical cancer is it's not detected early in other countries. It's exciting to think of a world without HIV, HPV or herpes. Not today, but maybe ten years from now."
Other countries recognize the importance of the HPV vaccine. According to Lalezari, every woman living in Finland between the ages of 16 and 23 is enrolled in the study. "We had to run ads and beg people to participate but they've got the whole country signed up due to universal healthcare," he says. "If this holds up, every young girl will be a candidate for vaccine. Once this gets approved, if we can protect every woman in the right age bracket, we can almost wipe this out."
Quest offers incentives to women enrolled in the studies, such as confidential health care and goody bags of free gifts. "This has been a great experience for me," Pasciuto says. "I would love to do another study with Quest. Everyone at the clinic is really cool, and it's always nice to come and hang out on the couch and talk to Erin and Sarah. It'll almost be sad when its all over."
The rumor around the clinic is the vaccine will be presented to the FDA in one year and hopefully on the market within two. But despite its benefits, there are groups around the country who want this kept under wraps. "You've got the political right-wing lunatics screaming that this vaccine shouldn't be provided because it lowers the threshold of the fear of sex," Lalezari says.
But Schwartz feels vaccinating children at a young age can only help, both with their sexual health and education. "You have to be real as a parent. You can't refuse to protect your children because you don't want them to have sex," she says. "I think it's a great idea to arm them against these scary things young because some day they could have sex with someone dirty who gives them an awful disease."
*originally published September 2005 by [X]press Magazine
Pfister works for Quest Women's Clinic, a clinical research center currently studying the vaccination of herpes and human papilloma virus (HPV) for two major pharmaceutical companies.
HPV is a lesser-known sexually transmitted disease which spreads through skin-to-skin contact, so it can't be prevented with condoms. The virus is responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts worldwide. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that by the age of 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired the infection.
The vaccine to combat herpes contains one piece of the virus, just enough to encourage the immune system to fight off infection. Quest is one of the leading test sites for Glaxo Smith Kline's (GSK) Herpevac vaccine and one of 41 locations in the United States and Canada. The vaccines are currently being tested on healthy women between the ages of 18 and 30 with no history of oral or genital herpes.
"The Herpevac vaccine is in its third phase and has already been safely tested on over 15,000 women," explains Dr. Jacob Lalezari, director of Quest Research, the parent company of Quest Women's Clinic. "We're trying to do what we can to make it publicly available. After all, 75 percent of people in the U.S. are affected. It doesn't matter if you?re rich, poor, black or white; everyone is susceptible."
Allison Pasciuto has been involved in the study for more than six months. Though she assumed she was not infected, it was still a relief to receive the good news. "When it was time to call for my results, I racked my brain trying to remember if I've ever had a cold sore," she says. "At first I had the irrational fear, you know, "Am I going to get some bizarre disease from this? But the work they're doing at Quest will be so important down the road."
"Our goal is to have 250 people enrolled in the study; we only have 130 right now," says 24-year-old Clinical Research Coordinator Erin Schwartz. "It's difficult to reach the numbers we want. Out of 10 people screened, only four are eligible and the other six already have herpes in some form or another."
The numbers of ineligible test subjects prove Lalezari's point that 90 percent of infected individuals don't even realize they have the virus. "Most of the time it just looks like a little tear in the skin," he says. 'But those little tears are responsible for the fact that everyone has herpes."
The American Social Health Association has established a confidential hotline in partenership with GSK to inform test subjects of their results. Counselors are on-call to help with the startling news. "It's funny how some people react. They've had cold sores their whole lives but they freak out because they're not ok with calling it herpes," Schwartz says. "One woman who tested positive came back to the office and demanded her test results because she wanted to 'sue the bastard' who gave it to her."
Despite the frequency of herpes, Lalezari claims HPV is an even greater threat to sexual health. "HPV is the most common STD in the world," he says. "Close to 80 percent of sexually active adults will contract it in their lifetime and most people don't even know what it is. It's so much worse than herpes. With over 100 different strains, it's the leading cause of cancer death among women around the world."
Luckily, there is some good news on the horizon for sexually active adults. Both GSK and Merck have developed a vaccine to combat the two most deadly strains of the virus. Out of the original study involving 2,300 women, half were given the vaccine and half were given a placebo. At the three-year checkpoint in the group given the placebo, 82 women already had either the infection or pre-cancer, while the group given the vaccine was 100 percent unaffected.
"HPV is a big deal in the U.S., but it's an even bigger deal worldwide," Sarah MacKay, a 30-year-old nurse practitioner at the clinic says. "Here in the U.S. we have way more access to preventative medicine, but the issue with cervical cancer is it's not detected early in other countries. It's exciting to think of a world without HIV, HPV or herpes. Not today, but maybe ten years from now."
Other countries recognize the importance of the HPV vaccine. According to Lalezari, every woman living in Finland between the ages of 16 and 23 is enrolled in the study. "We had to run ads and beg people to participate but they've got the whole country signed up due to universal healthcare," he says. "If this holds up, every young girl will be a candidate for vaccine. Once this gets approved, if we can protect every woman in the right age bracket, we can almost wipe this out."
Quest offers incentives to women enrolled in the studies, such as confidential health care and goody bags of free gifts. "This has been a great experience for me," Pasciuto says. "I would love to do another study with Quest. Everyone at the clinic is really cool, and it's always nice to come and hang out on the couch and talk to Erin and Sarah. It'll almost be sad when its all over."
The rumor around the clinic is the vaccine will be presented to the FDA in one year and hopefully on the market within two. But despite its benefits, there are groups around the country who want this kept under wraps. "You've got the political right-wing lunatics screaming that this vaccine shouldn't be provided because it lowers the threshold of the fear of sex," Lalezari says.
But Schwartz feels vaccinating children at a young age can only help, both with their sexual health and education. "You have to be real as a parent. You can't refuse to protect your children because you don't want them to have sex," she says. "I think it's a great idea to arm them against these scary things young because some day they could have sex with someone dirty who gives them an awful disease."
*originally published September 2005 by [X]press Magazine
Friday, September 2, 2005
Horrible Trends Induce a Wave of Mockery
*originally published Setember 2005
So it’s a week into school and already I’ve noticed some of my favorite characters on campus. These are the people who so noticeably play into their stereotypes that they have provided hours of entertainment for me and my jaded friends, since we apparently have nothing better to do than mock perfect strangers.
The Fashionista.
Let me just preface by saying I am extremely jealous of these girls who come to class every day looking like they belong on a runway, making my own standard uniform of Converse and band t-shirts seem downright juvenile.
However, there are two trends that the more stylish set has been subscribing to recently that drive me crazy.
Number one: Why do girls insist on bringing their tiny dogs to school?
I have seen three in the last week and it just baffles me. Dogs are not fashion accessories. They are living, breathing animals that do not deserve to be carted around in a bag of their own crap.
One girl had her adorable puppy in the required designer carrier bag, but no books. Why is the dog more vital to academic success than say, a pen and paper?
Number two: Those stupid pants that seem to be everywhere. They’re the really baggy knee-length sweat pants that look like a skirt. These are just about the ugliest things I have ever seen. So many girls I’ve talked to agree they’re hideous, so who is buying them?
Maybe I’m just not cool enough to be friends with these uber-trendy people.
The Cigarette Hunter.
Now there have been days when I to have offered complete strangers a quarter to get my nicotine fix. But when I see the same people trying to bum cigarettes in the quad day after day (despite those oh-so-effective “no smoking” notices) I just have to laugh. Accept your addiction and buy your own damn pack.
The Old Person.
Every class I have ever had has at least one. The older student (and at my naïve age of 22, anything older than 30 is old) is the one who sits up front and constantly interrupts the professor to disagree or add their own opinion. This is the person who asks endless (often pointless) questions and speaks incessantly about their own lives, and usually has to be mercifully stopped by the instructor after noticing the glazed over looks in the eyes of the rest of the class. I realize the older generation has a lot of life experience to draw on; but the stories about your kids, jobs and interesting things that have happened to you over the years are not on the midterm. Please shut up and let the teacher tell us what is.
Quad Loungers.
I love watching the hippies in the quad. They make me smile with their dreadlocks and clothes straight out of the sixties, their games of hacky sack and that guy who appears to be surgically attached to his acoustic guitar. I always get nostalgic for an era I wasn’t even alive for when they congregate.
I don’t make the mistake of believing I am above ridicule. I’m sure I fall into some easily-identifiable stereotype of the bitter writer lashing out at the world who scorned me.
But that’s okay. I figure as long as I can take a bit of teasing, I’ll feel free to continue making fun of everyone else.
So it’s a week into school and already I’ve noticed some of my favorite characters on campus. These are the people who so noticeably play into their stereotypes that they have provided hours of entertainment for me and my jaded friends, since we apparently have nothing better to do than mock perfect strangers.
The Fashionista.
Let me just preface by saying I am extremely jealous of these girls who come to class every day looking like they belong on a runway, making my own standard uniform of Converse and band t-shirts seem downright juvenile.
However, there are two trends that the more stylish set has been subscribing to recently that drive me crazy.
Number one: Why do girls insist on bringing their tiny dogs to school?
I have seen three in the last week and it just baffles me. Dogs are not fashion accessories. They are living, breathing animals that do not deserve to be carted around in a bag of their own crap.
One girl had her adorable puppy in the required designer carrier bag, but no books. Why is the dog more vital to academic success than say, a pen and paper?
Number two: Those stupid pants that seem to be everywhere. They’re the really baggy knee-length sweat pants that look like a skirt. These are just about the ugliest things I have ever seen. So many girls I’ve talked to agree they’re hideous, so who is buying them?
Maybe I’m just not cool enough to be friends with these uber-trendy people.
The Cigarette Hunter.
Now there have been days when I to have offered complete strangers a quarter to get my nicotine fix. But when I see the same people trying to bum cigarettes in the quad day after day (despite those oh-so-effective “no smoking” notices) I just have to laugh. Accept your addiction and buy your own damn pack.
The Old Person.
Every class I have ever had has at least one. The older student (and at my naïve age of 22, anything older than 30 is old) is the one who sits up front and constantly interrupts the professor to disagree or add their own opinion. This is the person who asks endless (often pointless) questions and speaks incessantly about their own lives, and usually has to be mercifully stopped by the instructor after noticing the glazed over looks in the eyes of the rest of the class. I realize the older generation has a lot of life experience to draw on; but the stories about your kids, jobs and interesting things that have happened to you over the years are not on the midterm. Please shut up and let the teacher tell us what is.
Quad Loungers.
I love watching the hippies in the quad. They make me smile with their dreadlocks and clothes straight out of the sixties, their games of hacky sack and that guy who appears to be surgically attached to his acoustic guitar. I always get nostalgic for an era I wasn’t even alive for when they congregate.
I don’t make the mistake of believing I am above ridicule. I’m sure I fall into some easily-identifiable stereotype of the bitter writer lashing out at the world who scorned me.
But that’s okay. I figure as long as I can take a bit of teasing, I’ll feel free to continue making fun of everyone else.
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