Do you hate or blame the
person who has a cold and you end up catching it? What do you do when you contract a communicable disease from someone, do you seek revenge? How do you feel about exotic parasites or
viruses or bacterial and fungal infections?
Here’s an ethical question:
You are in the largest and
fanciest hotel in a large city and you (as an observant and knowledgeable
biologist), find and capture a live bed bug in your room. You knew immediately what you had captured,
but you took a minute to Google it and were now 99.99% sure… What do you do? What do you expect the hotel staff to do?
I recently found myself in
this position. I dropped the little
bugger into a vial of 70% isopropyl alcohol (something that we biologists always
carry), and took it down to the desk concierge (someone of whom I had no knowledge of the
extent of his authoritative powers). I
suggested that he or his superior might want to speak with me confidentially
(my thoughts were to not set off a panic among the other guests if in the
crowded lobby they overheard us use the term: “bed bug”).
Surprisingly, my suggestion of
confidentiality was rejected (possibly in retrospect, ruefully) and I explained
the situation and displayed the obligate parasite of Homo sapiens, Cimex lectularius - the common beg bug, right there at the desk. I will say that at this point Mr. Gilbert X became
very attentive and began to deal with the situation promptly and
professionally. We were offered the
resources of the hotel to move us to a presumably uncontaminated room and to
clean our luggage and personal effects.
All well and good but we had to surrender all but the clothes on our
backs for a 24 hour period and then repeat the process the next day in order to
not go naked during a conference (I am fine with nakedness in certain
situations but this wasn’t one of them).
During this inconvenience we missed a significant part of the
proceedings.
Before check out time, I
requested a meeting (again quiet and confidential) with the concierge to
discuss our bill. I suggested that I
might have done them a large favor with my observant and quick and effective
action. I suggested that, had I been a
lawyer or someone out to make the most of every situation, they might have had
an even bigger problem. Much like a
negotiation with a car salesman, he offered nothing except: “What are you
willing to pay?” Not a good negotiator,
I was waiting for his offer… We ended up
paying half price for our stay. Probably
a great deal for them… then again, I’m not a lawyer or the other names you
often hear them called. I’m satisfied.
However, I hope that I get a
letter of thanks from the parent company.
I know that I saved their asses and didn’t even try to get a free drink
at the bar.
What would you have done?
