Health : The Atlantic: Bob Costas Eyewatch

Health : The Atlantic Health news and analysis on The Atlantic.

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Bob Costas Eyewatch Feb 11th 2014, 22:57, by James Hamblin Even-tempered concern gripped a nation today. A voice silenced, Bob Costas takes a night off from Olympic commentary with an eye infection. This ends a streak of 157 Olympic broadcasts for the anchor. Matt Lauer will pinch hit, to use a sporting metaphor, for Costas tonight. Costas told The New York Times today that he had not been so beset ("sidelined") by sickness as to miss work since January 1990. Images of Costas' eyes ignited something of a firestorm of eye jokes on Twitter over the last 36 hours, interspersed with genuine concern that he may have a serious condition. Based on the appearance of the eyes and the progression of the evil that has befallen them, advancing in space and time from one eye to the other, I say as a physician that his diagnosis is most likely a benign viral conjunctivitis. Some people call this pinkeye. It is not appropriate to call it "devil eyes." Empathy is appreciated but concern undue. Supporting the pinkeye narrative, Costas told the Times today that he had to gingerly wash his eyes upon waking in the morning "to open them to a slit." Waking with your eyes caked in mucus, the momentary sensation of blindness that fades into a blinded grappling for the bathroom, is a sequence familiar to many; but not to Costas. "You hear it called pinkeye or conjunctivitis, but, as a practical matter, I haven't had it before." That makes two streaks broken today for Costas. If his drainage is clear, that would support the diagnosis of a viral pinkeye; a greenish discharge is more likely caused by a bacterium. Either way, Costas is taking antibiotics. A typical four-to-five day course is almost past, so I expect and hope for a prompt recovery and return to duty. "If it were just a matter of discomfort, I'd be there," Costas said, implying that it was a matter of his appearance being unsuited for television. Implying that as a nation who has taken 22 years of unbroken Olympic coverage from the man, we cannot accept him because his eyes are red. Would you accept him, America, if he did this? We wish Costas well and will update this as the story unfolds.

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