Update, Feb. 12: Costas has called Matt Lauer "out of the bullpen" again tonight. Costas, a sportscaster in the throes of ocular illness, seems unable to conjure any metaphors that do not involve sports. He otherwise appears well and said on Today from Sochi that he does not feel too bad. Costas will spend another night off air recovering from his conjunctivitis tonight.
"It's an eye infection, and my eyes are so blurry and watery and become so light-sensitive that even in dim light they're constantly tearing up," Costas said on-air. "I can't possibly be in the studio."
The Internet and late-night television have become overrun with jokes and meme attempts, especially Photoshops of Costas' eyes. I have come to regret my own, below. Well, not entirely.
Feb. 11: 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.
Florida is now recognizing the "Bob Costas' eyes told me to do it" defense.
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 grappling for the bathroom and a sinking reconciliation of sickness is a sequence familiar to many of us; 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 might raise concern that the cause is a bacterium. I attempted to reach out to the man who washes Bob Costas' eyes for comment on the color of the drainage. It turned out there was no such man. Costas has been washing his own eyes. This is the state of things in Sochi.
Either way, Costas is taking antibiotics, so he is covered for a bacterial infection. 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 post as the story unfolds.
Update 2/12/14 10:20 AM
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment