Sniffing around for a coronavirus cure

Sadly, the nose has been accused of being the culprit in the Covid-19 pandemic. Why sadly?

Well, the nose has always been my favourite organ. It was my mom who instilled this appreciation of the snout when I was still a snot-nosed kid.

That’s where it started. We were taught to blow a running nose into a handkerchief that we always carried in our pockets. “Don’t go anywhere without your hanky. You don’t want to be caught in company using your hand, then wiping a bogey on your pants.”

And its usefulness has been proved over and over again. No dead rat trapped behind the fridge, giving off tell-tell pong, would go undetected by my mom.

Her nostrils would flair and not unlike a sniffer dog, would follow the smelly trail until she came across the rotting rodent. She’d hold it on high by the tail and excitedly announce her find as if it were an Olympic gold medal.

Without the nose she would not have enjoyed what she considered just reward.

Probably her greatest achievement was getting a sniff of what she claimed was a veld fire.

At that stage there was no smoke in the air or any signs suggesting a fire in the veld alongside our house. She was alone as we were all at school or work.

She phoned the next door neighbour – railways konstabel Dolfie – who happened to be on his off day. From his kitchen window he had a view of the entire veld and spotted a little smoke far off.

He connected his garden hose and shouted to his neighbours to do the same. The message spread to the houses in the street. Indeed, the fire took on raging proportions and threatened to do much damage – including our home. My mom’s proboscis prevented a sure catastrophe.

The nose is now the accused. Maybe it needs some help in shooing away the bug. Whenever I feel a cold coming on, I stick a finger-full of Vicks up my nose. The cold and flu flee.

So I’m doing the same in my fight against the Chinese Connection – incidentally, that country is celebrating the Year of the Rat. Weird, eh?

I’m convinced my snout filled with Vaporub will not let me down.

In any case, it’s a far safer idea than that of Donald Trump.

Cliff Buchler.

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