Post by gato on Jan 17, 2022 6:59:11 GMT -5
From my earliest childhood, with my mom doing the feel the forehead - thermometer under the tongue routine, I had it drummed into my thick skull that 98.6 is the "normal" temperature to look for. Never thought any more about it.
Who knew that the magic number came from the mid 19th century, when a German physician collected a million temperature readings and published his average of all those readings (he never said it was normal .. just an average).
And even that average can fluctuate for a healthy individual, depending on time of day and where the thermometer got the reading: forehead, under the tongue, armpit, exhaust port. I got to thinking about this because in these trying times, I have gauged my own temperature more often than in the past. My own "average" temperature is well below the 98.6 number.
"Having a fever," is a debated temperature number. In most instances, anything over 100 is considered the gold standard, but that's not locked in either. Some states have their own agreed upon limits, while businesses have other ideas. For employees at Walmart, for instance, a 100 degree temp gets you a snow day, but at Amazon, you gotta have at least 100.4 to be sent home. I'm guessing these businesses rely on the quickie forehead reading, because in some areas of the country right now, waiting outside an Amazon warehouse with your pants down might cause frostbite, not to mention some unfortunate videos on Tik Tok.
Who knew that the magic number came from the mid 19th century, when a German physician collected a million temperature readings and published his average of all those readings (he never said it was normal .. just an average).
And even that average can fluctuate for a healthy individual, depending on time of day and where the thermometer got the reading: forehead, under the tongue, armpit, exhaust port. I got to thinking about this because in these trying times, I have gauged my own temperature more often than in the past. My own "average" temperature is well below the 98.6 number.
"Having a fever," is a debated temperature number. In most instances, anything over 100 is considered the gold standard, but that's not locked in either. Some states have their own agreed upon limits, while businesses have other ideas. For employees at Walmart, for instance, a 100 degree temp gets you a snow day, but at Amazon, you gotta have at least 100.4 to be sent home. I'm guessing these businesses rely on the quickie forehead reading, because in some areas of the country right now, waiting outside an Amazon warehouse with your pants down might cause frostbite, not to mention some unfortunate videos on Tik Tok.
