Kordero Anderson, 22

“My favorite holiday film of all time is Home Alone. I set up two or three booby traps when I was a kid because of that movie. I tried to catch burglars but none came through, so it was a waste of time.”

“I live in Englewood. People call it Stranglewood, but that’s actually not how it is in my area. There are a lot of elderly people and families where I am.”

Rocking the Michael Jackson surgical mask, huh?
Yeah. I’m trying not to catch all them germs that be out there right now—swine flu and everything.

Are you a germaphobe?
Nah, nah. I’m in the medical field, so I’m around sick people all day. They want us to take precautions.

What exactly do you do?
I work at Subway.

Have you met Jared?
[Laughs] Nah, I ain’t never met that dude. What I’m really doing is training to be a medical assistant/phlebotomist at the Illinois School of Health Careers.

Sorry, did you say you’re training to be a lobotomist?
No, a phlebotomist.

Okay, so you want to take blood, not cut out chunks of people’s brains.
Ah, nah! [Laughs] Yeah, just draw blood.

Have you gotten a swine flu vaccine?
I’m still waiting to get mine. Should get it sometime this week. I’m in the high-risk group because of my studies, so I should’ve already gotten mine. People that don’t need the vaccine as badly are making up excuses to get it. There’s enough to go around. People just need to wait they turn.

I’d assume the more you learn about sicknesses, the more paranoid you get.
Yeah. Taking public transportation, you can catch illnesses in the most common ways. Everybody’s sneezing, coughing. Some people be diggin’ up inside they noses—they don’t think people are looking, but everybody’s watching—then they wipe it on the pole or on the seat of the bus. You know, we got homeless people that don’t take baths riding the train. There’s germs right there, too. When you sit down, your clothes come in contact and then you touch your clothes.

So should we all be wearing surgical masks?
I mean, it’s not up to me to decide that. It’s up to everyone to decide how to live they life and if they want to be prepared.

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