I got the opportunity to visit the CDC Musuem today with two other fellow microbiology students, Robyn and Bri. We all choose the CDC because it was surprisingly all of our first times going there. Which is still so crazy to me because I’ve lived in Atlanta all my life and still never visited the CDC until I had to for this blog post. When we arrived, we were first pulled to the side so the security could check our car and bags. Once past that checkpoint, we parked and entered the building where an older man who sat at the desk had a pretty interesting convo with us trying to convince us that the CDC was on “spring break and we weren’t able to go to the museum.” He continued to say “why can’t the CDC be on spring break and yall can?” It was funny at first until we all couldn’t tell whether or not he was serious. Once we were able to finally get past him and his jokes, he asked for our ID and we signed in and eventually entered the museum where we were greeted many many different displays and models that all tied into public health. It was interesting to see how models such as construction in Atlanta or jean-making can all be tied back to public health/ public health awareness.
The microbe I decided to study was the HIV/AIDS. There was a whole maybe 6-foot long layout about AIDS in the museum. I chose this virus because it is one I’m familiar with and most interested in. I recently took Infectious Diseases with Dr. Dix where I learned about HIV/AIDS more in depth, and ever since then I’ve been extremely interested in it and its research so when I saw it at the CDC I knew automatically that it was what I wanted my project to be about. You can see a video below of what it looked like! The video I got mostly focused on AIDS, but youre able to see how detailed they get with it! I love how much info is available for the public about HIV/AIDS and other interesting diseases, viruses, and infections just by visiting this museum!
Overall, my experience was a great one, as you can see in these pics and I will definitely be coming back to bring my mom and sister soon!
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