They Share Needles on the S.S.Enterprise.

[VulcanVixen]

I noticed, they do not use different syringes when they're giving the officers medicine, or energy boosts. Didn't they know sharing needles was bad back in the 60's? haha.

...then again, I'm not quite sure those are syringes or something more advanced? But then, how would they get the medicine into the bloodstream by any other means?

 

[Timo]

Supposedly there are no needles involved: the tiny "hyposprays" they use are supposed to be more compact versions of the ages-old industrial-strength vaccination machines that look like paint guns and shoot the substance through the skin using pressure alone.

One of the main advantages of those old vaccination guns was indeed that it was not considered necessary to sterilize the tool between shots (a quick wipe of the flat "workhead" with alcohol might be desirable, tho) - so one could easily inoculate five hundred soldiers in a row. The Trek versions could of course be self-sterilizing, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[MANT!]

sorry..no needles on the Big E..

the technology used is called a jet injector..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector

but it has been dropped from use due to infection risk..and design improvements are on going..
http://www.hcvets.com/data/transmission_methods/jet_injection.htm

by Star Trek's time..it's been perfected..

 

[Too Much Fun]

Yeah, hypospray seems a lot more sanitary than your average needle. I wish they had something like that when I went for shots. I have this intense needle-phobia...just the idea of this needle piercing my skin and introducing chemicals into my bloodstream (even if they're healthy) freaks me out something fierce. An instrument that looks less instrusive like hypospray would make the process a hell of a lot easier for me.

 

[Doug Otte]

Once in grade school they used that injector on us. I thought it was cool, but I think it hurt just as much a needle, but maybe it was at least a little faster. I don't remember if the nurse wiped it between victims or not.

However, I was probably about 7, making it about 44 years ago, so I'm sure my memory has degraded slightly....

Doug

 

[Green Shirt]

Once in grade school they used that injector on us. I thought it was cool, but I think it hurt just as much a needle, but maybe it was at least a little faster. I don't remember if the nurse wiped it between victims or not.

However, I was probably about 7, making it about 44 years ago, so I'm sure my memory has degraded slightly....

Doug

That's similar to my memory also. IIRC those were the measles/rubella shots. There was one occasion when after I went back to class after a shot, my arm was dripping blood. Guess all that air blew up a blood vessel.

 

[nx1701g]

Yeah, hypospray seems a lot more sanitary than your average needle. I wish they had something like that when I went for shots. I have this intense needle-phobia...just the idea of this needle piercing my skin and introducing chemicals into my bloodstream (even if they're healthy) freaks me out something fierce. An instrument that looks less instrusive like hypospray would make the process a hell of a lot easier for me.

They do have them still in use. When my college was preparing for our trip to Africa over the summer there were a few vaccines that they injected us with and one used that type of injector. One of the kids in the group joked that he was waiting to be beamed up after the Doctor injected him (no it was not me).

 

[VulcanVixen]

I heard McCoy refer to it as an "Injection" many times. Doesn't that involve penetration, though?

Hypospray, now there is a term I have never heard... I must look into that...

 

[Timo]

I heard McCoy refer to it as an "Injection" many times. Doesn't that involve penetration, though?

Sure. Of the substance, not of the device. There'd be no point to it (no pun intended) if the substance didn't penetrate, didn't get injected...

The word "hypospray" actually didn't appear on screen in TOS. In "The Naked Time", the word "hypo" is used, but this could refer to hypodermic needles or any random device that delivers its load to under the skin (which is what hypodermic means), rather than to our specific futuristic pressure injection device. Ditto for "Dagger of the Mind", "City on the Edge of Forever", "Return to Tomorrow" etc.

Anybody remember when the word "hypospray" was first used in Star Trek? It's certainly part of standard dialogue in the later spinoffs.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Hambone]

That's similar to my memory also. IIRC those were the measles/rubella shots. There was one occasion when after I went back to class after a shot, my arm was dripping blood. Guess all that air blew up a blood vessel.

The Army was using them in the early 1980's, when I went to basic training. Four shots in one arm, three in the other! And it did hurt. They warned us not to flinch or jerk when the shot was administered; if you did, the hypo-jet would leave a nice tear in your skin.

I remember after the innoculations, my platoon got "dropped" (to do push-ups) for some reason. We all just laid there flopping like fish; no one could move their arms.