NASCAR Fans Are Apparently Contagious

We've never been to a NASCAR race, but we imagine their big drunken vats of fun. We think it would be a grand time. The House Homeland Security Committee apparently doesn't agree ... unless they've gotten their shots, anyway.

On a fact-finding mission to Concord, N.C. and Talladega, the committee was informed that it needed to get immunizations for various contagious ailments before visiting the NASCAR tracks.

The House Homeland Security Committee planned a fact-finding trip about public health preparedness at mass gatherings and decided to conduct the research at two of the nation's most heavily attended sporting events, NASCAR's Bank of America 500 event this weekend and the UAW-Ford 500 last weekend. Staff who organized the trips advised the NASCAR-bound aides to get a range of vaccines before attending — hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.

We'll confess, we have trepidation about NASCAR, but not because we thought their fans would give us diphtheria. Stay off the lawn, House members!

Congress Considers Concord Hazardous? [Charlotte Observer]