What was going on when I was born?

A working group of members of the House Ways and Means Committee, rejecting President Reagan's proposal, voted today to permit taxpayers to deduct all their interest payments on mortgages on second homes. The six-member bipartisan group also rejected another proposal by the President that would limit deductions by real estate investors to the amount of money they actually invest and the amount of mortgages they are personally required to repay. The group's recommendations are likely to be adopted by the full Ways and Means Committee Tuesday and incorporated in the tax legislation it hopes to send to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote next month. So far the committee has accepted the recommendations of its working groups without change.

EVERY winter the human nose is besieged by germs. This year, through new medical research, the nose is being encouraged to fight back. The counterattacks include experimental vaccines and drugs given by nose drop or aerosol and strategies to bolster the respiratory tract's natural defenses against infection. The inner surfaces of the airways have also become a target for drugs to treat diseases that have little to do with the respiratory system itself. The nasal route is even being tried in delivering insulin to diabetics. The upper respiratory tract is one of the great natural battlegrounds between viruses and the human body because the nose is an important natural gateway. Every day more than 2,500 gallons of air flow through each adult's nose, much more if the person exercises heavily. Riding on that air come all of the viruses, bacteria and other particles that happen to be in the vicinity.

WITH the nation's future supply of research chimpanzees in jeopardy, Federal authorities plan to create a special population of 350 pampered animals that would be exempted from medical duties and enjoy emotionally rich upbringings designed to enhance their reproductive skills. Medical scientists consider chimpanzees, the closest relative to humans in the animal world, to be indispensable for certain experiments, including future tests of vaccines against AIDS. The projected decline in research animals has engendered wide concern. Since the mid-1970's, no imports have been permitted of chimpanzees caught in the wilds of Africa, where the species is threatened. Hundreds of the animals have been bred in captivity. But without new measures, scientists say, the future availability of chimpanzees will be endangered by two trends.

Rescue workers found at least five more people alive in the sea of mud in this ruined town today, including an 18-month-old boy. The development came after reports Sunday that the Government had suspended efforts to find survivors from the mudslides and flooding that struck Armero and 13 other villages and towns after the eruption Wednesday of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. Today, army officers in Mariquita, not far from Armero, said they had been ordered to continue searching for 50 more hours. The army officers, who have been pessimistic from the start, said they had thought there was little chance of finding anyone else alive in the mud five days after it gushed over the town, propelled by flood waters that cascaded down the sides of the volcano. Had the Government carried out its plans to end the search and declare the whole town a cemetery, as the Minister of Health, Rafael de Zubiria, announced Sunday afternoon, these people would have been left to die.

After Gulf Oil was acquired by Chevron in March 1984, John H. Pronsky, a Gulf general manager of marketing, felt betrayed by his company's leaders. ''How could my management let this happen to me?'' he recalled feeling. ''It was like a death in the family,'' said Mr. Pronsky, who, after working at Gulf for eight and a half years, quit last January and went to work for Schlumberger. Why did he leave? Because his ''psychological contract'' with his employer had been broken. Because of a perceived clash between Gulf's and Chevron's corporate cultures. And because of fears that if he stayed, he would ''go through life at Chevron with a Gulf logo on my head'' and would, therefore, be ''a second-class citizen.'' ''Middle management's trust in the corporation's ability to take care of its employees has been shaken,'' Mr. Pronsky, who is 44 years old, said.

William J. Schroeder, the longest-living survivor of an artificial heart implant, is approaching an important anniversary. Next Monday he will have lived for a full year after his diseased natural heart was replaced with a permanent plastic-and-metal pump that draws its power from a large, external machine. Ordinarily, the occasion would be cause for cheers and jubilation. But Mr. Schroeder was readmitted to the Humana Hospital-Audubon, in Louisville, Ky., last week after suffering his third stroke since the operation. His various strokes have left him lethargic, weak, able to speak only with great difficulty, and often forgetful of things said just a few minutes or hours ago. Today, doctors said that he can say a few words and appears to recognize familiar faces but has lost some of his ability to move and talk; his consciousness waxes and wanes. Mr. Schroeder is not the only recipient of this new highly publicized artificial heart technology to suffer devastating reversals. All five of the patients who have received permanent artificial hearts, the so-called Jarvik-7 device, since 1982 have fared poorly. Two of them are now dead, and the other three have suffered disabling strokes apparently caused by the artificial heart itself. The reversals make it clear, some commentators say, that the true value and appropriate role for this highly experimental, relatively crude device is still an open question.

THE proposed addition of three new psychiatric disorders - for those with a masochistic personality, for men who rape and for women with premenstrual syndrome - to the official diagnostic manual aroused vigorous opposition at a meeting of psychiatrists today. Opponents charged that the diagnoses would offer a legal defense to rapists and wife beaters and stigmatize women with menstrual problems. Supporters argued that the new diagnoses would alert clinicians to psychological problems that have often gone unrecognized, and so provide relief to patients who would not otherwise receive treatment. The meeting, called to air all points of view on the proposal, ended with the threat of a lawsuit by a group of women who predicted adverse consequences if the diagnoses were approved. The opposing views were presented at a closed meeting at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital here. According to Robert Spitzer, the psychiatrist in charge of the revisions to the diagnostic manual, the meeting was called in response to a campaign by women's groups among psychiatrists and psychologists.

The Economy All interest payments on mortgages for second homes would remain tax deductible under a decision by a working group of the House Ways and Means Committee, which rejected an Administration proposal to limit the deduction. The group also rejected the President's proposal to limit real estate investors' deductions to the amount they actually invest and the amount of mortgages they are personally required to repay. The full committee is likely to adopt the group's recommendations. [Page D1.] The operating rate at factories, mines and utilities fell for the fifth month of the last six, with continued foreign competition cited. Industry operated at 80.2 percent of capacity. [D27.]

With each new freshman class, officials at the State University at Binghamton here say their school is increasingly being viewed as a publicly supported alternative to the more expensive Ivy League. It is the most selective of the four university centers that make up the elite upper crust of the State University of New York, officials said. Together with the other three - at Albany, Buffalo and Stony Brook - the university centers rank among the most selective public institutions in the country. The appeal of the university centers is enhanced by their annual tuition of $1,350, low enough to draw outstanding students who cannot afford or who choose not to pay the tuitions of more than $10,000 at prestigious private colleges. ''It's true that a lot of people who can't afford big-name schools are here for economic reasons and arrive feeling badly that they are not in Ivy League schools,'' said Jonathan Wolfman, a senior from Forest Hills, Queens, majoring in economics and political science. ''But that doesn't mean their education suffers.''

A picture caption with the television listings yesterday misidentified an actor in the film ''Contract on Cherry Street.'' The actor, shown with Frank Sinatra and Martin Balsam, was Harry Guardino, not Ron Polito.

High-ranking American and Soviet officials were reported tonight to have agreed in principle that President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev should hold a second summit meeting after their two days of talks that start Tuesday. According to a ranking White House official, President Reagan will conclude the Geneva conference with an invitation to the Soviet leader to visit the United States ''to see the American people and learn what makes us tick.'' Mr. Reagan was said to be leaning toward an invitation for a meeting in 1987 in Washington, though State Department officials were known to be urging him to ask for a meeting next year. Gorbachev Arrives Mr. Gorbachev arrived today and said the ''first and foremost'' issue in his meetings with President Reagan was halting the arms race ''and its extension to new spheres.''

Soviet officials here, apparently in a policy shift, are now talking about the summit meeting more as an occasion to begin a dialogue with the United States than as an event to score a breakthrough in arms control. For months, Soviet leaders have been saying that the meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev must be judged by whether they can agree on principles for breaking the negotiating deadlock in the Geneva arms talks, specifically whether Mr. Reagan is prepared to abandon his space-based missile defense program. Now, presumably after assessing that this approach would fail, the Russians are saying that the conference must be seen more ''in overall terms'' and as part of a process. The hopes for a breakthrough on arms still flavor Soviet comments, but the pressure seems to be off.