I am 71 years old and have had COVID-19 once, late last year when, seeing an extended dip in case/hospitalizations/deaths statistics in the New York metropolitan area I allowed myself to think that it was safe to sit unmasked in a local coffee shop for half an hour or while I nursed a dark roast pour-over.
The shop was uncrowded when I decided to sit down and stay awhile -- but over the course of my time there a longish line of takeout customers formed at the counter and several of the tables which had been empty acquired groups of two and three people who chatted animatedly over their brews. Two young children began running around, vaguely attached to a recently-arrived couple who had seated themselves at one of the tables.
Despite all this, secure in the knowledge that all the statistics said COVID infections were low, I remain unmasked. But here's the thing: pandemics are often fast-moving and statistics lag. More and more people were administering tests at home and not reporting the results -- and those results which
were recorded were not immediately collated. The statistics I'd read that day lagged behind the reality by between one and two weeks. And although I was a fairly careful reader of the pandemic news I wasn't sufficiently careful to realize the likelihood that the XBB 1.5 variant might have made its way from France to New York City.
It had.
Fortunately, I recognized the symptoms early, confirmed that I had COVID, notified my doctor, and she prescribed Paxlovid. So I spent an unpleasant but not excruciating few weeks with COVID and its immediate aftermath. But:
it was the holiday season,
the family had tickets to the Botanical Gardens Annual Train Show,
I might have ignored the symptoms
and it could have been far worse.
In particular, I could have ended up with Long Covid,
Several people within one degree of separation from me have contracted Long Covid. It has been disastrous for all of them. They are all young enough that they can at least hope that they will eventually be rid of it but I, in my eighth decade, would probably have to live with it for the rest of my life.
So I take Long Covid, and therefore COVID, very seriously even now, even as mostly everyone I encounter in my (rare) excursions seems to have shrugged it off as just another one of those things we all have to live with, no big thing.
I refuse to participate in the normalization of COVID-19. I refuse to ignore the dangers of Long Covid.
The Sick Times -
The Sick Times is an independent news site founded by journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis. We report on the Long Covid crisis, Covid-19, and infection-associated illnesses. Contact:betsy@thesicktimes.orgmiles@thesicktimes.org By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with The Sick Times and Mailchimp. Unsubscribe at any ti...
