I’m untouchable.
Or so I thought. Three doses of the vax. A good plant-based diet. But a week ago I got covid. It wasn’t kind. There’s a powerful lesson in it for you.
How I got it
With a daughter on the way, my wife and I decided to go to the baby expo here in Australia. To show we have some intelligence we both wore N95 masks the entire time.
We didn’t get too close to anyone and we kept our time at the expo to a minimum. The main reason to attend wasn’t to buy a bunch of useless baby junk like many of the other parents.
It was to learn infant first-aid and baby basics — like changing a diaper.
We got home and felt fine. The next day I felt a tickle in my throat. “Probably nothing” was all I could say.
The day after the sore throat got worse. We took a covid test each. Mine was negative, so was my wife’s.
To be doubly sure we went to a drive-through testing center. The nurse told us that the government switched off the testing for everyone under 65, unless you could prove you were immunecompromised.
Smart. Everyone thought the pandemic was over.
While I couldn’t take the test my wife could. 12 hours later they sent us a text to say she was positive. No big deal. Stay home. Eat some nice food. Rest.
Obviously we got covid from the baby expo. One woman at the expo coughed non-stop only a few feet away from us. Most likely she gave it to us. That’s what selfishness can do when people who are clearly sick don’t stay home.
No precautions saved us.
Only weeks before I was bragging with comments like “Well, after more than two and half years I’ve avoided the dreaded bat virus.”
I’ll live to regret those cocky statements.
What this strain feels like
I don’t care so much that I got covid.
The part that scared me is my wife got it. She has my unborn daughter in her belly. Naturally, I rang the public health system.
There’s no real advice for pregnant women in Australia. It didn’t help that the call got transferred to a Philippian’s call center where they have no clue about Australia or our covid situation (trust the government to save money on the wrong problem).
Despite being healthy and triple vaxed, I got hit hard.
My temperature went up fast. My throat felt like it was burning. The part I didn’t expect was the aches and pains. My legs felt like they were on fire. Then my sinuses became extremely painful.
For nearly a week I couldn’t get out of bed.
The next phase of this sucker
This iteration of the virus is so bad in Australia that offices have now closed again. The number of new daily cases has gone exponential.
My online business suffered because my business partner also got covid at the same time as me.
With both of us properly knocked out, everything got put on hold. Customers had to wait. Emails had to go unanswered. This is what an out of control virus does. It continues to screw up every living thing.
A close family member has recently been diagnosed with a rare blood disorder. If they catch the bat virus it’ll most likely kill them. So for our family, staying away from the ones we love is the only way we can protect them.
What’s bizarre is no hospital or doctor can tell us if we’re still infectious.
We keep getting positive tests at home but the consensus is two-fold. Some believe you’ll continue to get positive tests even if you’re not infectious. Others believe you should stay home until you get a negative test.
The health advice is so bad on the matter that it’s no wonder this phase of the pandemic is terrible.
More than 50% of my friends currently have covid. Wishing it would “just go away” didn’t work. Now we’re paying the price. When people are sick business stops, events get canceled, and life becomes some kind of dystopian fantasy.
Let’s hope we don’t go back to lockdowns. That was bad. But until we start caring for each other and taking basic precautions, life will continue to suck harder than it needs to.
The real pandemic is individualism, not a virus.
Closing Thought
The truth none of us want to admit is this pandemic was an IQ test. And humanity failed big time.
There’s still hope. There’s always hope.
If you get covid then stay home and think of others. Don’t go down to the local supermarket and cough everywhere so you can get a tub of low-fat ice cream. That’s selfish.
This virus stops wreaking havoc when we get the message: take care of your neighbor as if they’re family.
