Covid as I Experienced It
I was a little congested on a Sunday afternoon early in January. I took a quick Covid test that showed I was positive. This happened even though I have had two Pfizer shots and a booster, and I’m healthy for an old guy.
Where did I get it? My suspicions fell on the LAX shuttle we took at midnight to the holding pen for ride shares. It was very crowded, packed to the gills, but who knows for sure? This was the height of the Omicron pandemic.
I packed a few things and moved downstairs to quarantine from my wife who had no symptoms and was negative. We had been hard at work all Friday and Saturday getting the house together. I stayed down there for 10 days.
So, what was it like? NIGHT SWEATS, CONGESTION, LASSITUDE, HEADACHE, FEVER, SORE THROAT, RUNNY NOSE, BODY AND BONE ACHES, CHILLS, BRAIN FOG, SLEEPING A LOT, SLEEPING A LITTLE, AND COLD SORES IN MY MOUTH. I did not get shortness of breath, nor did I lose taste or smell. It peaked in one day and then slowly subsided. It’s like a classic flu, and I had a pretty mild case of Covid due to the vaccinations and boosters. The symptoms were gone after five days, but I was still testing positive. It does feel weird to be quarantined from your spouse, but the highest priority is not to infect the rest of your household.
So, how should the medical system respond? I would think a list of recommended steps to deal with the Covid infection at home. Finally, after 10 days, I received such a list. That’s a pretty good indicator of how overwhelmed our health system has been.
I went online to get guidance from LA County DPH and my health plan. To me, the instructions read as if they have been written by a team of lawyers and doctors in professional jargon. While I can decipher them, they are not what you’d like to see for the general reading public.
After 5 days of quarantine, I went online to make a Covid test appointment. Nothing was available, too many other people doing the same thing.
Testing at home. We had one test left over from before the holidays. After I tested positive, we ordered four more at home tests from Amazon. They arrived in less than a day. The local pharmacy was out of at home tests. We ordered new tests from Amazon and the federal government. They arrived eventually.
I find it hard to believe that there are adults and children over the age of five who are still not vaccinated. The disinformation campaigns against vaccines and masking have been effective with about 25% of the nation’s population. We live in a nation that guarantees Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment, but there is no corollary obligation on the part of news media, social media or broadcast media to help people spread the lies some people tell, yet some have done so without fulsome disclaimers of the falsehoods they spread. I think we know which individuals have been responsible for lying to the public. I think we know the economic interests such as false treatments and fake cures that have been promoted by people who know they are false. There are legal consequences for civil fraud. This disinformation campaign could amount to civil fraud, and it might expose the fraudsters to civil liability from those who were duped and relied on their lies and then ended up in the hospital or the morgue.
Over the last week as I have re-emerged from quarantine, I heard tales that were beyond my imagination. One unvaccinated ex caught covid three times due to his anti-vax beliefs. Another unvaccinated son in law caught covid and ended up in the hospital for over three weeks and nearly died; after that the family chose to get vaccinated. Another got very sick from Covid then refused to seek medical treatment because he thought it was all a hoax. Interesting times we are all living in.