PERSONAL COVID-19 EDITION
Good morning from Quarantine Day 5!
This past Thursday at 11:30 p.m., I received a phone call with the results of what I thought was a routine PCR test for COVID that would yield the usual uneventful result. Imagine my shock when I heard the words “unfortunately, you tested positive.” Once I shook the delirium of being awakened from a deep sleep, I was more than a little surprised. I had only gone in for the test because I was asked to do a reading at an indoor church service this past weekend in honor of two of our dearest friends. I had toyed with not attending—after all, it was to be indoors in a crowd. But on the advice of doctors I consulted, the risk would be minimal for the relatively brief time I would be indoors. Yet, because I had been in a crowded area earlier in the week and would be in a closed indoor space, I felt it prudent to be tested “just to be sure” that I wouldn’t be a carrier in a large group. Needless to say, as a result of this news, I had to attend the service via a “live stream.” While I was glad I spared others from getting sick, I began contemplating what the test results might mean for me.
Had I gotten this result at during the last outbreaks of the virus, before being vaccinated, things would have been far more dicey. Even for a man in good health at my age, the chances of hospitalization or death were not insignificant. As a friend of mine, a few years older than I, noted during the pandemic, the odds of death for him if he were to contract COVID were 3%. He defended his conservative behaviors as “I wouldn’t get in a plane with a 3% chance of crashing. Why would I expose myself to these same odds now?” But things have changed since then.
As most of you are aware by now, Andrea and I have been, for the last 17 months (beginning a week before the Musings From the Bunker began on March 14, 2020) among the most conservative and diligent practitioners of “COVID safety.” We quarantined when our kids came home, we avoided our favorite restaurants “like the plague,” we wore masks on walks, avoided crowds, and generally stayed outdoors other than brief moments in stores. We have yet to eat indoors. For much of the pandemic, we met friends rarely (and only outdoors) and quarantined when family visited. We have worn masks when out in public (when we had to be out and about) to the point I thought the indentations on my cheeks from the mask might never abate. As things began to “open up,” we modified our behaviors accordingly. I’m not going out on a limb to suggest that we have been “model pandemic citizens.”
Given the level of care we have taken, I was surprised by my test result. Then again, it underscores a number of verities:
· Given that the three of us living together (Andrea, Tina and I) likely were exposed to the same outside influences, only one of us contracted the disease. That’s good.
· No matter how much care one takes, there’s always a chance one will get infected. This is not an argument for abandoning good behaviors. Let’s remember that two of us didn’t get it and most of our friends have still been spared.
· The Delta variant is easily spread, even using reasonable precautions to avoid contact.
· I got the test without any symptoms (well, other than my usual aches and pains and hypochondriacal fears). We have entered a phase when the disease can infect the seemingly healthy (and almost certainly vaccinated). The good news is they likely will not suffer significant symptoms. The bad news is that they are carriers of a particularly communicable strain of the virus, infecting others, without ever knowing it.
Perhaps the greatest lesson of this unfortunate situation are these:
· Thanks to the vaccination, my prognosis has changed from risk of death or hospitalization to unpleasantness and boredom. Setting aside the outliers, this seems to be a disease of the unvaccinated—who are still exposed to dire, debilitating, potentially long lasting, illness and possible death. As most of us have read of the increasing hospitalizations and the epiphanies of seriously ill patients ruing that they should have gotten vaccinated, this is an illness that is largely avoidable.
· Everyone out there is a potential carrier, most of them completely unaware that they carry and can transmit a highly contagious strain, because they thankfully do not display significant symptoms.
THE NAYSAYERS AND WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE
And as I sit here, cautiously optimistic that things won’t get worse by Saturday, I am thankful in the knowledge that, at least in some circles, people believe in science and have harnessed the mysteries of biology and chemistry to yield medications and vaccines that change and prolong our lives. And, at the same time, I lament that we live in a world where the wild fantasies of conspiracy theorists and flat-Earthers can poison the minds of so many of our fellow citizens into denying themselves such a simple lifeline—all because of crackpot theories about the vaccination and its efficacy, or waiting for “final approval” (a concept which I doubt they ever contemplated until the words were employed by some COVID-denying talking head as some sort of justification for allowing them to be unreasonable), or believing this is somehow a government attempt to “control” us.
If we have learned anything from this pandemic, it’s that we are being bombarded by misinformation, opinion, and “expert advice” curated by people with a political agenda and/or with the desire to panic people into watching more cable news or scroll more postings. These people (and the platforms supporting them) are actively interfering with the health and welfare of the world. What we’ve also learned is that people are willingly susceptible to this persuasion, either because of confirmation bias or a need for a simple unified theory that explains the inter-relationship of complex issues that may not be inter-related at all.
This is not a question of people “making a good decision for their own bodies.” We are not equipped with the scientific knowledge or experience, and have not pored over (nor can we interpret) the data from the exhaustive tests already performed on these vaccines and the underlying technology (which is, contrary to Tucker Carlson, over 40 years in the making) to make a rational, scientifically driven, decision on whether the vaccine should work (it is) or is safe (it is). We have experts with years of training and experience acting as proxies for us in making decisions here and myriad other areas of our lives.
In this era of not trusting experts, we should remember that we rely on experts every day. I didn’t remodel our home. I am hopeful that the overpasses on the 405 were engineered to sustain an earthquake. I won’t do my taxes without a CPA. I won’t go to court without counsel. And I certainly won’t make the final decision on anything regarding my health, whether to repair my meniscus or make any other medical decision, without the advice of a physician. Experts simply know more than we (or Fox News) know about certain specialized subjects.
HURRAY FOR MACRON—VIVE LA FRANCE
In a great example of maturity, logic, practicality, and concern for the common good, France is among the nation leading the world in response to anti-vaxxers. In order to enter a restaurant, museum, long distance train, airport, sports venues and various other places, French citizens must now show proof of vaccination (derided by some as a “vaccination passport”). And yet, there are protests throughout France against this strategy (although most citizens support this inconvenience intended at saving lives).
The premise is simple. If one accepts the notion that people are free to ignore science and put their families and friends at risk through a stubborn refusal to be vaccinated, they can do so. But they cannot avail themselves of the privilege (not the right) to partake in various activities or be in various places where others, who have heeded the advice of experts, choose to congregate. It’s really very simple. When people claim “I can do what I choose with my body” the response should be “well, we can choose to limit the effects of your bad decisions on our individual and collective welfare.”
Just because it didn’t come from America doesn’t mean it’s not a great idea (and, I suspect, eventually will become an inevitability here as well).
CLOSING THOUGHTS
And so, I sit here getting my food delivered, checking my blood oxygen and temperature every few hours, watching another episode of Hacks, catching up on my stack of back issues of The Atlantic and The New Yorker, tackling more crosswords, and contemplating the next book to read. Exercise is limited to Yoga and the occasional sets of push-ups and sit-ups (aerobic exercise is discouraged). And then there is work—on-line and distanced, of course, to keep me busy. And yes, I’m going to count the hours and days until I can reemerge from my own personal lock-down!
Stay safe out there,
Glenn
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From the archives:
Wow, thank you for sharing. Sending good thoughts for your full recovery, Glenn.
Glenn, thanks for the reminder about maintaining vigilance. I freely admit I have let mine slide of late to a large degree. That is definitely going to change, thanks to your post. Since the “musings” are no doubt going to be quite long during your confinement I will have less time to go out anyway 🤣. Stay well pal.