I think it's fair to say that this has been an overwhelming month for all of us. Certainly, a lot has happened, much of it tragic or at least horrendous. And you would have heard a lot about it from me a lot sooner. But, as it turns out, this has been an overwhelming month for me on a personal level as well.
On Sunday, May 8, my wife and I discovered that we were both COVID-19 positive. I had developed some symptoms during the previous week and, that weekend, my wife began to develop them as well. We self-tested on Sunday, and both tests were positive. We sheltered in place at home for the following week, working electronically with our law office, and were both able to keep the business running (with the help of our staff) during that time. We were then cleared through the state department of health to return to the office after the end of the week, once we were no longer symptomatic.
That does not mean, however, that she and I are completely out of the woods. Both of us are concerned about the possibility that we may be experiencing so-called "long COVID" effects--fatigue in my case, congestion in hers. We are both in our mid-60s and concerned about the possible long-term effects of the virus on our health and life span. We were both vaccinated and boosted, and we have at all times strived to abide by applicable COVID restrictions in various settings, so we were both surprised, and not a little bit nettled by finding out that, despite our best efforts, the pandemic had finally come home (literally) to both of us.
There is no doubt, however, that both of us would be facing much greater challenges had we not both been vaccinated and boosted. This is especially true of my wife, whose lungs are scarred from a serious earlier bout with pneumonia. She does not doubt, and I do not doubt, that, without the vaccine, she may very well have been hospitalized. Or worse.
And both of us can assure you that, even with a mild case, this virus is nothing to fool around with. It is not a case of "the sniffles," as some right-wing bloviators have tried to suggest. It is not just another version of the cold, or flu. The symptoms can genuinely be overpowering, to a degree that most common respiratory ailments are not. In my case, I went through a twenty-four hour period in which I could not even raise my head, let alone get out of bed. Literally. In my wife's case, she went through a twenty-four hour period where her congestion and coughing were serious enough that we both thought she might need to be hospitalized.
I am not detailing all of this in a bid for sympathy. But I do want everyone to know, understand, and act upon the reality that the vaccine, while not a guarantee against being infected with COVID-19, does have a significant impact on the experience you will have with being infected, and may very well save your life. This is especially important right now for two reasons. First, there are and will no doubt continue to be for the foreseeable future a series of COVID-19 mutations, each one more more infectious and deadly than the preceding ones. Getting vaccinated, and then being boosted on a regular basis, may very well be the best protection our lives have against those mutations, even if they do not offer complete protection.
And second? There is a lot of nonsense now part of the public conversation to the effect that we are "over" the pandemic, nonsense that is based not on any sort of medical evidence but rather on the understandable desire of people to somehow get back to a pre-COVID world. However understandable that desire may be, however, it doesn't change the reality that people in the United States and around the world are still getting infected, still getting sick, still dying at alarming rates. COVID is not something that can be willed away by a positive attitude, or even by frustration with personal inconvenience. Nor is it something that will be stopped by adherence to a particular political ideology. When it comes to whether you are red or blue, the virus doesn't give a right royal damn. It's a virus. It will look for a human host regardless of whether you watch Fox or MSNBC.
So, get vaccinated. Get boosted. Stay boosted. Wear a mask when necessary. We have no alternative when it comes to getting through this than doing it together. If that bothers you, get over it. The people you don't infect will thank you. And, one day, you just might come to the conclusion that you are one of those people.
And, with that as prologue and without further ado, let's get to the events of May.
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