Hi good people. After almost a year of living in what began as ground zero in the States for the coronavirus, and doing my best at social distancing, mask wearing, staying away from the bars and restaurants, not to mention the people of my neighborhood that I love so much, you know, doing all the right things as best as I could, I got COVID. Fortunately, the symptoms were quite mild, especially compared to people I know who got it early in the pandemic’s trajectory. But even though my symptoms weren’t life threatening (it felt like a really bad cold), they lasted for a full two weeks. And even another week after that, I’m still dealing with significant fatigue. I can’t imagine how bad it was for folks who got this and were not vaccinated, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to have found myself in the hospital if I had gotten it then.
Even though it feels as if it is, I suppose it isn’t that ironic that I got it even though I was one of the first in line for the vaccine. I think we all relaxed into the fallacy that the vaccine was the silver bullet in this battle. Well, it’s not. I actually know more people now who have had the virus, than the significant number of people I know who had it a year and a half ago. And every one of them has also been vaccinated. Some folks have taken this as another reason NOT to get the vaccine “if I’m going to get this anyway…” I will just say to you – especially those of you who I like – PLEASE GET THE VACCINE. We’re not fooling around and as I said, I can’t imagine having COVID without the symptom reduction offered by the vaccine. I also can’t imagine how shitty I would have felt if I gave this to someone else. Unfortunately, we’ve learned that having the vaccine does not prevent you from getting or transmitting the new super-charged Delta variant, but it helps, and right now, and for the foreseeable future, we need all the help we can get.