COVID-19 fears take hold of imagination
It started with a normal cough. My first thought wasn’t about a common cold or the seasonal flu. My mind raced directly to COVID-19 and its possible symptoms: fever or chills, loss of taste or smell, fatigue or body aches, shortness of breath.
I had none of those. I just coughed. That’s all it took.
COVID-19 hasn’t infected my body. Not yet anyway. It has definitely infected my thoughts.
Do I have this coronavirus? Should I self-quarantine? Am I an asymptomatic carrier? Should I get tested, again?
Lastweek I scheduled a COVID-19 test, my second one since the pandemic hit, at the nearest testing facility I could find online. Iwanted to get tested again strictly for peace of mind, not for any symptoms. Apositive test result could be a needed reminder to stay even further away from anyone whomay be vulnerable to this mysterious virus.
I don’t use the word mysterious to be alarmist or sensationalistic. This virus is an enigma tome. It kills some people. It doesn’t faze others. More and more people I know personally have recently contracted it.
“Against my wishes and better judgment, COVID-19 has invaded my earthly realm and added me to its body count statistic,” a friend wrote on his Facebook page this pastweekend.
“Make no mistake, this is a horrible illness. Each victim reacts differently, for some aminor inconvenience, some make the ultimate sacrifice. For me: a hangover headache of epic proportions for 11 days, low grade fever, lethargy, no appetite, vertigo, and hallucinations that had me questioning the reality ofmy own eyes.”
“Then, like an uninvited guest, it was gone. I’m fine. Be safe. Mask up. It’s no joke kiddies!” he wrote.
I don’t think the pandemic is a joke. Or an over-exaggerated public health crisis. I’m not paranoid about contracting this virus. I’m more pragmatic about life during a pandemic. COVID-19 is onmy mental radar every day. I can’t avoid its infection rate inmy thoughts. Or onmy smartphone, laptop or desktop computer.
“Illinois health officials on Monday announced 6,190 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 85 additional fatalities,” a news alert stated as I’m writing this column.
“The numbers, lower than in recentweeks, don’t necessarily mean that the spread of coronavirus is slowing. Health experts have warned that over the Thanksgiving weekend, fewer people likely got tested and many testing sites curtailed their hours,” the Chicago Tribune story stated.
I dragged that email into one of three separate folders I created months ago, titled CORONA VIRUS, a word I never wrote over the past 25 years. This year, so far, I’ve written it more than 200 times. (I checked my column archives dating back to the mid-1990s.)
In March, I signed up for news alerts from multiple sources about COVID-19. I didn’t want tomiss any breaking news or crucial updates. My email folders are now diseased with a dizzying amount of statistics about every facet of this virus outbreak.
The latest email alert I received froman organization called Covid Act Now warns that the next few months before a vaccine is distributed may be the deadliest yet.
“While experts are optimistic about effective vaccines coming soon from Pfizer and Moderna, cases are already overwhelming many health systems across the country,” the alert states.
“Cases are also expected to increase during the winter as people begin to socialize more indoors and because viruses tend to be more stable in cold air. Immune responses to COVID have been varied thus far, but experts hope that immunity from vaccines will be more long-lasting.”
Iwonder if public panic will sink those hopes like an overcrowded lifeboat of desperate passengers. Will we fight over the last remaining life vests as our ship sinks into the frigid waters of this pandemic?
Dr. Anthony Fauci is pleading with Americans to take health precautions aswe head into the Christmas holiday, warning we may see “a surge superimposed on the surge we are already in,” according to another news alert I received Monday.
I also receive regular updates from Indiana Department of Health. New cases, new testing numbers, new deaths. Percentage rates, positivity rates, county metrics. I don’t doubt the number counts. I see howthey affect our lives and lifestyles.
In public, masked strangers remind me of the pandemic’s presence without saying oneword. It’s on the radar of our reticular activating system, the part of the brain which instantly and automatically notices things once we aremade aware of them. For example, learning a new word and then hearing it everywhere.
This part of the brain helps us focus on certain things while filtering out other unnecessary things. These past few months, for self-preservation purposes, it has helped us focus on anything related to COVID-19. And it hasworked. But we’re now eight months into this pandemic and still focusing on the virus whether we are consciously aware of it or not.
Fortunately we’ve had escapist distractions to break its spell – presidential politics, in-home entertainment, the boundless internet, family dramas, and daily responsibilities, among other things. Not to mention a string of national days of familiarity: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and now Giving Tuesday.
COVID-19 has permeated our lives on so many levels. We need any distractions we can find.
Another phrase I’ve never written about until 2020 is “contact tracing,” the identification process of people who may have come into contact with an infected person. On a broader level, all of us are nowon a contract tracing list.
None of us are immune to this infection of our thoughts. All it takes as a reminder is a simple cough.