Never again will I skip the mask

It’s rare for an aged man to be able to state he was right about something. But here I am. Right. Sort of. But there’s no satisfaction… because I’m also sick, flat on my back in bed, struggling to type straight on the iPad. I’ve got Covid.

Yes, I know. The dude who mentions at the drop of a ‘‘C’’ that he’s written a million words about the pandemic and was once a medical writer and therefore an expert – albeit a neurotic one who seemingly developed the symptoms of everything he ever wrote about – has caught the very disease he professed to know how not to catch.

I didn’t wear a mask during a visit.

Two days later, I got an alert: ‘‘We’ve got Covid,’’ the text said. I had no symptoms apart from an enigmatic episode of the runs, and my Covid test showed only one line, meaning negative.

However at 3am next morning, every joint exploded in arthritic pain and I could barely get out of bed. By daylight, I felt I’d had no sleep and my brain was woozy.

The next test had the dreaded tramlines. Positive.

Lin – who’d also not worn a mask for once – was negative.

She suggested only half-jokingly I should move into my shed-office with a camp-bed, but I promised to wear a mask and hand-wash even more fanatically that usual. We’ve gone a week without her getting it. My experience has been mild. The greebies went for various parts of my system one at a time during the first day – nasal passages, throat, brain, digestive tract and possibly other vitals – but Panadol quickly warded them off.

That and undoubtedly the vaccinations and boosters I’ve had, probably helped by Paxlovid, an anti-viral five-day post-infection course of pills approved over the phone by the doc and collected by Lin.

Overseas research says it ameliorates nearly nine of 10 Covid cases, especially amongst the aged and those with medical conditions.

For most of the time I’ve just felt tired. And relieved. And not that sick at all.

And especially grateful to the Government and its health professionals for developing such an effective online-based system for coping with a pandemic that two years ago might have killed me.

Thank you Prime Minister, Sir Ashley, TWO Taranaki, overworked GPs and nurses, and especially Devon West Medical Centre.

So there it is – make a single exception to your own public pontification on mask-wearing and this is what can happen.

How are we doing in Taranaki? Officially, we’ve had nearly 50,000 cases, the biggest peak coming at the end of March when nearly 600 a day were being logged. Now we’re averaging fewer than that a week, after a low of about 180 a week at the end of September.

Incidentally, those confirmed numbers don’t cover all cases. A quarter of Taranaki people who get Covid don’t bother to report it.

Medical people know that from comparing case totals with the level of Covid incidence in sewage samples.

We had the most deaths in July and August, but since then fatalities (now totalling 83) have dropped to fewer than one a week over the last five weeks.

After the first Taranaki case on March 26, 2020, we had nearly two years when there were few or none each week.

Incidentally, those confirmed numbers don’t cover all cases. A quarter of Taranaki people who get Covid don’t bother to report it.

Then last February there was the first of the two 2022 peaks.

A third surge has begun as we head for Xmas, the latest weekly total being 446, compared to 312 in mid-October.

Taranaki Medical Officer of Health Jonathan Jarman acknowledges the new threat, and also warns 30 percent of Taranaki cases involve ‘‘long’’ Covid.

The Ministry of Health says despite these risks, Kiwis are likely to become less rather than more vigilant, even with the continual emergence of new variants.

My experience of noticing few mask-wearers in supermarkets – and now being caught out when neglecting to wear a mask – suggests next month’s new peak is going to be significant.

Since we can get Covid-19 more than once, thus increasing the risk of ‘‘long’’ Covid, never again will I skip the mask. But please don’t take my discredited word for all this. Here’s Dr Jarman:

‘‘We strongly recommend people continue to wear masks in high-risk settings, such as closed or crowded spaces with poor ventilation. We continue to remind people to stay home if sick and do a RAT (test – free from your pharmacy).’’

Bask in the mask.