Accusations fly after friend develops COVID

DEAR ABBY: A friend of 35 years recently accused me of exposing her and her mother to COVID. She told me she thinks I did it on purpose because I thought so little of them. This is not true!

I had been home for eight days and saw her on a Friday. The following Wednesday I felt sick, so I got tested. When my test the next Monday came back positive, I told her immediately. Since then she has blocked me and won’t talk to me to figure out what happened. I don’t even know if they got sick.

We have been good friends and helped each other often. I have done a lot for her, but she still refuses to talk to me. What should I do? – BLOCKED BY COVID IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR BLOCKED: When people are frightened, they sometimes act emotionally instead of rationally. A problem with COVID is that people can be infected, without symptoms, and spread the virus without becoming sick (yet) themselves. This is why mask-wearing and socialdistancing are so important. From your description, this may be what happened in your case.

Give your friend time to cool off and continue trying to reach out to her. Then hope that in light of your long friendship, she’ll calm down and you can reconnect.