San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Amid a surge of civic sickness, my family hit with COVID-19
After our children received their first COVID-19 shots, we celebrated by having ice cream for dinner.
During the past two years, our children have been model citizens in a deadly pandemic. They had no problem wearing masks or taking a pass on indoor play dates. They celebrated when the adults in the family were vaccinated — parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles — and they showed great patience waiting for vaccines for young kids.
We made a long list of things we would do again once everyone in our family was fully vaccinated: Spurs games, Monster Truck Jam, sleepovers, flying to visit my wife’s family in Pennsylvania, spending a long day at the DoSeum.
They also showed remarkable compassion. When the delta variant surged this summer, our 5-year-old son asked that we pray every night “for all the people in hospitals, especially the people in the hallways.” We still say that prayer.
So, naturally, when they received their first shots on Nov. 5 at Wonderland of the Americas, we celebrated. We were ready for a new chapter of living. But as the saying goes, when people make plans, God laughs.
Our kids received their shots on a Friday night, but by Sunday afternoon our son wasn’t feeling well. He had a headache, body aches and a slightly elevated temperature. We assumed it was a reaction to his shot, but to be on the safe side, we had him PCR tested through Curative. He moped about this — “Why only me?” — so in solidarity, we all got tested, too.
That’s how we learned Monday morning (Nov. 8) that our daughter, who had no symptoms, was positive for COVID. At that moment, our son was free and clear. Within days, though, we all had COVID. Our daughter, 7, likely picked it up at school just days before our kids received their first vaccines. My wife and I had breakthrough infections. The timing was peak 2021.
There was nothing novel about our coronavirus experience. There were a few days when I could barely get out of bed. My wife also suffered from intense fatigue, and her chest tightness and lingering cough were worrisome. She doesn’t have long COVID, but even now, three weeks later, she’s not quite right.
Our daughter had a fever, while our son had a barky little cough. But we got through it — and found ways to make it less of an ordeal and even sort of fun. We drew pictures of germs. Played chess and Connect 4. Our son learned how to ride his bike without training wheels.
But it was a quarantine, not a vacation. We weren’t at work or school. We canceled a Thanksgiving trip to see my parents and celebrate my mom’s 76th birthday. We didn’t see friends, attend soccer or tennis practice, or go on bike rides.
This is the season of gratitude, so let me share some from the last three weeks. I’m grateful our cases were relatively mild. I’m grateful for the vaccines that helped me and my wife. I’m grateful that, as far as we know, we didn’t spread COVID to anyone. I’m grateful to my colleagues who stepped in during my absence, especially Associate Editorial Page Editor Nancy M. Preyor-Johnson, who nixed a vacation to run things for two weeks. I’m grateful to the friends
and family who brought us food and treats, and who sent our kids games and books. We felt the love — and will pay it forward.
And yet I also felt burned by the politics of COVID.
At the same time our kids had COVID — our daughter picked it up before her first shot, and our son hadn’t had his first shot long enough to offer any protection — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was railing at Big Bird for “getting vaccinated,” decrying it as “government propaganda.” Gov. Greg Abbott’s fight over mask mandates in schools continued.
The virus is insidious. It’s raged in blue and red states. Cases are down here, but surging elsewhere. I would never say the political actions of one person
led to my family, or any person, getting sick. It’s far more complex than that. But the politicization of masks and vaccines undoubtedly contributes to an environment in which people are more likely to get COVID — and that reflects a deeper civic sickness I wish I could cure.
Toward the end of our lockdown, we received an email from our kids’ school reporting 17 COVID cases in the span of about two weeks. Two of those kids were ours. I wish we lived in a better world, one that placed health and safety above politics. One in which we all did everything we could to keep people out of hospitals, especially those people in the hallways.