COVID-19: We almost made it a whole year


Tegan and I entered voluntary lockdown and started masking up in early March of 2020. For most of the last year, we’ve been extremely careful, and our primary risk of infection came from shopping from groceries, and Tegan’s job at a drive-thru. Now, alas, our luck has run out. Tegan tested positive for COVID-19 after we realized she had a slight fever.

We’re now isolating within the apartment, with me camped out on the couch by the open window, and her mostly staying in bed. I’ll go to get tested either Monday or Tuesday, but I can’t imagine that I haven’t caught it during her asymptomatic phase. I’ll probably blog about the experience either way.

I’ve been working on a longer piece about the pandemic and the responses to it, so now I guess I get to do a little field research into it’s personal affects. With any luck, I’ll be writing about a very mild case, for both myself and for Tegan.

So close to making it to vaccination…

Oh well.

This isn’t the last time I’ll say it, but the responses to the pandemic from governments like the U.S. and the U.K have not only led to unnecessary mass death and long-term disability, but also to the rapid evolution of multiple new strains of the disease, all of which are more infectious, and so will kill that many more people.

We knew how to stop this disease in its tracks, and it wasn’t done because it would not have been profitable. Policies influenced by capitalism and ignorance of science (evolution, in particular) have always been lethally destructive, but going into this century, the harm caused will escalate. We need a change, and we need it fast.


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Comments

  1. Jazzlet says

    I hope Tegan has a mild case with no sequelae, and that you don’t get COVID19 at all, but that if you do it is also mild with no sequelae.

  2. blf says

    I am very sorry to hear this. I wish Tegan — and you — well with the best of health, and of luck.

    I myself live alone in S.France in a village on the Mediterranean coast. Until the current “wave”, this area had largely been spared from the plague. However, it is now one of the worse-affected parts of France. (Our village mayor has, e.g., tested positive.) Hence, I’ve been careful to stay inside for as much of the time as possible, typically venturing out only once a week for shopping (and being careful to time my trips to when there will probably be less people about). To-date, this seems to have worked (unless I am asymptomatic?!), and the local-ish numbers (statistics) have just started now-ish to head in a “better” direction.

    The French vaccination roll-out has, to-date, been something of a disaster. Whilst I myself would probably be in the (next-to?) last tier to be vaccinated (due to general health and age) — which I am comfortable with — the rate of vaccinations is simply not at all acceptable. In the (roughly) six weeks since vaccination started, only slightly over 2m people(? jabs?) have been happened! (The US(!), in contrast, is now at over 1m a day!) The local vaccination centre only started this week (after two weeks of delay (long story)), and — per my current (possibly outdated / defective) understanding — the protocol is absurd: Make an appointment with your doctor to be lectured on why vaccination is a Good Thing. They then make an appointment for you with the vaccination centre. (Part of the problem is France is one of the most vaccine-hesitant countries, which (last poll I know of) only c.40% of adults saying they would get the vaccine.) Arrggghhhh!!!1!

  3. StevoR says

    Damn. That sucks. I’m sorry and, for whatever little its’worth, sending my best wishes for you and Tegan. Hope you both recover fully and quickly.

  4. says

    Fingers crossed for a mild case for both of you. My nephew’s girlfriend caught it at a hospital (she’s a nurse) but she had a mild case and he did not get it at all, although they live together. So there is hope for you both.
    The Czech government initially reacted nearly perfectly to the first wave, then got complacent and got caught by the second wave by surprise. The third wave started before the second one subsided and the fourth one seems to start now in the same way. right now. In a way, we went from among the best in the world to among the worst within a few months and now we are even worse off than the USA and just barely better than the UK.

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