For my birthday, I got COVID

“During COVID,” people say, relegating to the past the period of lockdowns, masking, and horrific death statistics. Indeed, the US government declared the COVID-19 public health emergency over in May.

We think we’re past COVID until we get it.

 

I felt fine during Thanksgiving and the following weekend, when my sister joined me for a busy two days to observe my upcoming birthday. I then went out for dinner Sunday evening with a friend who also has a late November birthday. I’d just returned home when the shivers came on. Wanting only to crawl under blankets, I put off a COVID test until the next morning.

The chills were gone by the time I awoke, but I had congestion and a runny nose and felt dead tired. For the first time since the pandemic started, I had a positive COVID test. At least the symptoms had held off until bedtime on my birthday. 

The latest booster probably lessened the infection, but I still felt lousy enough to languish on the couch for five days. Coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose were bearable, but the overwhelming fatigue made me miserable.

Was there something that I could have done to prevent infection? 

 “Things like restaurant dining, movies, and concerts are optional, in my opinion,” infectious disease specialist Natascha Tuznik commented on a University of California, Davis, news site. I can’t agree; meeting friends across a dining table is one of my main pleasures. I was around a lot of strangers for the few days before symptoms appeared — on public transportation, in a theater, a museum, the zoo, and restaurants. These are part of the normal lives we’re supposedly back to living, and I was observing a milestone birthday.

Maybe I shouldn’t have put away the masks. Some public health specialists recommend continuing to mask in crowded indoor places. But with no underlying conditions, and with even my most cautious friends going unmasked, masking would have felt self-righteous.

Or maybe I should stop wondering where I picked up the virus and what I might do to prevent a reoccurrence — because it suggests I did something wrong. I’ve followed CDC recommendations since the pandemic was declared. Would I fault myself for getting the flu? 

COVID is a highly contagious, widely circulating virus that public health experts say almost none of us will escape. Some people will get it multiple times. I’ll keep up with the recommended vaccinations and hope for the best. Not everything in life is controllable.