MAY 22 — I tested positive for Covid for the second time, which is mildly amusing to me as I’m pretty sure I got it when going out to get, of all things, medication.
“Only your second time?”
Some people might think it is not such a big deal but seeing how much havoc it waged on my body the first time around, I am not looking forward to any possible lingering effects.
The clue that it was a Covid infection for me was when I was producing a ridiculous amount of snot to the point I felt like I was drowning in it.
Then I remembered the last time I felt this way was the first time I had Covid.
At least this time around I’m more prepared.
I have fever patches, which I probably won’t use as I only have a low-grade fever, ibuprofen for the inflammation and nasal irrigation salts to indulge in that wonderful activity that is shooting up water up my nose.
I say “wonderful” when I really mean “disgusting and uncomfortable”.
The thing is that I still mask but very few people do so now, which is a shame I think.
Still that wouldn’t be an issue if proper ventilation standards were practised.
At the moment I feel there isn’t much effort put into cleaning air indoors but I do wish that it would become normalised for people to mask up if they insist on going out in public while sick.
However, we are back to the days when people were coughing and sneezing openly outdoors without bothering to cover their mouths, even on public transport.
The pandemic is still here but why do we pretend the disease isn’t still lingering in corners, and causing long-term disability?
Why has the government pretty much given up on procuring new Covid-19 vaccine jabs?
I think the answer is that for most people, Covid is a problem that happens to other people.
Yet the World Health Organization (WHO) has already sounded the alarm about bird flu crossing over to humans, spreading through, of all things, milk.
We could already have been ready — with ventilation standards for public spaces and workplaces and a population not averse to risk mitigations.
Instead it feels like the world has gone insane; children are dying of measles and whooping cough because adults have decided that natural immunity is the way to go and if people die, well, it’s just Nature culling the weakest.
I’m just annoyed that I’ve managed to stay mostly healthy all year but all it takes is one trip to the mall to pick up a side of potentially disabling disease along with my allergy pills (which I have needed to take daily thanks to my first infection).
People need to understand that public health is not an individual responsibility and until more people realise that, we are doomed when the next pandemic comes around for which, it seems, it is only a matter of time.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
