Tag: COVID-19

Posted in writing

The Covid Experience

Posted on by MichelleMcHatton

Two-and-a-half years into the Covid pandemic and not a hint of a cold from anyone in my family and BOOM! One little birthday party with three extended family members and the ENTIRE clan now has Covid.

Monday night my daughter was complaining of a sore throat. She thought it was from shaved ice that she had. Didn’t think much about it. Tuesday morning I wake up with a sore throat and so does my husband. We pull out the at-home Covid tests that have been sitting in our linen closet since who-knows-when. Found two that were not expired. My husband tested positive instantly. His lines were so pink, if it were a pregnancy test, he’d be pregnant. Mine was negative. So was my daughter’s.

At this point in the story it’s important to know that my husband has Multiple Sclerosis. He’s had it for over 30 years. So I told him he should get re-tested at CVS, as I know the at-home tests are about as reliable as a piece of shit (and I’ve never known a piece of shit to be reliable) plus I’m negative and so is our daughter. So he goes to CVS Tuesday afternoon. Negative. Interesting. So who do you believe? At home not reliable or CVS not reliable?

Fast forward to three hours later. My husband is flat on his ass with flu-like symptoms. I’ve seen this before when he has had the flu, except not this bad. Chills. Body aches. Sore throat. No cough. Fever. No runny nose. Hurts to move. Can’t lift his head. Feels best to just lie still. That’s different from when he had the flu. So maybe at-home test was right and that leaves me doubting CVS forever.

Wednesday we all went to ReadyMed to get tested. Or I should say I took my husband and daughter to ReadyMed to get tested. And sure enough, they both have Covid. I can only assume I have Covid as my throat feels like sandpaper and I’m developing a cough. They have no qualms about giving my daughter Paxlovid. My husband initially refuses it, as he’s heard about the re-bound it can cause (although the med provider at the facility said that only happens to people over 65. Right). Anyway, he changes his mind and they tell him he needs to be tested for kidney function. I’m baffled by this, as they readily just gave it to a 17-year-old. What about her kidney function? From what I can gather in Google searches (and there isn’t much), I guess it has something to do with age. So by now it’s too late to go back to ReadyMed to get tested for kidney function so I have to take my husband there on Thursday. Keep in mind, with us having Covid (and I’m assuming I have it at this point as well), we really should not be leaving the house and my husband can barely walk without help. So I drag him back to ReadyMed, takes the blood test, don’t hear anything until Friday morning. Oh, we have to check and see if it interacts with your Tegretol. Fine. It does not but it is suggested he take Lagevrio instead. So he has started on that.

Fast forward to today, Sunday. My husband is finally starting to get up and about, even watching TV while sitting up. My daughter is still coughing a lot and is taking a prescribed medication for that. Only two more days of the Paxlovid for her. We’re going to try an inhaler, as she says her chest hurts and I’m probably going to call the pediatrician tomorrow. As for me, my voice now sounds like a cross between Kathleen Turner and Brenda Vaccaro, maybe even a touch of Adele. And I’ve never smoked in my life. And the sneezes I’m experiencing have literally knocked my socks off.

Over the past week we’ve pondered where we could have gotten Covid from. The three of us hardly go anywhere. We work from home. My daughter studies from home. Except for a weekly trip to the store and maybe an appointment here and there (the week following Labor Day had none so we didn’t go anywhere), we are homebodies. And when we do go out we all wear masks. However, the one place we don’t wear masks is in our own home. Even with people from the outside coming in. Which is what happened last Sunday. Three people from the outside came in. And I’m not pointing fingers but one of them works in a grocery store and the other one has a child who just went back to elementary school just before Labor Day. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. At. The. Party. Got. Covid. We had the party on Sunday and by Tuesday we were all testing positive. So my theory? The one place we were not wearing masks (home) is where we got it from because someone from the outside (one of three or maybe all three–who knows) brought it to the party. And they probably didn’t even know they had it. But I guess it doesn’t matter where we got it from. The point is, we got it. And if I have to go back to the way it was in 2020 when people came to my house (we would wear masks), then so be it. Because I don’t plan on going through this again. Especially with my husband.

We’re on the mend from Covid. Wherever that may lead us.

Posted in writing

Around and around

Posted on by MichelleMcHatton

How many more variants is it going to take for the world to learn that without continuous and consistent prevention, i.e., vaccinations, masks, social distancing, etc., we are nothing but a dog chasing its tail. And we’re never going to catch it. The tail, that is. Covid we’ll have no problem catching. We’re already pros at it.

Posted in writing

Ominous Omicron

Posted on by MichelleMcHatton

We blinked and a new coronavirus variant is upon us. And we know it won’t be the last. But Omicron is the latest and will probably be the one with us through 2022. So buckle up, get vaccinated and keep your facemasks on. You thought 2020 was bad? I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet, folks.

The emergence of Omicron has given the medical world stronger standing on pushing for the booster vaccination shots. Which may be all fine and dandy for some but it’s really left me with a lot of questions at this point. Which really causes me to hesitate in getting a booster shot myself.

First they kept telling the 65+ population to get the booster shots. Then, in my state, at least, they said, nope, now anyone 18+ can get it. But I’m still wondering when you’re going to let my 16-year-old get it. Her last vaccination shot was in May, so it’s been six months and she’s clearly eligible. Oh, but she’s not 18. Yet I remember all the harking on getting the 12-17 year-olds vaccinated. But now they can’t get booster shots?

And what are you going to do about the 5-11 year-olds once they become eligible for booster shots? When are you going to allow children under five to get vaccinated? They will surely become the first victims of Omicron.

And the question still remains: what happens when the boosters wear off? Because you, I, the CDC, the FDA, Dr. Fauci and the lamppost all know it’s only going to be a matter of time before they will.

It’s no surprise to me that Omicron has come for a visit. It’s no surprise to me that it has become a “variant of concern”. We should all be concerned about Omicron and any other variant that emerges.

Your best bet? Don’t plan on going to many places, stay home as much as possible and when you do venture out, wear your damn facemask. At the rate the world is going, we’ll be wearing those for the next fifty years. The days of living your life without a facemask, especially in a medical setting, are over.

Posted in writing

A Mask For You, A Mask For Me

Posted on by MichelleMcHatton

The CDC is a laugh a minute.

Two months ago it was “okay, vaccinated folks, whip off those masks and party hearty. But not you unvaccinated assholes, although we’ll turn a blind eye while you whip yours off too. Have fun! Especially when Delta gets you! PS: but if you’re on any public transportation or in a medical facility, you still have to wear a mask, no matter what. But it’s okay if you’re at a bar or a concert with 50,000 other fools. No masks needed”.

Now Delta has us, and the CDC, after much pressure and having wasted precious time, has issued new “guidance” that now vaccinated folks must wear masks, but only “when in areas with ‘substantial’ and ‘high’ transmission of Covid-19, which includes nearly two-thirds of all US counties.” Interestingly enough they didn’t mention unvaccinated people in this statement. Also, do most people know if their area is an area with “substantial” and “high” transmission? Do most people even give a fuck? I can assure you the unvaccinated ones don’t. So, it really wouldn’t shock me, with the stupidity of many people, that they would believe this statement says only the vaccinated need to wear masks and not the unvaccinated.

Today Walensky had the audacity to say the following: “In recent days I have seen new scientific data from recent outbreak investigations showing that the Delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause Covid-19,” HOLY FUCK! Ladies and Gents, your “head” of the CDC! Where has this bitch been for the past umpteenth months? Living under a fucking ROCK?????????? Has she not seen what has happened in India and the UK? That a fucking woman Down Under caught it from a person who just passed her by and didn’t even touch her???? Based on this crock that she “just” discovered this data the other day, when most of us have known it since before she declared “no masks” (and we all know she has known it too), she should pack her fucking bags and resign.

Instead of the CDC pussyfooting around and trying to save what little reputation they have left (which isn’t much), why don’t they just fucking say what they’re going to be saying sooner than later anyway:

EVERYONE PUT THE GODDAMN MASKS BACK ON NO MATTER WHAT THE FUCK YOUR STATUS IS, NO MATTER WHERE THE FUCK YOU LIVE!!!! BECAUSE DELTA IS HERE AND IT’S GOING TO BE HERE FOR A GOOD LONG WHILE!!!! ALONG WITH ANY OTHER VARIANTS THAT COME ALONG!!! IN FACT, DON’T BE SURPRISED IF YOU’RE WEARING MASKS FOR THE NEXT FIVE YEARS!!!!!! PS: YOUR VACCINES AREN’T GOING TO LAST FOREVER!!!!

At least they got the K-12 school thing right. Wouldn’t it only make fucking sense that all students wear masks, especially since a good percentage of them can’t even be vaccinated yet?

Posted in writing

What Happened To Being In This Together?

Posted on by MichelleMcHatton

The other day the CDC director declared that, because of the current rising of COVID-19 cases in the United States, the virus is “becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated”. She is very far from the truth.

The pandemic hasn’t changed. It’s always been there. It’s just changed variants. Also, the pandemic has always affected everyone. Only a year ago we were singing along to “We’re All In This Together” because we were in it together. And even then we weren’t because there were your “the virus is a hoax” people and your anti-maskers. But there were more of us than there were of them. Now with the creation of a vaccine and a mix of people either getting vaccinated or not getting vaccinated, the rise of cases in both unvaccinated and vaccinated people, the CDC and others, probably in frustration, because, hey, they actually believed everyone was going to get the vaccine, are pointing the finger at the unvaccinated.

Saying that what we are going through has become a pandemic of the unvaccinated is an unfair statement. Considering there are many people who have no choice but to not get vaccinated. Such as children under age 12. You want to blame the over 10,000 babies born every day in the United States for being unvaccinated? And don’t say infants don’t get the virus because they do. And how about the many adults who, for one reason or another, usually a medical one, have been advised to not get vaccinated. Such as this woman.

I know there are the regular people out there who could get vaccinated but won’t for their own personal reasons: it’s too new, it’s not FDA approved, it’ll magnetize me, Bill Gates will be able to watch me sleeping, whatever. That’s their choice. Just as it was the choice of many people to get vaccinated.

The problem really didn’t start with the choice of people either getting vaccinated or not. It started in May when the CDC director said that vaccinated people could go maskless. I really think it was her roundabout way to try to get the unvaccinated vaccinated. It was nice of her to have so much faith in humanity but she should’ve known better. Because what she did was give a free pass to everyone. And now, two months later, here we are with Delta cases going up and up all over the country, with no end in sight. We have an Olympics game about to start in a country that is under an emergency state due to Covid. And at this count, at least three athletes in the Olympic village have tested positive. And the games haven’t even begun yet.

In getting back to the masks for a minute, I always found it interesting how the CDC declared that masks must still be worn in a medical setting as well as on public transportation such as planes, buses, trains, taxis, etc. If they need to be worn in those settings, why shouldn’t they be worn in any setting? In essence the CDC is telling us it’s okay to go to that concert and stand in that crowded pit without a mask, mingle with the two people closest to you in that pit, but then when you get on a plane with those same two people and sit next to them, you need to wear a mask. That makes no sense.

I don’t feel this pandemic has become one just for the unvaccinated. It’s everyone’s problem. And Facebook isn’t to blame either because (1) you can block misinformation sites and (2) I know several unvaccinated people who don’t even use Facebook. I think the first blame lies with the CDC. I just think the CDC is using the unvaccinated as an excuse for their poor judgement in letting the masks go. How else do you explain so many vaccinated people getting infected? Other than maybe the vaccines aren’t as effective as we were told.