Sunday, April 24, 2022

3 takeaways from having covid-19

I had a mild case of covid-19 this past week. I was stuck at home for a week. I'm fine now. There are 3 thoughts I take away from the experience:

(1) I was glad I'm someone who buys extras of things like food. Some people will act like you're being ridiculous if you stock up, but they're being short-sighted. Sometimes you won't realize what a good idea it was until after you've done it. (See Gretchen Rubin on "over-buyers" vs. "under-buyers.")

(2) I'm part of New York's current increase in covid, which seems to be resulting from covid measures being loosened in the state: people are going around without masks a lot more, restaurants aren't checking if people are vaccinated, etc. This has been leading to more hospitalizations, and if that keeps going up it could prevent people from getting medical treatment even for things that have nothing to do with covid.

(3) I'm so glad I'm vaccinated and boosted! That likely kept my illness as mild as it was — similar to a cold. It's amazing that we live in a time when so much progress on a pandemic is being made so quickly. In past pandemics, it's sometimes taken years before they even figured out what virus was killing people! No other vaccine has ever been developed so soon after a virus was discovered. People get frustrated at the lack of perfect consistency, total certainty, or 100% effectiveness. But that's what science is always like — it's never perfect. We're just not used to living through the scientific process in real time, with this much scrutiny and so much at stake. We should be grateful for what we have, and use it well.

7 comments:

Sprezzatura said...

I get your second and third points, but I don’t get the first.

With grocery and restaurant delivery services why did you need to stockpile food and stuff?

Obviously other catastrophes could require a bunch of supplies, but that’s not you with Covid in NY. IMHO.

John Althouse Cohen said...

But I wasn't allowed to interact with anyone or even open my door.

Scott X said...

This is the third consecutive spring that New York has a had seasonal triggering of increased Covid-19 infections. It's the seasonal triggering of the virus that has played the greatest role in your becoming infected, not the loosening of the mostly theatrical mitigation efforts.

I was 54 years old when I caught a very mild case of Covid-19 in November 2020. I had a sore throat for less than a day, and a very slight cough for a couple of days. No vaccine and I still had a very mild case of Covid-19. The overwhelming majority of people who become infected with the virus will never know that they are infected, or they will have an outcome similar to mine.

I'm glad you are doing well, but I'm guessing it's your age and general good health that has played the greatest role in your successful Covid-19 outcome.

Sprezzatura said...

To me it’s hard to imagine being stuck at home for a week w/o ever leaving, or even opening my door.

WTF did you do?

It seems like your experience re what you did for a week while you were locked in could be the most interesting takeaway from your Covid thingy, rather than the three points that were identified in this post.

IMHO.

BTW do you know a Chris S. that has been in Brooklyn but is now moving to London? Last week I came really close to buying his 911, but then it didn’t work out, which was the correct outcome. On the rebound from not buying that car, yesterday I bid up to $13,250 for a pair of seats at BaT, but those seats sold for $27,000. So then I found a similar pair online for more than $14,000, so I bought those. At that website the pictures of the seats were shit and I tested the site by putting in four for the quantity and the website did accept that quantity. Plus on the order form I put in that I need seats for a 1968. The seller’s website was ready to take my money for four sport seats for a ‘68. I’m not sure that they really have two of these seats, not to mention the odds that they have four. Still I put in my credit card numbers to buy two seats and it went through. When they open on Monday I’ll call them to see what’s what.

https://sierramadrecollection.com/911-912-65-73-/Interior-Upholstery/Seats/Original-Recaro-Sport-Seat-911-65-73-p54461.html

Anywho, the point is that if I was locked in my house for a week I’d probably buy a lot of stuff online. Presumably you were less pathetic.

Anyanywho, don’t hesitate to delete my comment rather than letting it go through. I’m sure I’m junking up your blog with my crazy comment. Annoying commenter is as annoying commenter does.

John Althouse Cohen said...

To me it’s hard to imagine being stuck at home for a week w/o ever leaving, or even opening my door.

I should've mentioned that I live in an apartment building in NYC. If I had opened my door I would've been knowingly exposing people to covid.

WTF did you do?

My job!

Curious George said...

How do you know you had COVID?

John Althouse Cohen said...

Multiple positive tests.