I’m an old union guy and a left-leaning Democrat.
Heretofore, I’ve confined my evangelical ardor to the labor movement and politics. I’m adding COVID-19 to that list because my wife, Melinda, and I are among the lucky survivors.
I don’t get people who won’t mask, socially distance, sanitize and wash their hands, and avoid crowded places.
Some of them are partial to wacko, conspiratorial flights of fantasy. They claim COVID and the pandemic is a hoax gotten up by “Deep State” Democrats.
“You wait and see,” said a Trump fan in my neck of the woods last October. “You won’t hear a word about COVID after the election.”
Some Trumpers do wear masks. But a lot of them still don’t, evidently out of some cult-like sense of loyalty to Trump, who refused to wear a mask, made fun of those who did, dove into crowds and got COVID. (He beat the virus thanks to top-notch medical care at Walter Reed National Medical Center (socialized medicine!) that’s unavailable to most of the rest of us.)
Still others whose politics lean rightward and libertarian protest that having to wear a mask, violates their “constitutional rights.” Constitutional rights end when they do harm to others, actual or seriously potential. For example, local, state and federal authorities — all freely elected — have banned smoking in public places for obvious health reasons.
Would these anti-maskers also say that government-mandated licenses to drive a car, fly a plane, or wire a house violate “constitutional rights?”
Some far-right-wing, Trump-tilting Kentucky Republicans are using the same bogus “you’re-violating-my-rights” argument to coax the Ever-Trumpist GOP supermajority legislature to impeach Gov. Andy Beshear ostensibly over his executive orders to slow the spread of COVID-19. (Let’s be frank. They hate Beshear because he’s a moderate Democrat, and he voted for Biden to boot.)
Never mind that Beshear was freely elected, and that the state Supreme Court ruled that his actions were constitutional. Forget that his aim is to save lives.
Playing politics with your health is just plain dumb. Scorning proven medically-sound precautions against COVID is also the epitome of selfishness — which the Good Book warns against time and again — because such irresponsible behavior is potentially lethal to others. If you’ve got it and don’t mask, you can give it to others.
COVID-19 or its complications have killed more than 400,000 — and counting — of our fellow citizens. The death toll is fast approaching the total number of Americans killed in World War II.
For weeks after the pandemic hit, I didn’t know anybody who had COVID. But as soon as it hit, Melinda and I started masking, social distancing, and slathering on the hand sanitizer or washing our hands. We shunned movie houses, restaurants (except takeout), parks, ballgames and other places — indoors and out — where crowds gathered.
We got COVID anyway. We have no idea how or when.
It flattened us for 10 days. We’ve never been sicker in our lives – I’m 71; Melinda’s 64.
We ached all over. We shivered with chills. We had a dry-hacking cough. Getting up and walking around the house was a slog. Melinda lost her sense of smell and taste.
It could have been worse – a lot worse. We had little or no fever. We got one of those blood oxygen-level testing gizmos. We stayed in the normal range.
We were able to whip COVID at home with vitamin C and D3, zinc, aspirin, and gallons of water and orange juice. A prescription Z-pack helped me.
All the while, we remembered the warning from the physician’s assistant when she told us we had tested positive: “If you have even the slightest lung issue, go to the hospital immediately.” Thankfully, we had only runny noses in the respiratory department.
We’re retired teachers with no medical background. But we wondered if the precautions we took were the key to our having comparatively mild cases of COVID – compared to ending up in a hospital ICU hooked up to a ventilator.
Turns out, we were right.
“It’s likely that face masks, by blocking even some of the virus-carrying droplets you inhale, can reduce your risk of falling seriously ill from COVID-19, according to Monica Gandhi, MD, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco,” says a story on the UCSF website. Gandhi added, “The more virus you get into your body, the more sick you are likely to get.
“Masks can prevent many infections altogether, as was seen in health care workers when we moved to universal masking. We’re also saying that masks, which filter out a majority of viral particles, can lead to a less severe infection if you do get one.”
We were diagnosed on Dec. 18, shortly after we moved from Mayfield, the Graves County seat, to Arlington in Carlisle County, where Melinda grew up.
COVID is still hitting close to home for us. A Paducah couple in their 80s — longtime friends of ours — died of Covid complications. So did the husband of Melinda’s cousin here in Arlington. Her cousin got COVID, too. So did Melinda’s brother, sister-in-law and nephew.
Melinda and I are almost back to full speed – a relative term for a pair of senior citizens. Though we seem to be in the clear — knock wood — we think every day about what might have been. That’s plenty scary.
Along those lines, I remember that as a kid, I asked my father, a World War II Navy combat veteran of the Pacific theater, if he was ever scared in battle.
“In battle, you’re too busy doing what you’re supposed to do to get scared,” he replied. “You get scared afterwards when you realize what could have happened to you.”
So it was — and still is — with us and COVID.
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A postscript: We’re still masking, social distancing, sanitizing and washing our hands, and spurning crowds as we await our vaccinations. Melinda, who still substitute teaches, gets her first-round jab Friday. I’m on the geezers-over-70 vaccination list at the Graves County health department in Mayfield.
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