Voolavex

Long Haul Covid March 24, 2021

This is a story shared by my friend on FB. The story is Wendy’s. 

Wendy. Your story is the one that should be emphasized.  Not the “I feel great”.  “Covid is nothing to worry about”. stories .

WORRY.  Be very afraid and those who consider themselves above, beyond or better than Covid need to take a long look at “Long Haul Covid”.  This Covid should NOT BE KEPT SECRET.  The global body count should not be kept secret..The ‘snap-back’ and ‘carry-on’ stories may engender hope, but it is NOT all there is .  There is a stark, sad and very present reality in Wendy’s and Sandy’s messages.  One that is casually dispensed with “That can’t happen to me”.  And Wendy and all the people who have suffered as Wendy has, need to step back and realize this. 

The morons everywhere, but most recently in Miami Beach, are now super spreaders and they may be responsible for untold deaths . They have neither the sense nor the experience to even consider this. And yet they bear the reality of becoming killers.  Or dead.

I lived through years of polio.  I was fortunate not to have ever contracted it, but fear was the main reason.  Parents feared for their children. Families and strangers feared for everyone.  Parents believed IT COULD happen and therefore the did not take the risk.  The myriad ways you could become infected – true and false – were all considered possible and so we did NOT swim or go to the beach or play with others; we did not share soft drinks or ice cream cones or candy bars. We did not touch money or utensils or RISK IT!   And NOT just for one summer or one year. It took years.

When Salk created the first vaccine we lined up in droves to be immunized.  And when Sabin created yet another vaccine, we lined up again. I did for both. Neither took a sou or a shilling or penny or kopek from either discovery.  Each man GAVE it humanity. The Nobel Prize is an honor and a monetary gift and while it does endow a winner with some money and much fame – it also recognizes and compensates for struggles and time and energy to achieve such a status. And soon the iron lung began to disappear and kids were let run and play. Another kind of normal came into existence.

And now we have Covid-19. But now we are too damned arrogant and smarter than than our old, parents and grand parents, who had enough sense to be cautious and careful and patient.  We have had one short year of Covid.  Polio existed for a long time.  People died or were paralyzed (including a US president) or spent their lives in machines so they could simply breathe with the loud whoosh of a machine as the sound that never stopped? 

Isn’t there a message in any of this?  Why are we so smug. 

Thank you Sandy – as always a voice of reason and sense. And to Wendy.  I have no words  – you know them all.  My heart hurts for your suffering.