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I masked, washed often and only associated with other immunized folk- -and tested positive for Covid 19 virus Friday night after a 13-day trip. She warned me. Healthcare people warned me. But not so persuasively that I tested regularly.
Mea culpa (a Latin way of saying, “I blew it”). She hasn’t left me (for worse), but we are now living together separately, just in time for Mother’s Day. Some present!
So, in my self-isolation at the other end of our house, I have the time needed to give our faithful readers the clearest advice. Ignore it at your peril and the peril of those you live with and meet. At least, read the boldface words.
Background: Being Modernaed twice and twice boosted, I got cocky. So did the people I went to golf school with, saw at three airports and on four planes, and multiple restaurants and convenience stores, and at a great family dinner. Twenty-one years of formal education apparently was not enough for me to be clear. I had faithfully followed the Internet and local sources of public health news and advice. Apparently, I–and the 45 people who reported recent infection in Cook County—needed more simple information, repeated in slogan form, in boldface type, over and over.
First, though, if you are not vaccinated, you are gambling with your life and those around you. You are lots more likely to die. If you don’t vaccinate on principle, I shall miss you.
Perhaps it will be useful to have a slogan as good as “One Moose Apart,” now in the Smithsonian collection. That worked well. Maybe Visit Cook County and this high-quality news rag will create a slogan contest. Here is my entry: “Test Early and Often.” Or maybe: “Tests: Avail or Fail.” Or maybe: “Covid tests: Not Just Good Advice.” Or: “Life is Tests: Here Are Better Instructions.”
After giving the headlines (in boldface), I will share some background that may help persuade some to avoid Covid stupidity and–forbid me–morbidity.
1. All those free self-administered Covid tests are to be used often, not just stored in case of symptoms or super spreader exposure. They take five minutes to use and 15 minutes to get the result.
2. Those tests are most useful before any event where more than two or three are gathered— and again after the event.
3. Any place people gather inside, or at close quarters, is some threat. That includes a bar, church, seminar, political meeting, airport, court, family party, etc., even if all are immunized and double boosted. Test before and after.
4. Playing outside is safer, but not a guarantee. Golf and outdoor pickleball are better than a noisy bar. But if you share a golf cart, be sure both have tested recently. And touch rackets, don’t high five. Self-test at least weekly if you aren’t a hermit.
5. It’s better to test too much than too little. A case of long Covid rarely can occur even if you are immunized and boosted and have no symptoms. You don’t want to deal with that. Search for “11 things Doctors want you to know about long Covid.”
6. Do not kiss or hug anyone if both of you have not tested weekly plus before and after spreading events.
Why bother? The necessary self-isolation is irksome, inconvenient, and lonely.
1. You stay as far apart from your spouse or housemate as you can. That means separate bedrooms and baths, if you have them. Stay out of the kitchen and living room.
2. Wearing the mask so much is itchy and pulls on the ears, especially if you have hearing aids, too.
3. Even if symptoms are mild or nonexistent, going where others are is dangerous and disrespectful. Your family and friends will have to do all the errands.
4. She prepares my food and delivers it to me at the opposite end of the house, with mask on. I like looking at her anyway. I thank her. It’s all I can get for her for Mother’s Day.
5. We watch Jeopardy and Britbox together, separately.
6. Even if you have just been apart for two weeks, isolation of 5-14 days is called for. The incubation period is up to 14 days—the little buggers lurk. So weekly testing is called for at least unless you are a hermit.
7. With lesser symptoms, you can still do physical work outside— alone. Yippee. Walk or run outside for exercise.
8. Use a separate door to enter your place if you have one. The whole point is to decrease viral load to which your housemates are exposed. And we isolators shed the virus all the time. Maybe our deck will become neutral space, One Moose Apart.
9. If you test positive, phone your Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Doctor (even on Saturday, thank you), who may give you a choice of pills or an injection. Three pills, twice a day, for five days, and hold the Statin, just to be safe. The pills say they are FDA approved on an emergency basis and are still being tested. They don’t know if it’s better to contain spread of infection, but it can’t hurt.
10. The family and friends you recently hugged may well forgive you, but do not expect it right away, especially if they test positive right after seeing you.
This column has been blunt and insultingly directive. Apparently, it is what my cocky self needed. Maybe some of our similarly cocky faithful readers will be rescued from “just in case” tests and avoid a case of Covid Stupid.
Testing is our friend until further public health notice.
Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, judge, and mediator, serving as judge from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Family Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses and has one. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without appointment by the Chief Justice. Bouquets and brickbats to the editor or stevealdrich41@gmail.com. Copyright Stephen C. Aldrich and News Herald, 2022
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