The Pariah

Getting COVID in Today’s World

by Joni Johnson

This is a look at COVID and not only how it affects one physically, but more importantly how it affects one psychologically.

I went on a trip this summer to see Iceland via a Viking cruise, and then to spend another week in France visiting friends.  My brother, who lives in Seattle,  accompanied me on the cruise.  I wore a mask whenever I was with a group on a bus, or at the evening show, or anywhere at the airport or on a plane, other than those brief moments of eating or drinking.

Somewhere between leaving the cruise and arriving in France, I came down with COVID.  I am pretty sure I caught it during the cruise – maybe from the people coughing next to us as we sat down for our final meal.  I turned out to be contagious less than 24 hours after leaving the ship. This covid is very infectious!!!

This was not my first foray into the world of covid.  My first case was on another cruise, to the Galapagos in November of 2022.  So my wariness of cruises is increasing.  This time I felt prepared — I had gotten the latest vaccine in April, my doctor had ordered Paxlovid for me, and   I brought 6 test kits from the states, thanks to Amazon.  It really surprised me to come down with the disease.  My brother didn’t get it, and I had been masked for most of the important days. While we didn’t wear a mask when eating or wandering the ship, I did wear one on all bus excursions and in any kind of large group settings.

I flew from Iceland to France, and met my friend from Paris for a morning meal at the hotel at the airport.  That was only 24 hours after leaving the ship.  We spent an hour together eating and then some hugs.  That was Sunday morning. My friends from Brittany picked me up at the Brest Airport and  we were together in the car ride to Quimper plus a lovely walk around the town and a great Crepe dinner.  That was all it took.  Then, in the middle of Sunday night, I came down with many of the symptoms that I had the first time around.  I tested myself immediately and sure enough, there was that infamous red line shouting “COVID”.

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I called all my friends immediately and apprised them of the situation.  My friend from Paris was visiting a very sick sister,  and my two friends from Brittany were staying with their 88 year-old mother.  You can imagine how I felt about the possibility of having exposed them.  I was staying at a little air B&B and I had to tell my landlady  the problem as well.  She went on cheerily wearing a mask, taking care of me, feeding me and cleaning my room.  That was a mistake on her part.  She and all three of my friends caught COVID, but she was the last of the four to come down with the illness. Since she was masked, I had hopes that she would be OK.  But I think that maybe she was a little careless in washing hands, etc., after being in my room.

With Paxlovid, I felt really sick for two days (fever, malaise, stuffed nose, nausea and no appetite whatsoever).  The third day, I got dressed but still stayed in bed.  If I had been home, I might have wandered the hallways but that was it.  By the fourth day, I was ready to sightsee.  This was with Paxlovid.  My friend from Brittany was feeling ok too.  She did not use Paxlovid because it is difficult to get in France.  Neither did her companion.  He felt a little sicker, with a   fever that lasted three or four days.  But then he felt a lot better too.

But the worst part of COVID was the knowledge that I had infected three of my good friends and my landlady, two of them with aging and ill relatives with whom they were either living or visiting.

When I got COVID in 2022, not as much was known about the disease.  Three of the four people with whom I had been having regular dinners on the Galapagos cruise got it at the same time.  We were taken off the ship and brought to a hotel that took care of us for $400 per day apiece.  We had to see a doctor who had to certify that we had quarantined for 5 nights.  On the other hand, for this trip, we were all on our own. People are not checking.

The big difference for me is that I had no guilt in 2022.  This time, I was riddled with guilt. I felt like Typhoid Mary.  I almost thought about getting a t-shirt that said COVID JONI.  This guilt was without question the worst part about getting COVID again.  Without meaning to, I put people in danger and took away their freedom and health.  And even worse, I potentially got their loved ones sick as well.

So my biggest take-away from this experience is how people are treating the disease.  Almost no-one wears a mask any more.  I was one of just a few people that did.  But you can’t wear it all the time on board a cruise.  I wonder how many people knew they weren’t a hundred percent well and yet were willing to infect others with no thoughts of the consequences because they were only thinking about themselves.

I know we are being careful on campus.  People are quarantining when coming back home from a vacation.  We should be so grateful to these people who are trying to protect us.  We are a family.  So we must thank them for staying separate for a period of time.  Without their concern, we would be a scary fish-tank of illnesses.

The FDA just approved a new vaccine covering the strains of COVID that are out now.  I suggest that you get vaccinated as soon as you can. It is so contagious.  We certainly don’t want to give up travelling.  But taking care of others as well as yourself should be a foregone conclusion.