After two years of pandemic living, following generally accepted guidelines for social distancing, and getting vaccinated, COVID-19 finally broke through my defenses earlier this month. I tested positive, my diagnostic confirmation arriving without fanfare via text from a lab.
I haven't had the flu for over 20 years (yes, I've been counting), and I'm vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, so I expected mild symptoms, and a return to feeling normal within a few days. Regrettably, it wasn't that simple.
While I did have mild symptoms, I had every single one of them, including congestion, cough, low-grade fever, and fatigue. Let's just say the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
I'm left to wonder what it would have been like without being vaccinated. No doubt worse, maybe not hospital-worthy, but who knows? I'm in reasonably good shape for my age, not overweight, no hypertension or other comorbidities, and COVID-19 sucked. More than a week later I still have a very minor cough with congestion, and my energy isn't entirely back.
Now, however, I mainly feel resentment, specifically towards the unvaccinated.
I realize everyone reacts differently to COVID-19. I also realize that unvaccinated people over 50 with other health concerns have a much higher probability of being hospitalized with it and dying from it. Yet most of them aren’t taking even the simplest precautions.
They are taking unnecessary and uncompensated risks. Unfortunately, some of that risk is transferred to vaccinated folks like me. Without them as science-denying hosts, COVID-19 would have nowhere to go, and there would be no variants to keep attacking everyone else.
If they’d get a couple of free shots and show some concern for others, I probably wouldn’t have gotten sick. What’s not to resent about that?
My wish for them is that one day, COVID-19 holds them accountable in a way that doesn't affect those in the vaccinated world.
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