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Dateline: At the corner of boredom and uncertainty.
Do I have covid again? That’s a good question, and certainly not one that’s easy to answer. On “pro” side, there are some inconvenient facts. Like Mexico is in the middle of a covid outbreak that just recently surpassed last summer’s peak. That’s when I got covid the first time. Since I’m not a complete idiot, I stopped riding public transit about three weeks ago as the numbers began to rise. While I wasn’t particularly worried about covid, I didn’t particularly want to get it either. I don’t really know where I got it last year, but the fully-masked public transit seemed like as good a bet as any. Oh, and that was back when I thought that getting vaccinated would make a difference too. Ha!
The other “pros” to my thesis of having covid are that I have all the symptoms: fatigue; cough; runny nose; sneezing; itchy throat. Of course allergies could explain all those too, but I don’t have allergies. Tuesday, when my symptoms suddenly manifested themselves, I also had a headache. But it diminished by the end of the day. Was the headache covid? Or was it just the result of a too-strong Rob Roy the night before combined with too little hydration? Who knows? Rob Roy-induced headaches aren’t exactly unknown in these parts.
The symptoms came on rather suddenly. As I say, I already had the headache when I went to let in the electricians on Tuesday morning. While walking back, I suddenly felt very tired, which was odd because it was only about 10:00 AM. After I got home, I realized that I had had a bit of a dry cough, but so little that I didn’t even think about it. Within about a half hour, I had blown my nose three or four times, which is unusual for me, a non-allergy sufferer. So I looked up Omicron symptoms, and there was the checklist of what I had been feeling.
I messaged “Carlos,” my BF who had only just recovered from covid. “You should just cancel your appointments and rest,” he said. I did just that. He also helpfully added that I now had a 50% higher chance of dying since this is my second covid. “I’m going to die anyway,” I thought, but didn’t say anything. My friend and upstairs neighbor picked up some groceries for me and left them at the front door.
By the end of the day, the headache was gone, but I was definitely coughing and blowing my nose. I had no fever, though. I was still tired and mainly just watched YouTube videos. Yesterday I felt about the same, minus the headache, thank God! I did have a moment of mild fever (99.7°), but I attribute that to having walked over to let in the electricians. I took my temperature upon returning. I worried about re-losing my sense of smell, but that fortunately didn’t happen. In some sense I still have “long covid” from the last time as my sense of smell has never fully recovered. Oh sure, it’s sensitive, but many things don’t smell the same, notably cologne, coffee, and the kinds of sweet, artificial smells that get put into cleaning products. Fortunately this isn’t a big deal. But if I worked in the perfume industry, my career would likely be over.
So where did I get it? Who knows? Carlos had it for about 10 days, theoretically ending on Friday when he tested negative. But it was a rapid test, not terribly sensitive. Then he spent Saturday night with me where I had plenty of opportunity to be infected. I don’t regret it. It also could have come from my landlord, Rafael, who swore he only had “the flu,” but I’m pretty skeptical of that diagnosis. But I only saw Rafael a couple of times outdoors and kept my distance. And it’s not like I’ve had much of a social life. Prior to Saturday, I had hardly seen anyone, save for the electricians and a couple of cocktails with Carole upstairs. I walk everywhere, or take an Über with all the windows open. So file this under “mysteries.”
Today? I’m basically fine. Yeah, still a little tired. Yeah, still with a little bit of a scratchy throat. No fever though. I still haven’t gotten a test. What’s the point? I’m isolating anyway, and there’s no medical intervention that I don’t already have in my medicine cabinet. Besides I don’t feel like schlepping the mile up to Farmacia San Pablo, waiting in line for 45 minutes, then another 45 for a result, potentially exposing plenty of folks along the way.
So here I am, a healthy sixty-something, isolating with a basically a cold. As the public health establishment shakes with fear, plotting more vaccine mandates, masking requirements, and basically a rerun of all the stuff that didn’t work the first time around. All for a new disease that’s exactly as described above: near-fatal. Oh joy!
El Gringo Suelto 
I am finally pulling my head out of the ground. After looking around, it appears that little has changed. I do wish you a speedy recovery.
I will call in the near future. I have some new family developments.
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Hola Steve,
I think at this point I’m fully recovered. That said, I haven’t gone to get a test. But it’s hard to imagine I’m still positive. I only had a couple of days where I felt notably sick. I hope you’re well. Thanks for the comment and saludos!
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Right on the money. Two vaccine shots prevented NADA as me and my hubby both came down with this crud, not once but twice. Hubby had developed extreme body tiredness as well hives all over his body and it took weeks to manage those. He still has to nap two hours after he wakes up, disrupting our lives mucho. Now apparently the new BA-5 Covid transition is way more spreadable? Wtf? I do not have any trust in medical COVID policies, and I’m not taking any more shots. I’m done. I hope you feel better! I’m staying inside, here in Jocotepec Mexico. Crossing my fingers and toes.
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Hola Jenn,
Yeah, a year ago it looked like the vaccines might prevent transmission. Now there’s some evidence that it’s the opposite. I got the first shot, but no more. A good friend got the early strain of covid during Xmas 2020. He also had hives, but fortunately they healed completely. I’m better every day, though I never felt all that bad. A little fatigue and scratchy throat. It’s hard to stay home, hehe. Thanks for your comment & cheers!
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At the very beginning of this pandemic before they had even proposed using the term I felt a coldness in my gut. Fortunately neither of us got the original infection unlike so many unfortunate souls who perished.
My dear old dad was born in 1919, half his family were wiped out by the Spanish flu. He was the second youngest of thirteen. My Mum and one of her sisters both caught TB, her sister died at only twenty one. One of the reasons that large swaths of people died from both the Spanish flu and TB were due to too many people living in close proximity in poverty and in poor health, the disease passed from Billy to Jack in no time wiping out a whole generation. Of course we all know this now but this is old history outside recent memory for most and not generally known by the luckless few who may have read it in Readers Digest in a doctors waiting room..
As the world dealt with this infection most of us could only look on in disbelief with the way the US were dealing with the virus. But enough has been said about that and the great pretender and we must look forward now as the virus mutates and hopefully will fizzle out into a lesser infection. Usually virii of this nature have a two year cycle and will gradually recede. It is said that traces of the Spanish flu are still floating around in the winter flu but naturally enough it has somewhat dissipated in the intervening years.
As regards the way the CDC are dealing with it I feel that they’ve lost control. Pfizer et al have drunk from the golden goblet and are milking the system dry. The biogiants are steering the ship to enormous wealth and the hoi polloi are at their mercy. The ‘resident of the last administration gave them a bottomless pit to draw from and sadly the view from here is that the majority of the government has been bought and paid off, so little control if any from that lot!
For many years the CDC was a beacon respected the world over, now it has been gutted and is rudderless in a sea of misinformation. It will be many years before it recovers if ever and in the meantime who knows what will happen. Trust is hard gained and once it’s lost it may not recover.
As regards the present administration all they can do is follow the CDC’s recommendations, it is their guiding light and they are still trying to untangle the last governments attempt at selling off the country and it’s assets to China and Russia.
My youngest son got the virus at the very beginning of this pandemonium. He felt so sick he thought he would die. The doctors of course didn’t know what to think and treated him for pneumonia. After six or eight weeks he slowly recovered although months later it was still lingering. Recently he succumbed again but it was to a lesser degree and he recovered within two weeks or so. He still said he wouldn’t wish it on his worst critic. My oldest son’s g/f picked it up a month ago, she too recovered after a period of discomfort and appears to be back to normal but with a slight shortness of breath. I heard recently that Dr. Fauci recently had picked up the virus himself after avoiding it for so long, hopefully he will recover without too many ill effects. Looks like a case of doctor treat thyself.
So it would appear that you too dear sir are on the mend and ongoing repairs to Chez Kim will continue with more tales from the crypt coming soon!
(Rubbing hands with glee)
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Hola Colm,
You write, “[Covid] hopefully will fizzle out into a lesser infection. I think it already has. While cases are off the charts, deaths are only inching up. And we still don’t have very good or clear statistics about dying “with” or “of” covid. What we do know is that in the past 6 months, the American authorities, at least, have admitted that may of the deaths “of” were more probably “with.” And yes, there are folks who are uniquely vulnerable. That’s the case with all infectious diseases. But in general, what covid is today is not something we should all be particularly worried about. Yes, if you have co-morbidities. Othewise it has mutated into something quite mild.
I just came back from 3 hours of working in the house. So I’m not exactly at death’s door. Yesterday I’d have been too tired for that, but today, aside from an itchy throat, I’m fine. Now it’s possible I didn’t have covid at all. But it seems quite likely that’s what I have. Anyway, let’s hope you’re right and we’re in the tail end of it. Personally I think it’s now endemic and we’ll have it forever. Let’s just hope it doesn’t mutate into something more virulent because if that happens, we’re screwed.
Cheers and thanks for the comment!
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Colm: P.S. You should really read the article Michael linked to. It’s appalling.
https://www.commonsense.news/p/us-public-health-agencies-arent-following
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Yes I had a look at it and it is appalling, but what can you do? Misinformation abounds, the old adage “Doctors differ and patients die” still applies.
They are offering us here an updated measure of the elixir for the upcoming winter edition starting in August for 60’s plus but have introduced one for the young ones with 1/8 dose from Moderna. Natural immunity kept us all going through our various lives, the majority of us caught bugs of varying strengths but survived. The big issue in my mind is that you can’t trust the people you should to be able to trust. We had a family doctor who had specialized in infectious diseases in darkest Africa. He was very wary of a lot of the modern medicines available today many unproven yet promoted enmasse with samples..
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I know one thing. I ain’t getting no more steenking covid shots. I got two, which I think now were next to useless. My next vaccine will be the annual one I get for the seasonal flu. Now that’s something you do not want to catch.
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Hola Michael,
Well, I hate to break it to you, but over the last 20-30 years, the USA has gone from giving 10-20 million flu shots annually to 200 million. Guess what’s happened to flu incidence? Absolutely nothing. The best that can be said about these annual flu shots is that they are harmless. Preventing flu? Not so much.
As for covid boosters, I’m in your camp. The currently-available shots are designed to fight a virus that’s essentially extinct. The key mutations in omicron are on the spike protein, exactly what the shot is designed to target. And now it appears that the virus is mutating faster than we can develop shots. For those who think I’m some kind of vaccine denialist, go back a year and read my post on my first covid infection. I was happy to have had the shot. But now? As the data have changed, my thinking has changed. I only have had one shot, and I frankly think that the lack of boosters is why omicron has been such a non-issue for me. The boosters essentially program your immune system to fight the last war (look up immune imprinting) and the evidence is mounting that they actually make things worse for omicron sufferers. As for flu, I think I’ve only had it once. And yes, it was nasty, far nastier than the omicron that I’m currently suffering. Cheers and thanks for your comments.
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Hola Colm,
Well there’s not a lot we can do, is there? The NIH gets something like $60 billion USD per year. And what are we getting for our money? At this point it seems like the answer is cruel research on innocent beagles, gain-of-funcion research which unleashed this pandemic (under the theory that it would somehow prevent it), and a lot of bad data and bad advice. American government seems to have run aground and no one seems to have any idea of how to get it back into deep waters. It’s really very sad. Thanks for your comment. Cheers!
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I’ve had just one case of the seasonal flu in my life, and it was about 40 years ago. I felt like Hell Warmed Over, went to the doctor who told me it was a mild case. If that was mild, I sure would not want a full-blown version, so from that year on I have been getting the annual flu shot. I have never had the flu again, so clearly the shot is effective. That’s my thinking, and I’m sticking to it.
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Flu shots may improve your generalized immune response, but they aren’t reducing population-level flu incidence. But whatever works for you! Cheers
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Kim: I am happy to hear that your health is strong enough to avoid severe symptoms after another exposure. May you soon return to being and feeling 100% well. I assume you will wear a mask and ask the contractors to also wear masks when they start working again?
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Hola Fred, Thanks for the well-wishes. It’s up to the electricians if they want to wear masks. I bought them a bunch of industrial dust masks for the dust, but I don’t think they’re wearing them for covid. As for me, after reviewing a bunch of studies and data, I am sorry to say that I don’t believe consumer-level masking affects the transmission of covid. Yes, some expensive, polycarbonate, fitted and well-sealed, full-face masks with P100 cartridges could do so. But the ones the public is wearing are pure theater as far as the data show. After all, OSHA would never allow the use of those masks in factories for dust protection. So how could they possibly work for covid? Cheers!
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No mask is 100% effective, especially if it is not fitted well. As you probably know, Covid can be spread just by having a mere conversation with an infected person a few feet away. But, considering that there are infected persons who do not wear a mask when they sneeze and/or cough in public, wearing a mask, whether OSHA prescribed or not, greatly reduces the probability of those particles being inhaled. Cheers to you, too!
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Agreed: they will stop droplets from sneezes and coughs. But I’ll still stick with my view that they haven’t slowed the spread of the disease. I wish they had/could. But all available data suggests they don’t. Remember that in the early days even Fauci agreed with my position? It wasn’t because he hadn’t read the studies. Cheers!
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Bari Weiss, the “liberal” former New York Times op-ed writer who famously resigned in 2020 due to, well, you can look it up, now runs an outfit called Common Sense. I subscribe. Coincidentally, I received an article from Common Sense just this morning. Apparently, lots of scientists who work on the CDC, FDA and NIH are disgusted with their agencies’ approach to covid. One called it a “horror show.” To say the scientists are not on board with the official covid line is an understatement.
Perhaps you can read it here:
https://www.commonsense.news/p/us-public-health-agencies-arent-following
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Hola Michael,
I’m familiar with Bari Weiss and her separation from the NYT. I’ve seen some of her Substack posts, though I have to confess I’m not a regular reader. I’m delighted to learn that there are still scientists within the swamp who can tell that the official response to covid has been a disaster all around. While I’m still skeptical that much, if anything could have been done, there’s increasing evidence that what was done has only made things worse. Somehow the public understands that mis-use of antibiotics leads to antibiotic resistant bacteria, yet the public health AUTHORITIES refuse to even talk about the same thing applying to a leaky covid vaccine. It’s nothing short of astonishing. Meanwhile, there are no long-term studies on the covid vaccines. Worse, they were developed for a now nearly-extinct strain, clearly don’t work, yet are still being pressed onto an increasingly unwilling populace. And onto CHILDREN! Don’t even get me started. Literally having done nothing but try to protect the vulnerable would have been much better. Worst of all, the covid fanatics are utterly resistant to discuss the FACTS mentioned above, and even reevaluate their positions. I’ve long said that corporations can kill people, but if for a true disaster, a government is required. Sadly, the covid response is proving the case. Saludos!
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So you felt a bit crappy on Tuesday, and today you feel “basically fine.” Two days? Is that timeline correct? If so, all seems well.
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Michael: I’m still tired, still have a scratchy throat. But really, if we weren’t all in a covid panic, I’d be going about my business pretty much as normal.
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