This post isn't in response to anyone's, I started to read some of this thread and then just decided to tell my story. I'm sitting here with Omicron as I type this (got first symptoms on Christmas Eve)
You do you, but for anyone that thinks this virus is a joke, let me tell you my family's experience. My father-in-law is dead. My brother-in-law couldn't make the funeral because he was on death's bed himself (he pulled through, but it was absolutely terrifying there for a bit). The guy that hosted our (my wife and I) wedding, a good family friend, is dead. The guy that ran one his restaurants, dead. One of the guys that ran another of his restaurants, dead. Back in April and May of 2000 my wife and I just stopped opening up Facebook because quite literally (I use the word 'literally' correctly) we couldn't open up Facebook without receiving news that someone else we knew, or a beloved family member of theirs, was dead - and more dishearteningly, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it.
Brother-in-law I mentioned earlier, he got it early (he's in the restaurant industry and is constantly exposed to the general public) and very quickly found himself unable to eat, smell, or taste, and he ran a 103 to 104 degree fever for 4 solid weeks before the fever started to break. Somewhere in the middle of week 2, he mustered enough strength to tell his wife that he was having a tough time breathing, so she called 9-1-1. They asked her if he was breathing, she said 'yes', so they told her that there were no ambulances for those that aren't unable to breath (consider the horror of that statement for a hot minute), she was going to have to drive him in. She gets him to the hospital which looked like, in her words, 'a hospital like in the movies during a war, with people on beds all over the hallways'. Hospital confirms of course that he has Covid and an extremely severe case of pneumonia; his lungs are 55-60 percent full of fluid. They then explain that they have no beds and only keep patients around that can't breath, so they send him home with a prescription for a Z-Pak. Please consider the horror of THAT statement for a separate hot minute.
His wife gets home, somewhat terrified, and calls my wife and I as she's unsure of what to do. I know that, at that time, NYC (I live just north of NYC, brother-in-law lives just over the bridge in NJ) is the hotbed of Covid, so I start calling other hospitals out farther into NJ and Pennsylvania thinking that the more rural I get, the more likely I can find him a bed. Nothing. My wife and I had to have called 30 hospitals a piece around NJ, NY, PA, and CT. No one had any beds for him. Very luckily, the Z-Pak appeared to keep him alive. The fluid in his lungs slowly receded over the next two weeks, though his fever did not. Finally, around 4 week mark, after a second week of Z-Pak his wife got from their PCP, his fever started to break and he began to recover. He lost over 40 pounds in the 5 to 6 weeks the entire ordeal took (and he wasn't very overweight to begin with). He didn't recover his stamina or his sense of smell (and therefore taste) for almost a year.
Another one. I'm first and foremost a handgun shooter, always have been. The past few years I've been taking training with Baer Solutions when they come up to New Hampshire (closest they get to me). For anyone that knows Drew Estell, owner/operator of Baer, you're aware of the incredible physical condition this guy is in. I mean, 'brick shithouse' is what immediately comes to mind. Incredible strength, very low body fat, and as ex-SF dude, keeps up with his cardio. I happened to have a two-day class scheduled with him in August of '00 and it wasn't cancelled, so I went. We're sitting around during lunch on day 2 I believe, and the Covid conversation comes up. Drew mentions that he had it. Had gotten it at Shot Show in January, but obviously didn't know what it was at that time. Here he is a little over 7 months later, and he was mentioning that he was still having major stamina issues, to the point where ten pushups were about all he could on some days. You have to know what sort of physical condition this guy is in to know how much of a shot to the gut that has to be. One of the other guys in that class, his 42 year old boss (that struck a nerve with me, as I was exactly 42 at that time) got Covid, recovered, then got a stroke out of nowhere a few weeks later that killed him.
Anyway. Like I said, you do you. But my advice would be to take this thing very seriously. 1 out of every 500 residents of the state of NJ died in '00 of Covid. Percentage wise, not a big numbers by any means ... but it's not going to make you feel any better if you or someone you love happens to be one of the few.
