A Progressive Perspective: I had covid (IRWIN STOOLMACHER COLUMN)

I guess it was probably inevitable – I and my wife joined the ranks of the almost 84 million Americans, 2.7 million New Jerseyans and 96 thousand Mercer County residents that got COVID-19.  We were the fortunate ones; not among the 1.04 million Americans, the 34,619 New Jersey residents and 1,297 Mercer County residents who perished from the virulent virus.

Since there are still more than 275,000 Mercer County residents who have not gotten Covid – here is my from-the-trenches view of what it feels like to get the virus and then rebound COVID and triumph over it.

First, I have absolutely no idea of where I got it. I am twice vaccinated and boasted and generally followed all the rules regarding mask wearing. But as time wore on, like most folks, I became a little complacent and let my guard down and began to eat inside but always asking whether my dining companions had been vaccinated.

My COVID experience began on a night when I had real difficulty sleeping – I kept getting up after hour or so, had the chills and intermittent coughing.  When I woke up, I took a Covid test and it was positive.

I quickly called my doctor and by mid-day had started a 5-day 30-pill regimen of Paxlovid (3 horse pills in the morning and 3 horse pills in the evening). Clinical trial studies have shown that Paxlovid in combination with vaccination and boosters can reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 by 89 percent by stopping the virus from replicating in our body. The treatment consists of two drugs — nirmatrelvir and ritonavir — which work together to block an enzyme that allows the virus to replicate in the body.

Over the next five days, until I completed my five-day regiment of Paxlovid, I experienced COVID-19.  My experience was unpleasant but not unbearable. My symptoms included: upper respiratory congestion, feeling very tired, severe headaches (acetaminophen helped), sneezing, lots of coughing, low-grade fever, spitting up of mucus, and occasional chills the first two days.

The worst side effect, was dysqeusia, which was completely unexpected and not mentioned in the six pages of small print Drug Fact Sheet that accompanied Paxlovid, (which I read).  Dysqeusia is a condition where a person experiences a constant bad taste in their mouth. A Google search revealed that the Phase 2/3 trial of Paxloid reported that out of 1,120 patients receiving the medication, almost 6 percent experience dysgeusia as a side effect. The bad taste is normally metallic, bitter, salty, or rancid. Dysqeusia affects the way food and beverages taste when eating and drinking. Suffice it to say, everything tasted disgusting.  It was really bad rivaling the awful stuff that we have to take when we prep for a colonoscopy.

Fortunately, in my wife’s telephone conversation with her physician, following her positive Covid test, she mentioned that I was struggling with a really bad taste in my mouth.  Her doctor suggested I try a honey. It made a tremendous difference.  That hint should appear on the label for Paxlovid.

To summarize, my first two days with COVID-19 were pretty bad, the third day a lot better and the fourth and fifth day much better. That pretty much mirrors my wife’s experience.  Both I and my wife got rebound COVID shortly after getting COVID.  While the symptoms were less severe for both of us, it was very depressing to get it again.  Knowing that I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, I will, for a while be concerned if I start coughing or have a headache and will be sure to keep a supply of COVID-19 testing kits readily available.

My overriding feeling is a sense of thanks for the extraordinary drugs that have been developed that can attack a virus that our body’s own immune system is not able to respond to.  I wonder how many tens of thousands of lives could have been saved if COVID-19 vaccination/ boosters supplemented by Paxloid, had been the widely accepted protocol at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I don’t understand why millions of Americans have declined to take the vaccine and hope and pray that something can be done to convince more Americas about the need for vaccines against deadly diseases like COVOD-19, Polio and, hopefully, in the near future many more types of cancer in the years to come.

There are few things that Americans agree about, but I suspect that one of them is that cancer is a devastating disease that affects all of us. There is promising research going on regarding vaccines that would potentially provide protection against some additional types of cancer caused by viruses. There is currently a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV).  It prevents cervical, vaginal and vulvar, and anal cancer.

Vaccines will only work if a person gets the vaccine before they are infected with the virus. Now is the time for the medical profession in concert with the drug manufacturers and hospitals to mount a totally non-political campaign, to overcome fears and misinformation regarding the benefits of vaccines – medicines that help the body fight disease.

Irwin Stoolmacher is president of the Stoolmacher Consulting Group, a fundraising and strategic planning firm that works with nonprofit agencies that serve the truly needy among us.