Oklahoma Joe: COVID-19 experiences, concerns evolve over time – Journal Record

Joe Hight

COVID-19 doesn’t scare me, even with the news that sub-variant XBB.1.5 had become the dominant and even more infectious strain.

I had checked off every list possible to prevent it again after previously having a bad bout with the virus in November 2020 before the first vaccinations. I had received all the vaccinations and boosters since that time. I thought the chances were remote that I would get it again.

Then Nan brought COVID home from the annual Dallas Market Center in which she buys the latest trendy items for the bookstore.

Even then, I wasn’t concerned. She isolated herself in a separate bedroom, and I was careful to avoid any direct contact. But on a recent Wednesday, I started to feel achy, tired, had a headache, and a runny nose.

Nan, starting to recover, insisted I take the home COVID test. I tested negative.

“See, there’s nothing to worry about,” I said. “It’s like what I had before the holidays.”

The week before Christmas, I had similar symptoms. I thought it might have been something I contracted at the University of Central Oklahoma. Perhaps respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. I wasn’t concerned about the flu because I had received the shot in the fall.

But the symptoms worsened. Nan insisted I take another test, which I agreed to do even though I don’t like doing it. This time, the test indicated, I was positive.

Still not worried. I started to isolate myself, medicating myself with over-the-counter medications. By Saturday, I was worse.

Nan then insisted I go to a CVS Minute Clinic. Nan and I have different philosophies about doctors. She goes to a doctor whenever she feels bad. I go for required appointments.

At the clinic, I received the confirmation: “A positive result for this test means that SARS-CoV-2 RNA (the cause of COVID-19) was detected in the collected sample.”

“There are a couple of options,” the CVS health care provider told me.

That hadn’t been the case before, I told her. In November 2020, the health care provider told me she could do nothing for me.

As I described in this column, it was hell after that.

This time, however, it hadn’t been as severe. I asked the provider to prescribe me Paxlovid, a Pfizer medication authorized by the FDA for emergency use. Nan had just completed her dosage, a regimen of three tablets in the morning and three in the evening for five days. It’s for those who have a high risk for severe COVID, which would include what I want to avoid: hospitalization.

The FDA issues this warning: “PAXLOVID is investigational because it is still being studied. There is limited information about the safety and effectiveness of using PAXLOVID to treat people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.”

That’s for patients. For health care providers, the FDA provides the same warning and a list of possible issues. It also states it is not FDA-approved yet, just authorized for emergency use.

Besides a metal taste in your mouth, the Paxlovid cocktail has other side effects. Those include diarrhea, increased blood pressure, muscle aches, abdominal pain, nausea and “feeling generally unwell.”

Nan felt a few of them. I felt most of them.

“After all this,” I said to Nan one evening, “should I be more skeptical of all these vaccinations and boosters?”

She replied, “Haven’t you not had COVID for more than two years?”

She was right. I have since recovered with no continuing after-effects as I did with my first bout.

I still don’t fear COVID. But I do hate what it’s done to us.

Joe Hight is director and a member of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, an editor who led a Pulitzer Prize-winning project, the journalism ethics chair at the University of Central Oklahoma, president/owner of Best of Books, author of “Unnecessary Sorrow” and lead writer/editor of “Our Greatest Journalists.”