Yes, I know we are all sick of it. But I am genuinely sick of Covid. I have it, my wife has it, and both of us are in self-isolation. We are not alone, of course—well, we are in terms of the isolation, but we are not alone in having Covid; the medical people supporting us have told me that there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that in these RAT days plenty of people are not reporting their positive results. To me, that is a shame and irresponsible. Reporting is easy to do, it is the right thing to do, and you are showered with an amazing amount of support from various agencies when you do.
Until now, I haven’t shared that I/we have Covid. What’s the point? As already stated, it is not—these days—uncommon, nor if my experience is anything to go by, does it have dire consequences. It is no big thing
So, why do I mention it now?
Two reasons, the first of which I have already alluded to. That is the amazing amount of support thrown at you when you report you have Covid. My wife and I were contacted immediately by the Ministry of Health to offer support and then by our doctors also offering support. The Ministry and the doctors are both making follow-up calls. Equally impressive are the people running those services. They have been friendly, informative, supportive, and showing genuine empathy—even more impressive, given the pressure they must be under.
That’s the upside.
Sorry, I am afraid there is a downside.
If you contract Covid, you start to do a bit of research, and you soon become acutely aware that the “official” information out there is little more than a dog’s breakfast.
It is a mess—uncoordinated and often—too often—contradictory. For example, the simple question of how long the self-isolation is. In the leaflet they emailed us, the Ministry of Health told us they would be in regular contact, will monitor our conditions, and based on their findings, tell us when we can be “released”. There is no mention of further tests—RAT or otherwise. The Government and our doctors, on the other hand, are saying it was ten days (now seven days) with a further test the day before release—at least it says so on some of their websites.
The latest informal advice we got was that the self-isolation period was about to be reduced even further or even done away with.
I also questioned why nobody was telling us (or cared) what strain of Covid we had; the RAT test certainly doesn’t differentiate between Delta and Omicron. In reply, I was told the Ministry wasn’t bothering with that anymore: “It’s all Covid.” Really? Early on, we were told that Delta was likely deadlier than Omicron, so there is a difference, and I am surprised we are left to flounder around self-diagnosing based on the seriousness of our symptoms.
That last point does perhaps illustrate something else. How much more is the Government no longer bothering about with their “management” of Covid? For the most part, they have dispensed with contact tracing (which calls into question the value of scanning); under RAT, they have no objective measure of how many Covid cases are out there (I think it is rampant); and their agencies are no longer on the same page as far as information is concerned.
As I said, it’s all turned into a bit of a dog’s breakfast, saved in our case only by the quality and compassion of the people dealing with us at the Covid coalface.
Our gratitude for them is beyond measure.
As a somewhat funny aside, my wife was asked by the attending nurse how she was feeling. My wife responded, “I’m over it.” The nurse replied, “Yes, dear, I think we all are.” My wife had to hastily explain that by saying “over it” she meant “through it.” For many of us, both interpretations would suffice.
