Q & A: CATCHING COVID-19: TALKING WITH TWO OF THE MILLIONS WHO GOT SICK WITH THE VIRUS, INCLUDING ONE OF THE FIRST 100 PEOPLE IN THE U.S. TO FALL ILL
By Jadenne Radoc Cabahug
In this Q & A, I talked to two people in Seattle, Washington who tested positive for COVID-19 to compare their experiences.
The first recorded COVID-19 in the United States was in a county north of Seattle, Washington. Seattle became the epicenter of the pandemic that would sweep across the United States which eventually lead the world in numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The first recorded COVID-19 in the United States was in a county north of Seattle, Washington. Seattle became the epicenter of the pandemic that would sweep across the United States which eventually lead the world in numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
“There is no way that virus is exactly the same. I felt like I was on my deathbed for three weeks,” Patient 38—the 38th person in the U.S. officially confirmed as having contracted the virus.
Patient 38 and their partner, Patient 39, contracted COVID-19 from Patient 37, their teenage child.
Patient 38, is a healthy 61-year-old pharmacist who tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, after experiencing symptoms of the disease on March 6, and checking in to Everett Clinic Primary Care. They did not travel to China. Patient 38 is type 1 diabetic.
“I feel, in a way, saying this, it sounds bad, but I feel like the ones who get COVID now are maybe a little more lucky,” Patient 38 said. “Because they know how to treat it. They know what needs to be done.”
Sierra Jordan is a healthy 21-year-old from King County who tested positive September 17, 2020 in Miami, Florida. Jordan is a student at the University of Miami studying psychology. Jordan did not travel to China, but traveled 2 months prior from Washington state to Florida.
“Even if you don't care about yourself, or if you think it's a hoax, I just don't get why you would go out of your way to be so adamant that it's not real,” Jordan said. “This is not just a political thing going on in the U.S., this has been a worldwide thing.”
This Q & A will compare the experience of someone who contracted the virus early, before the world understood it very well, with the experience of someone who contracted the virus much later, as experience and knowledge piled up.
Patient 38 and their partner, Patient 39, contracted COVID-19 from Patient 37, their teenage child.
Patient 38, is a healthy 61-year-old pharmacist who tested positive for COVID-19 on March 11, 2020, after experiencing symptoms of the disease on March 6, and checking in to Everett Clinic Primary Care. They did not travel to China. Patient 38 is type 1 diabetic.
“I feel, in a way, saying this, it sounds bad, but I feel like the ones who get COVID now are maybe a little more lucky,” Patient 38 said. “Because they know how to treat it. They know what needs to be done.”
Sierra Jordan is a healthy 21-year-old from King County who tested positive September 17, 2020 in Miami, Florida. Jordan is a student at the University of Miami studying psychology. Jordan did not travel to China, but traveled 2 months prior from Washington state to Florida.
“Even if you don't care about yourself, or if you think it's a hoax, I just don't get why you would go out of your way to be so adamant that it's not real,” Jordan said. “This is not just a political thing going on in the U.S., this has been a worldwide thing.”
This Q & A will compare the experience of someone who contracted the virus early, before the world understood it very well, with the experience of someone who contracted the virus much later, as experience and knowledge piled up.
JRC: How many days were you sick for?
P38: About three and a half weeks. I didn't have any work until I think March 30 or 31st.
Jordan: I probably had symptoms for a week.
JRC: When did you realize you had symptoms?
Jordan: I felt like I was asymptomatic. I know that I started getting cold symptoms. I have a very weak immune system, I get sick very easily. But I hadn't had a cold in a while just because I hadn't been around people because we were in a pandemic, and I wasn't doing things. We’re required to get tested every two weeks for school and my test came back positive and I was like, okay, not a cold. So maybe, a day or two before I got my test results back. I started experiencing symptoms.
P38: My first symptoms were on Saturday, (March 6 2020) and then Monday (March 8 2020), it just kept getting worse and worse.
I noticed the Wednesday before we got the test back, I couldn’t taste or smell anything. So I emailed my doctor, and he was like, that's really weird. Well, two months later, all of a sudden, loss of taste and smell is a symptom of COVID. I didn't get my taste back until late August (2020). I lost it for almost six months.
Might as well have eaten liver and stuff like that the whole time? You know, or something good for me. [laughs]
JRC: What were your symptoms? How did your body react to the virus?
P38: I was coughing like crazy, but it wasn't a continual cough, it was like coughing spasms. I just couldn't stop coughing, and I would lose my breath. It was like trying to gasp for breath, and it was really freaky. Then I got, I don't know if this is TMI, but I got super bad diarrhea on Sunday (March 7, 2020), and it continued Monday (March 8, 2020). I told Patient 37, I need you to drive me to the doctor.
What's really interesting is that it [COVID] kind of came in waves. I started feeling better after about seven or eight days, and I'm like, I think I'm kicking it. Then all of a sudden, it hit me again and I couldn't get out of bed. I was only sleeping. I still wasn't hungry. My blood sugars were high, everything. You think you're getting better, and then it comes back, and then you're getting better again, and then it comes back? It was really weird. It wouldn't really go away.
Jordan: There was definitely a point where it kind of peaked. It never really got bad in general. There [were] some points where I was like, oh, I really cannot breathe as great as I normally can. I know I stopped feeling any symptoms before my isolation period was up. So I was like, at least we're not having to go to the hospital or anything. But yeah, I definitely was stuck at home past when I was experiencing symptoms.
JRC: How was your experience having an unknown disease?
P38: I think at the beginning, it's more kind of like, what's wrong with me? Am I imagining this? Is this okay? Is this like, Did I really lose my sense of taste at all? Or is that just not strong enough spicy food, you know, or something? It was scary, and not at all frustrating. There's nothing to be frustrated about, because no one knew anything.
You don't often go to the doctor and [they] say, you know what, I don't really know what's wrong, or say I don't even really know what to do.
JRC: What was your COVID experience since this was a time before COVID was COVID?
P38: I was one of about three or four people in the waiting room (of the Everett Clinic Primary Care) at the time. I went into the room, they took my temperature, [it] was normal and all that. She [the nurse] said, okay, what we're doing with everybody is we're giving them a flu swab test. She goes, every single person who's coming [in] today has tested positive for the flu.
So she didn't come back, and she didn't come back for a long time. Then the doctor came in. When the doctor came in, he listened to my heartbeat, my lungs. He listened to all that stuff but he's like, well, you tested negative for the flu, which means you have an acute respiratory virus.
He goes, “I want to prescribe an inhaler. You should be good within five to seven days.”
I was kind of surprised.
He didn't even offer to test for COVID. This [was] on March 9. He said, “I can give you an albuterol, but it's going to clear up on its own. Every single other person tested positive for flu except you.”
So I said, “Would it be possible to get tested for COVID?”
He goes, “Sure. Yeah, we can go ahead and do that.” But he goes, “I have a feeling it's going to be negative.”
I got a call actually the next day, the next morning and they said, “You tested positive.” At that point, it was a two day turnaround.
I just thought it was odd. If I tested negative for flu, and I'm having these coughing, weird things and diarrhea and all those things that he didn't offer to at least get tested for it.
What would have happened if I would have never asked for it? Who knows? Anyway, the day I got tested, my fiance [went] because he was starting to feel kind of hot, really fevery. He didn't have any cough at all, but he had a really high fever. So he went and got tested the same day. About three hours later, he got a phone call. They said you're positive, and so we both had it.
JRC: How do you think you might have gotten COVID?
Jordan: I mean, Florida, [is] full of a lot of people who didn't really believe in COVID or anything like that. So it could have been one of my roommates, she wasn't taking it very seriously. She didn't get it though.
P38: As a pharmacist I'm exposed to sick people all the time. Honestly, it could have been anybody.
The Department of Health had called me and they wanted to know who I had been around. I talked about my son and how he got sick on February 20. He almost passed out because he couldn't catch his breath from coughing. He had a high fever, and the Department of Health lady referred him to be Patient Zero.
He got it at [his] high school. At [his] high school in February, 50% of the kids were gone and they were sick. With half the kids gone from high school, we [were] almost 100% certain that he's the one who gave it to me. At that point, they didn't [know] high schoolers could get it (COVID-19).
JRC: How did you react when you got COVID?
Jordan: When I got my positive result back, I was kind of shocked. Because I literally did not know a single person who had it. Anyone I had been around tested negative, and so I was like, “Where is this coming from?”
P38: At that point, when we thought about [COVID], there was not much known at all about it, except that it mainly hit the older people, and they ended up dying very quickly. But kind of the younger, healthier people, they weren't getting it.
It was just a virus in China, and hopefully, they can take care of it by building all those hospitals and things for the COVID patients. We're like, gosh, hopefully they can get it contained, and get rid of it.
At the same time, that one guy traveled over here to Everett while he was at Providence in Everett, with the first COVID case. The thing is, he was on a plane for a very long time with a lot of people on that plane. At that point, there were no masks.
JRC: In your opinion, what are some of the differences you might have as a person who had COVID earlier on versus someone who got COVID in the middle of the pandemic?
P38: Now? That's really interesting. I say that because the virus has mutated a lot over the past year, even. I think the symptoms at the beginning of COVID were completely different from the current symptoms of COVID.
There is no way that virus is exactly the same. I felt like I was on my deathbed for three weeks.
I feel, in a way, saying this, it sounds bad, but I feel like the ones who get COVID now are maybe a little more lucky. Because they know how to treat it. They know what needs to be done.
But back then, nobody even knew what to do. So that's why all those hospitals sold their respirators and ventilators and all those things and people were dying left and right. But now, most of the hospitalizations are like one or two days and they're out. So I almost feel in a way, they're a little more fortunate.
I went and had another COVID test done because I was worried that I may have gotten it again because I lost my taste and smell again. And now I'm paranoid because I was like, am I going to be another one of those two positive COVID cases?
So I went to the walk-in clinic, in the same building in Everett.
[A doctor] goes, “So when did you first get positive?”
I said, “March 11, of 2020.”
He said, “Oh, you got it when it was really bad.”
It's interesting, a younger doctor saying that seven months later because he had seen so many positive cases of asymptomatic [people].
I just feel relieved. I feel like they are in a much better place, I guess because there's so much more knowledge about how to treat it.
JRC: How did COVID impact you and your family?
P38: One nice thing is that when I had COVID, they [employer] paid my salary, the full three weeks I was gone. I had no sick days. That was kind of a really nice thing for them to do. Even though I was out of work, I didn't lose any income.
The [extended] family was super concerned, because it's, you know, death. At that point, people were going to the hospital and dying. And so that was their concern.
Jordan: I did tell [my parents] just because I was like, “Okay, well, I am the kid who gets sick the most often, and this is a serious thing, even if it doesn't affect me that much.” I want them to know, just in case, stuff does start to go bad, even though they couldn't really do anything from 3000 miles away.
JRC: How do you feel about people who don’t take COVID seriously?
Jordan: It just feels very ignorant and stupid to not take it seriously. Even if you don't care about yourself, or if you think it's a hoax, I just don't get why you would go out of your way to be so adamant that it's not real. When there's clear proof that it's real. This is not just a political thing going on in the US, this has been a worldwide thing. I see a lot of people say, oh, it has a 99% survival rate, and so what about the 1%? That doesn't survive? Like, why do they not matter?
I think just over the past year, with all the COVID stuff, it's been very depressing to people. I think even the people who did care [about] it first have just become desensitized to it just because we've been surrounded by so much death, and sickness. I don't think that means we should just stop caring about other people. I think a lot of the reason why people don't really care as much about it is because it was highly politicized, especially with the election last year. So the people who supported Trump were very adamant about following him. I think having him as president made it a lot worse, because he acted like it wasn't a real thing.
P38: One of our hardest demographics to get [vaccinated] are ages 18 to 35. We want to encourage them to get vaccinated, because it's not just for you; it's for your parents, your grandparents, your aunts, or uncles, your nieces, nephews, etc. And so do it.
Do it for the public and the world. I do understand the people who are very anti-vaccination, because they're worried about it being too new and you [don’t] know about the possible side effects, but, at the same time, you're risking your life as well as a lot of other people's lives, not doing it.
This is a worldwide problem and not a localized problem. This is something to help the world. This is a nasty virus, and it just keeps mutating. Good grief, look at India, that poor country. It's horrible what's happening over there. They also don't have the medical infrastructure we do.
I just feel like it's going to be a non-ending cycle because, in this case, I think herd immunity is only so good in the United States [as it can be]. It needs to be herd immunity worldwide. Otherwise, those countries, the countries that [do not have] herd immunity, are going to be the ones to keep transmitting.
We're lucky in the United States to be able to have three vaccines to choose from, and to be able to go online and pick whatever you want, wherever you want, and get the vaccine.
Do you know how many countries wish they could do that? I worked in Bellingham a few weeks ago and there were people who were joint American and Canadian citizens, but Canadians are coming across the border, because they can't get vaccines out there. They're not available. That's concerning, but at the same time, it's like, we have these at our disposal and at our fingertips to be able to get them it's like, please get them. I don't think [Americans] realize how lucky they are to be able to have them, you know, at any point, anytime.
JRC: How do you feel about the CDC relaxing mask guidelines?
Jordan: I wanted to go to medical school. I still wish I could, I don't think I'm smart enough to go. But I'm a very science-based medical person. I think we should trust the CDC when they say it's safe. At the same time, I'm still very much cautious about not wearing one, just because I'm used to it now. I understand that it's been a very traumatic thing for people.
I've been thinking a lot about how we're supposed to transition to going back to no masks, and I don't think that's ever going to be a thing again, I think there's still going to be people who just always wear masks just because people don't want to get sick and they've realized that wearing a mask won't get you sick.
P38: I think it's too much too soon. I wish they could be a little slower, maybe month by month, because it really worries me. That's my own personal feeling as well as in the medical profession. I know that the numbers of people who are not getting the vaccines are a little discouraging to the CDC. I feel like this is a way of encouraging them to get vaxxed. Whatever it takes, we just need to do that.
JRC: What are some lessons you learned from this pandemic?
Jordan: Goodness. Well, there's been a lot that has gone on in this year, even if we didn't factor COVID into it. I think being the age that I am and going through a global pandemic like this, especially having my 21st birthday, during the pandemic, that would typically be a time where people, especially [in] Miami, go out clubbing and partying because it's like woohoo, I'm 21! Finally! But I think for me, sometimes you just need to put your life on hold, or give up things for the greater good.
I think there were just points where I needed to be updated with what was going on. Especially because 2020 as a whole, without factoring COVID, there was so much stuff that happened. So I feel like I was always watching the news, because there's just so much to keep up with. There were points where it was like, you need to unplug, take time for yourself.
I definitely learned how to take care of myself more just because it's the only thing I really could do, I would have gone completely crazy had I not just taken a step back sometimes. For me, personally, I was taking a class on global health at UW, right as a pandemic was starting. So that was really weird for me, because I was like, oh, I can apply my learning to this!
Living through this has made me a lot more interested in public health. I guess it's just been an entire learning experience for me.
P38: It's been really interesting. As a pharmacist, I think COVID has been really eye opening for the American public, especially because I don't think we realize how many germs we spread until we had to get masks. Then all of a sudden we get masks, [and] there was almost zero flu season at all last year. One of the reasons why is because of our masks.
I think on a personal level, I can relate better when people say they know somebody who has been COVID positive, or they knew someone has passed away.
I have several pharmacist friends who've had family relatives who passed away from COVID. It's pretty eye opening and heart wrenching.
I mean, this virus is not an easy virus. We're doing our best scientifically to chase it. I can only hope that one day it will be eradicated. However, I do not think it's going to be this year. We're going to be chasing it for a while I think just because it keeps changing on us. I think it's really pushed our science to new heights where it needs to be applied.
Predicting what the flu is going to be, compared to what's going to happen to the COVID virus are two totally different things. I just feel like science is really going to be put to the test during this time. It's really pushing everybody in different ways, personally as well as professionally to become better individuals.
P38: About three and a half weeks. I didn't have any work until I think March 30 or 31st.
Jordan: I probably had symptoms for a week.
JRC: When did you realize you had symptoms?
Jordan: I felt like I was asymptomatic. I know that I started getting cold symptoms. I have a very weak immune system, I get sick very easily. But I hadn't had a cold in a while just because I hadn't been around people because we were in a pandemic, and I wasn't doing things. We’re required to get tested every two weeks for school and my test came back positive and I was like, okay, not a cold. So maybe, a day or two before I got my test results back. I started experiencing symptoms.
P38: My first symptoms were on Saturday, (March 6 2020) and then Monday (March 8 2020), it just kept getting worse and worse.
I noticed the Wednesday before we got the test back, I couldn’t taste or smell anything. So I emailed my doctor, and he was like, that's really weird. Well, two months later, all of a sudden, loss of taste and smell is a symptom of COVID. I didn't get my taste back until late August (2020). I lost it for almost six months.
Might as well have eaten liver and stuff like that the whole time? You know, or something good for me. [laughs]
JRC: What were your symptoms? How did your body react to the virus?
P38: I was coughing like crazy, but it wasn't a continual cough, it was like coughing spasms. I just couldn't stop coughing, and I would lose my breath. It was like trying to gasp for breath, and it was really freaky. Then I got, I don't know if this is TMI, but I got super bad diarrhea on Sunday (March 7, 2020), and it continued Monday (March 8, 2020). I told Patient 37, I need you to drive me to the doctor.
What's really interesting is that it [COVID] kind of came in waves. I started feeling better after about seven or eight days, and I'm like, I think I'm kicking it. Then all of a sudden, it hit me again and I couldn't get out of bed. I was only sleeping. I still wasn't hungry. My blood sugars were high, everything. You think you're getting better, and then it comes back, and then you're getting better again, and then it comes back? It was really weird. It wouldn't really go away.
Jordan: There was definitely a point where it kind of peaked. It never really got bad in general. There [were] some points where I was like, oh, I really cannot breathe as great as I normally can. I know I stopped feeling any symptoms before my isolation period was up. So I was like, at least we're not having to go to the hospital or anything. But yeah, I definitely was stuck at home past when I was experiencing symptoms.
JRC: How was your experience having an unknown disease?
P38: I think at the beginning, it's more kind of like, what's wrong with me? Am I imagining this? Is this okay? Is this like, Did I really lose my sense of taste at all? Or is that just not strong enough spicy food, you know, or something? It was scary, and not at all frustrating. There's nothing to be frustrated about, because no one knew anything.
You don't often go to the doctor and [they] say, you know what, I don't really know what's wrong, or say I don't even really know what to do.
JRC: What was your COVID experience since this was a time before COVID was COVID?
P38: I was one of about three or four people in the waiting room (of the Everett Clinic Primary Care) at the time. I went into the room, they took my temperature, [it] was normal and all that. She [the nurse] said, okay, what we're doing with everybody is we're giving them a flu swab test. She goes, every single person who's coming [in] today has tested positive for the flu.
So she didn't come back, and she didn't come back for a long time. Then the doctor came in. When the doctor came in, he listened to my heartbeat, my lungs. He listened to all that stuff but he's like, well, you tested negative for the flu, which means you have an acute respiratory virus.
He goes, “I want to prescribe an inhaler. You should be good within five to seven days.”
I was kind of surprised.
He didn't even offer to test for COVID. This [was] on March 9. He said, “I can give you an albuterol, but it's going to clear up on its own. Every single other person tested positive for flu except you.”
So I said, “Would it be possible to get tested for COVID?”
He goes, “Sure. Yeah, we can go ahead and do that.” But he goes, “I have a feeling it's going to be negative.”
I got a call actually the next day, the next morning and they said, “You tested positive.” At that point, it was a two day turnaround.
I just thought it was odd. If I tested negative for flu, and I'm having these coughing, weird things and diarrhea and all those things that he didn't offer to at least get tested for it.
What would have happened if I would have never asked for it? Who knows? Anyway, the day I got tested, my fiance [went] because he was starting to feel kind of hot, really fevery. He didn't have any cough at all, but he had a really high fever. So he went and got tested the same day. About three hours later, he got a phone call. They said you're positive, and so we both had it.
JRC: How do you think you might have gotten COVID?
Jordan: I mean, Florida, [is] full of a lot of people who didn't really believe in COVID or anything like that. So it could have been one of my roommates, she wasn't taking it very seriously. She didn't get it though.
P38: As a pharmacist I'm exposed to sick people all the time. Honestly, it could have been anybody.
The Department of Health had called me and they wanted to know who I had been around. I talked about my son and how he got sick on February 20. He almost passed out because he couldn't catch his breath from coughing. He had a high fever, and the Department of Health lady referred him to be Patient Zero.
He got it at [his] high school. At [his] high school in February, 50% of the kids were gone and they were sick. With half the kids gone from high school, we [were] almost 100% certain that he's the one who gave it to me. At that point, they didn't [know] high schoolers could get it (COVID-19).
JRC: How did you react when you got COVID?
Jordan: When I got my positive result back, I was kind of shocked. Because I literally did not know a single person who had it. Anyone I had been around tested negative, and so I was like, “Where is this coming from?”
P38: At that point, when we thought about [COVID], there was not much known at all about it, except that it mainly hit the older people, and they ended up dying very quickly. But kind of the younger, healthier people, they weren't getting it.
It was just a virus in China, and hopefully, they can take care of it by building all those hospitals and things for the COVID patients. We're like, gosh, hopefully they can get it contained, and get rid of it.
At the same time, that one guy traveled over here to Everett while he was at Providence in Everett, with the first COVID case. The thing is, he was on a plane for a very long time with a lot of people on that plane. At that point, there were no masks.
JRC: In your opinion, what are some of the differences you might have as a person who had COVID earlier on versus someone who got COVID in the middle of the pandemic?
P38: Now? That's really interesting. I say that because the virus has mutated a lot over the past year, even. I think the symptoms at the beginning of COVID were completely different from the current symptoms of COVID.
There is no way that virus is exactly the same. I felt like I was on my deathbed for three weeks.
I feel, in a way, saying this, it sounds bad, but I feel like the ones who get COVID now are maybe a little more lucky. Because they know how to treat it. They know what needs to be done.
But back then, nobody even knew what to do. So that's why all those hospitals sold their respirators and ventilators and all those things and people were dying left and right. But now, most of the hospitalizations are like one or two days and they're out. So I almost feel in a way, they're a little more fortunate.
I went and had another COVID test done because I was worried that I may have gotten it again because I lost my taste and smell again. And now I'm paranoid because I was like, am I going to be another one of those two positive COVID cases?
So I went to the walk-in clinic, in the same building in Everett.
[A doctor] goes, “So when did you first get positive?”
I said, “March 11, of 2020.”
He said, “Oh, you got it when it was really bad.”
It's interesting, a younger doctor saying that seven months later because he had seen so many positive cases of asymptomatic [people].
I just feel relieved. I feel like they are in a much better place, I guess because there's so much more knowledge about how to treat it.
JRC: How did COVID impact you and your family?
P38: One nice thing is that when I had COVID, they [employer] paid my salary, the full three weeks I was gone. I had no sick days. That was kind of a really nice thing for them to do. Even though I was out of work, I didn't lose any income.
The [extended] family was super concerned, because it's, you know, death. At that point, people were going to the hospital and dying. And so that was their concern.
Jordan: I did tell [my parents] just because I was like, “Okay, well, I am the kid who gets sick the most often, and this is a serious thing, even if it doesn't affect me that much.” I want them to know, just in case, stuff does start to go bad, even though they couldn't really do anything from 3000 miles away.
JRC: How do you feel about people who don’t take COVID seriously?
Jordan: It just feels very ignorant and stupid to not take it seriously. Even if you don't care about yourself, or if you think it's a hoax, I just don't get why you would go out of your way to be so adamant that it's not real. When there's clear proof that it's real. This is not just a political thing going on in the US, this has been a worldwide thing. I see a lot of people say, oh, it has a 99% survival rate, and so what about the 1%? That doesn't survive? Like, why do they not matter?
I think just over the past year, with all the COVID stuff, it's been very depressing to people. I think even the people who did care [about] it first have just become desensitized to it just because we've been surrounded by so much death, and sickness. I don't think that means we should just stop caring about other people. I think a lot of the reason why people don't really care as much about it is because it was highly politicized, especially with the election last year. So the people who supported Trump were very adamant about following him. I think having him as president made it a lot worse, because he acted like it wasn't a real thing.
P38: One of our hardest demographics to get [vaccinated] are ages 18 to 35. We want to encourage them to get vaccinated, because it's not just for you; it's for your parents, your grandparents, your aunts, or uncles, your nieces, nephews, etc. And so do it.
Do it for the public and the world. I do understand the people who are very anti-vaccination, because they're worried about it being too new and you [don’t] know about the possible side effects, but, at the same time, you're risking your life as well as a lot of other people's lives, not doing it.
This is a worldwide problem and not a localized problem. This is something to help the world. This is a nasty virus, and it just keeps mutating. Good grief, look at India, that poor country. It's horrible what's happening over there. They also don't have the medical infrastructure we do.
I just feel like it's going to be a non-ending cycle because, in this case, I think herd immunity is only so good in the United States [as it can be]. It needs to be herd immunity worldwide. Otherwise, those countries, the countries that [do not have] herd immunity, are going to be the ones to keep transmitting.
We're lucky in the United States to be able to have three vaccines to choose from, and to be able to go online and pick whatever you want, wherever you want, and get the vaccine.
Do you know how many countries wish they could do that? I worked in Bellingham a few weeks ago and there were people who were joint American and Canadian citizens, but Canadians are coming across the border, because they can't get vaccines out there. They're not available. That's concerning, but at the same time, it's like, we have these at our disposal and at our fingertips to be able to get them it's like, please get them. I don't think [Americans] realize how lucky they are to be able to have them, you know, at any point, anytime.
JRC: How do you feel about the CDC relaxing mask guidelines?
Jordan: I wanted to go to medical school. I still wish I could, I don't think I'm smart enough to go. But I'm a very science-based medical person. I think we should trust the CDC when they say it's safe. At the same time, I'm still very much cautious about not wearing one, just because I'm used to it now. I understand that it's been a very traumatic thing for people.
I've been thinking a lot about how we're supposed to transition to going back to no masks, and I don't think that's ever going to be a thing again, I think there's still going to be people who just always wear masks just because people don't want to get sick and they've realized that wearing a mask won't get you sick.
P38: I think it's too much too soon. I wish they could be a little slower, maybe month by month, because it really worries me. That's my own personal feeling as well as in the medical profession. I know that the numbers of people who are not getting the vaccines are a little discouraging to the CDC. I feel like this is a way of encouraging them to get vaxxed. Whatever it takes, we just need to do that.
JRC: What are some lessons you learned from this pandemic?
Jordan: Goodness. Well, there's been a lot that has gone on in this year, even if we didn't factor COVID into it. I think being the age that I am and going through a global pandemic like this, especially having my 21st birthday, during the pandemic, that would typically be a time where people, especially [in] Miami, go out clubbing and partying because it's like woohoo, I'm 21! Finally! But I think for me, sometimes you just need to put your life on hold, or give up things for the greater good.
I think there were just points where I needed to be updated with what was going on. Especially because 2020 as a whole, without factoring COVID, there was so much stuff that happened. So I feel like I was always watching the news, because there's just so much to keep up with. There were points where it was like, you need to unplug, take time for yourself.
I definitely learned how to take care of myself more just because it's the only thing I really could do, I would have gone completely crazy had I not just taken a step back sometimes. For me, personally, I was taking a class on global health at UW, right as a pandemic was starting. So that was really weird for me, because I was like, oh, I can apply my learning to this!
Living through this has made me a lot more interested in public health. I guess it's just been an entire learning experience for me.
P38: It's been really interesting. As a pharmacist, I think COVID has been really eye opening for the American public, especially because I don't think we realize how many germs we spread until we had to get masks. Then all of a sudden we get masks, [and] there was almost zero flu season at all last year. One of the reasons why is because of our masks.
I think on a personal level, I can relate better when people say they know somebody who has been COVID positive, or they knew someone has passed away.
I have several pharmacist friends who've had family relatives who passed away from COVID. It's pretty eye opening and heart wrenching.
I mean, this virus is not an easy virus. We're doing our best scientifically to chase it. I can only hope that one day it will be eradicated. However, I do not think it's going to be this year. We're going to be chasing it for a while I think just because it keeps changing on us. I think it's really pushed our science to new heights where it needs to be applied.
Predicting what the flu is going to be, compared to what's going to happen to the COVID virus are two totally different things. I just feel like science is really going to be put to the test during this time. It's really pushing everybody in different ways, personally as well as professionally to become better individuals.