I am a travel business writer. In early May 2022, I attended a convention at a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. It was the first convention I flew to since January 2020. Each player had to be fully vaccinated, proving it through the Clear app on their phone. Masks were recommended, few wore them.
I flew to Las Vegas on May 2 and returned to Los Angeles on Friday, May 6. On May 7, I finished and posted a story on Forbes. com Party Like It’s 2019 In Las Vegas, Where Crowds Are Back. On Sunday, May 8, after avoiding it for more than two years, I got tested for COVID.
Covid is not over. I put it somewhere on my trip, in an Uber, at the airport, on the plane, at the hotel, at the conference, on the street, in a dining room or bar.
I was coughing and feeling sick around 1am on Sunday. When I was given up, I did a COVID check at home. The blue and pink lines were visible; He had tested positive. I spent the day in bed taking Anacin. I used a thermometer to monitor the fever and a pulse oximeter on my finger to monitor the oxygen level. On Monday, I took another COVID check at a local pharmacy (the one whose effects were communicated to Los Angeles County), and then went to an urgent care center. I tested positive on both.
I tweeted: “Still so late, despite everything I was given #COVID19, after two and a half years. Yes, I got vaccinated 3 times. Have I let my guard down or has my number increased?So far unpleasant, painful and isolating but it turns out that it survives. Lying in bed watching videos #MichaelCaine. Later, I wrote, “I’m tired and it’s hard to work. I fall asleep writing this. ” I closed my eyes. “
I was in poor health for a week. My symptoms included persistent cough, choking, fever that reached 102. 7, diarrhea and general exhaustion. I walked away from my wife and took the steroids, the antibiotic Z-pack and the inhaler that I had been prescribed.
My friend, an epidemiologist, advised Pfizer’s new antiviral drug, Paxlovid. Although I am in a high-risk age organization and have chronic bronchitis, I had to convince the doctor to give it to me. imaginable-looking effects, but he gave in when I told him I had to fly for my son’s college graduation.
I discovered one of the few pharmacies with Paxlovid and took it for five full days. My symptoms disappeared after about 3 years. I recovered at home not wanting to go to the hospital. fly to the east coast.
I was fortunate that my COVID case was more commonly boring, not deadly. More than a million Americans have died from COVID, adding some I knew.
Instead, I am one of the other 85 million people who tested positive. However, the CDC claims that 60% of Americans have had COVID, or about two hundred million other people. A CDC spokesman said, “We know the reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg. “
Millions of other people do not develop symptoms. Others simply don’t get tested or stay discreet because the effects of their tests at home aren’t communicated to fitness officials.
So, whether they know it or not, it’s completely imaginable that the user sitting next to you, or dancing with their arms outstretched, has COVID-19. Yes, even if they tripled, like me.
I know other people who have traveled a few days after a positive check. For other travelers, the way not to test positive for COVID is to not get checked. How many are on this level “ignorance is happiness”?Or did they think they had a big seasonal or bloodless allergy?
Is indifference and the new COVID outbreak a cause of paranoia?Is it time to avoid traveling again? My answer is no. “I probably wouldn’t be confined to my house and the surrounding six blocks for another two years.
Our physical security system, as it stands, is fragile. Compliance is not mandatory. The United States is not China. U. S. flights do not require COVID testing or evidence of vaccination. Nor the maximum hotels. Or restaurants. Or shops. So when you leave your home, a smart chance that the user next to you has COVID-19.
I chose to move on to a busy conference. I flew after the mask mandate was revoked. Like 90% of the other people on board (including the Southwest team), I didn’t wear a mask. At the conference, I didn’t use one either. I wandered around the casino without a mask, when I sat at a gaming table or went to eat. Most of the other people around me were also without a mask.
You could call this roll the dice. You can say that he was stupid or that he was tired of the blockades and closures. I sought to live my professional life as a traveler, not locked in space hunting screens.
Like most things in life, it carries risks. I risked contracting COVID, and I did.
I would do it again. I will do it again.