Caught In The Omicron Wave

I got covid too. Here’s what it was like.

I was, admittedly, surprised when a bright red line informed me I had Covid earlier this week. I’d been vaccinated three times and avoided Covid throughout the pandemic, even while living with someone who contracted it. So I thought I was in the clear. But the virus broke through my defenses and left its definitive signature on one at-home test, then another. And there went Christmas break.

My experience with Covid has been unremarkable, I’m almost fully recovered, yet the one thing I wanted in its early stages was more first-hand accounts from people who had it. I wanted to know what I might experience. And I found surprisingly few stories from people sharing the basic details of their encounters. So here, I’ll share some of mine.

Where exactly I contracted the virus remains a mystery. I have a few good candidates, including an indoor concert I attended last week. But as a New York resident, I’ve been exposed to many people who either have Covid or had direct contact with someone with it, so it’s hard to pin down an exact moment. Yesterday alone, there were 38,000 confirmed new cases in New York. It feels like it’s everywhere. And I don’t blame anyone for giving it to me.

My symptoms started with a mild, easy-to-ignore sore throat. Then fatigue set in…