What a whiner.
Posted on 09/06/2022 8:01:55 PM PDT by nickcarraway
BA.5 just wiped me out for 12 days. Why did doctors let me get sick instead of giving me Paxlovid?
I knew right away that it was going to be bad.
It was a hot, humid night — almost 90 degrees — but my body was freezing. Putting on a sweatshirt and diving under a blanket couldn’t warm me up. My head, on the other hand, was on fire. I had a temperature over 100 degrees and needed ice packs piled on my forehead to cool down. The coughing wouldn’t stop.
I didn’t need a test to tell me that I had finally caught COVID.
For more than two years I basically lived like a hermit to avoid just this scenario. Sure, after getting vaxxed and boosted I didn’t think COVID would kill me. But I don’t exactly have a gold medal immune system; even a common cold gives me a rough time. I imagined COVID would lay me out with symptoms that could drag on for weeks or possibly months. So I stayed away from the office, indoor gatherings and restaurants. The gym? No thanks. Fifteen extra pounds was worth it to avoid getting sick.
But this summer was my sister’s 40th birthday. She and the rest of my family live on the East Coast and were throwing a big party. So I decided to leave my cave and fly to see them.
It wasn’t. And I was dumb enough to sit right next to her.
As soon as the first symptoms hit, I knew I was in trouble. So I decided to do my damnedest to get a prescription for Paxlovid, the antiviral drug cocktail that can prevent the coronavirus from replicating in your body during the early stages of infection. I wasn’t technically eligible because I’m under 65 without any serious comorbidities. But having chills, a brutal cough and a sky-high fever had to count for something, right?
Apparently not.
Local pharmacists wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Neither would urgent care. I called my health care provider back in San Francisco for a prescription, but it too told me I wasn’t eligible for Paxlovid and had to rest and ride it out.
So ride it out I did for the next 12 days coughing, sweating, snotting and sleeping up to 16 hours a day. Instead of spending time with my family, I had to avoid them at all costs to keep them from getting sick — other than to beg for food and supplies; there are no delivery services in the rural community they live.
After a wasted vacation, a changed flight and a few extra sick days, I finally got home a couple of weeks ago.
That same day, my partner started showing symptoms of COVID.
She too was ineligible for Paxlovid and spent the next 10 days hacking away in isolated misery. She just finally tested negative, but neither of us are back even close to full speed. A mildly hilly walk in Golden Gate Park the other day had me huffing like I just ran a marathon. I was in bed by 8:30 that night.
I don’t know for sure which variant laid us out, but, based on infection data, it was almost certainly BA.5. Now, as BA.4.6 gains ground — and future variants follow — are we going to have to go through all this again if we want to live freely like we did before the pandemic? Because I don’t have the sick days or the stomach for that. And I can’t be the only one.
I’m hopeful the new omicron booster can break this cycle. But what if it doesn’t?
This begs the question: if an antiviral drug like Paxlovid exists that could potentially ease people’s COVID symptoms by preventing the virus from replicating in our bodies before it spreads, why are we being so precious about who we give it to? A pharmacist in Canada recently refused to fill a Paxlovid prescription for a 20-year-old with Down syndrome and a history of respiratory infections. How is that sensible public health policy?
I asked UCSF infectious disease specialist Monica Gandhi why those of not wanting to feel like garbage for weeks at a time, and who need to work or see vulnerable family members, can’t get easy access to the drug? We give antivirals widely to ease flu symptoms, why not COVID?
She replied that Paxlovid is currently being used to prevent death and hospitalizations, and that studies of people in my age range have shown no discernible benefits in this regard to taking the drug.
However, “there are other benefits of Paxlovid,” she said. “You were likely to have felt better sooner if your viral load was brought down more quickly. But there just have not been any studies on this in vaccinated people.”
My read on this is that even as public health guidance is evolving to tell us COVID is now endemic and we can start getting back to normal, in many unhelpful ways it still treats the virus like a deadly disease.
We can’t have it both ways.
Many doctors, Gandhi said, recognize the obvious utility in giving people the chance to recover faster. Given that the known side effects of Paxlovid are few and mild, some doctors are comfortable bending the rules to prescribe the drug to those who might not technically meet the public health guidance. That works in America because the feds are currently footing the bill — and they aren’t rigorously checking who does or doesn’t have dire comorbidities. But Paxlovid is expensive. And as the federal government cuts off funds and insurance companies start taking on the cost of the drug, you can expect those eligibility requirements to lock in tighter than they are now.
What happens then if the omicron booster shots prove ineffective at preventing breakthrough infections like the one that waylaid me? Are we willing to let perpetual sickness be the cost of normalcy?
Based on America’s COVID response thus far, I’m fairly certain the answer to that is yes — unless folks start agitating. Are we going to rely on insurance company actuaries and the power of positive thinking to guide us back to normal, with all the attendant consequences? Or are we going to insist that public health officials study all tools in the arsenal that could get us there with as little misery as possible?
Matthew Fleischer is The San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial page editor. Email: matt.fleischer@sfchronicle.com
Matthew Fleischer is The Chronicle's editorial page editor. He came to the paper from the L.A. Times, where he spent six years as senior digital editor of the Opinion team - writing, editing and collaboratively planning stories to resonate with an online audience.
Prior to joining The Times, Matthew was a staff writer for LA Weekly and an investigative reporter for the watchdog site Witness L.A., where his work helped expose the abuse and corruption in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department that led to the convictions of Sheriff Lee Baca and Undersheriff Paul Tanaka for obstruction of justice.
His work has been honored by the Overseas Press Club Foundation and Investigative Reporters and Editors. When he's not writing or editing, he's wandering, usually by foot.
>> It was a hot, humid night
that was a hilarious movie
you screwed up
you trusted them
try a little critical thinking
mine was cleared up in 48 hours
how in the world did i do that?
Good grief, my dad died of COVID and had more toughness and dignity in his final days than this f’ing crybaby
And...the author is eagerly anticipating another booster shot.
Idiocy.
I have to get them or lose my job of 35 years. This clown has a choice, and yet...doesn’t learn.
Getting Covid is the best form of immunity. Boost your zinc and vitamin D and look for trouble early and often. Avoiding Covid is a ridiculous strategy.
This article was written by a boy who never grew up.
Typical of modern journalism.
They are making you get a third booster?
Using the FLCCC protocol.
What a whiner.
I know five people, including myself, that contracted what we believe Omicron variant. Four of us took Paxlovid and all of us felt better in two to three days. The one that didn’t take it slept a lot for about 10 days. The problem came when the four of us ALL rebounded. And the rebound was worse and lasted longer than the first round. The one who took Tylenol and sleep actually recovered faster. This was MY experience, your mileage may vary.
That was the scariest book ever!
Mine gave me the almighty exemption.
Yes. I would retire, but I vowed to my team who are the best I have ever worked with that I would stay with them to get two major upgrades done which will take me another 1-2 years.
Sure. I could quit, but I am carrying the healthcare for my wife who needs it, and my job is a highly specialized one that doesn’t have a parallel outside my field.
My choice, and I do it with my eyes open, but it is under duress.
Well, it’s a decision I don’t think should be forced upon you. Especially now.
I never took the needle and when I got covid this past June it was like a mild cold. I was able to carry out my daily activities without any problems. It seems the more you get jabbed the sicker you get.
You would think.
I will say, the entire thing has made me lose all respect for my institution, and the medical profession in general.
For years, they have been angling for a way to force people to get annual flu vaccinations. Then they got it with COVID, and the entire industry in this state won’t give it up.
Even worse for me is the the severe disillusionment it has engendered in me. I have always believed in what I did, and passionately. I believed that I was doing good for people, improving the lives of not only patients but the people who cared for the patients.
But the way they have foisted these unproven injections on people, and they way they have forced people out of their jobs, breaking the Hippocratic Oath in the process, well...I no longer have respect for the institution and profession I once loved passionately.
I love and respect the people I work directly with, and I do this for them, not my employer. My employer has lost me. We were always a relatively conservative organization, kept politics out of things, but we merged with an extremely liberal organization, and their values have permeated EVERYTHING. The leadership even sends out politically biased emails to the organization which infuriates me.
But, as I said, I have chosen my course of my free will, and have done it for the people who today, treat me like gold, even if the rest of the organization sucks. I will help them before I retire.
Man up you sissy.
Knew this would be an ultra-whine fest when I saw that it was from the San Francisco Comical.
I think part of this bozo’s problem was that, as he noted, he shut himself in for a couple years to avoid getting the dreaded “’vid”. This also probably kept his body from being exposed to everyday bacteria that may have helped ease his symptoms to some extent.
But, as we all know, “follow the science”, or Dr. FauXi’s version of it.
It’s not a “breakthrough,” it’s a feature of the shots he (she?) keeps taking. Every time he takes another one he damages his immunity more and more until he finally finds the clot shot. It’s like repeatedly pulling the trigger in a game of Russian Roulette.
But don’t try telling that to a San Francisco liberal because they’re SOOOO much smarter than everybody else. He would have done himself a favor by going down to the feed store in that “rural community” he was visiting and buying a couple tubes of horse dewormer.
one of my coworkers who is all vaxxed (not sure if boosted or not) was down all weekend and today with what sounds like a wicked flu. She seems to be getting it every 3 to 4 months now.
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