Runimation: Remember Covid?

 The Following is For Reference Only.

Well, ain't that a Kick in the Stones?

If you've been regarding the world in 2022 with a casual eye, you could easily believe that the Covid-19 pandemic has long since ended, judging how far it has dropped from the public, political and media consciousness over the last year, some might consider it having concluded when HM Government declared the end of all social restrictions in July 2021, while others might have considered it all done after the Omicron wave passed over across the end of 2021 and the start of 2022, and if you paid attention to governmental actions you'd figure it over as attention fell to the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis and people choosing to create new problems where they didn't exist previously. The horrible reality is that it's still here, and ongoing with much vigour, maybe not with the deadliness of the initial waves in 2020, but with enough force to still pose a significant health risk to the clinically vulnerable and the un-vaccinated, and to cause problems for healthcare networks worldwide, especially considering that the OG variant is now barely present in the population, while the much more contagious Omicron variant has now gone global, to present everyone with a new transmissible disease, that wasn't around only three years prior, to be afflicted by with the passage of the seasons. Reflecting on the fact the the NHS in the UK still has a backlog of 7 million elective operations to perform, while still needing to work around many internal infection prevention measures, it's very easy to believe that we literally got the bad ending to the pandemic endgame, where the disease wasn't contained by restriction in 2020 after being imposed too late and lifted too early, while prolonged global mobility has ensured that every subsequent variant has had its opportunity to infect the worldwide population, resulting in the situation where the disease is now endemic, and able to afflict and kill thousands every year into the foreseeable future, like an unwanted companion to influenza and tuberculosis, which those in power globally completely failed to prevent.

Why start wittering about this now, you might wonder, but the headline picture ought to give that game away, as I've been unwell since last weekend, having travelled out to achieve my 1,000km in 2022 in full knowledge that I wasn't feeling right but hopeful that I might just have a light seasonal affliction on my chest, though by Sunday it was clearly apparent that a good day of oxygenating the blood wasn't going to flush this one out as we crashed hard, with lungs clogged with mucus and a complete lack of focus in my brain, feelings which persisted into the following week as I stayed away from work, not getting a Covid positve result on the lateral flow tests that I was taking until Tuesday, which even then was a pretty weak one. A repeated weak positive result on the Wednesday put me in the definitively infectious bracket, ensuring me with enforced isolation at home and not being able to return to work at the hospital until I could return two negative tests, with subsequent tests having convinced me that the LFTs weren't picking up another viral infection as Friday and Saturday were as definitive as could be drawn, and the sudden loss of my sense of smell coupled to a diminishing level of stamina gave me as much indication of the illness as I could have wished for, while the mucus production in my chest resulted in my voice sounding like James Earl Jones channeling Paul Robeson. Ultimately, the infection turned out to be more boring than anything else, as I was still breathing freely and never ill enough to be bedridden, or to need external care, as getting up and getting busy with the basic household tasks around my flat never proved to be beyond my compass, eventually approaching every chore available aside from those that could have lifted dust and only stopping with that sort of business as my energy levels cratered, ensuring that no significant exercise would be taken this weekend, aside from a brief scurry up to Morrisons to purchase fresh bread which left me completely wiped out, which has me feeling that my walking year for 2022 might be done already, two weeks early.

I'm already at the end of my seven permitted days of self-certified illness from work, and as I'll need to obtain a fit note from my GP next week, the fact that I'm still testing positive effectively guarantees that I will be off work for another week at the bare minimum, and I'm just glad that I have a team of management and supervisors that are receptive to my needs in the circumstances, as I've not been off with an serous ailment or stress onset during the entirety of the pandemic years, and their having dealt with Covid up close gives them the compassion to consider my needs and effectively work around my absence, and plan adjustments for my return, way ahead of schedule. That doesn't make it any less frustrating that I have gotten unwell, as I've been working with all the available Covid-prevention precautions for two and half years and have maintained mask-wearing throughout the period, keeping covered up around the workplace and on public transport, as well as in shops even after the majority of the population stopped, while having gelled and washed my hands with such regularity that would have made me look like a proper clean freak in any normal circumstances, and also not throwing myself into a renewed social whirl as if my good health was assured for the future, having only been out for sociable drinks once since April and having been out on my own every weekend across the same period. And yet, me got ill somehow, which really proves what a tragedy the Covid pandemic has been, demonstrating that you cannot guarantee the protection of anyone from this ailment, and even if it hasn't afflicted me that harshly, the same cannot be assured for anyone else, and there's no telling if Long Covid will be in my future either, so if there is anything left to say on the matter as we find ourselves in a situation that we might have hoped to have avoided, it's that getting a seasonal Covid booster jab is something that you absolutely should do, because if you can rationalize the necessity of getting one for flu, getting one for Covid is absolutely no different, as it's a seasonal ailment that you need to protect yourself and others from, and even if it's not going to kill you, it's not something that you want to catch, because IT SUCKS.

Next Up: Does 2022 get a Finale?