Healing From Covid-19

Isaiah Hernandez, a senior from Clark Magnet High School, said he felt horrible for a couple of weeks when he had Covid in Sept. 2020. “I could not breathe, I had headaches, I kept feeling dizzy, and my body was freezing the whole time,” Hernandez said. “The worst part of it all, was that it lasted for two weeks straight.” Some individuals have visible symptoms that can last up to 14 days. As for Hernandez, he had to experience many of the symptoms at the same time. 

Covid-19 is a virus found and discovered in China. According to Peter M. Sandman, a university professor, a global pandemic occurs once every 30 to 35 years, and the most recent one has been Covid-19. On March 11, 2020, Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic causing a spread throughout the world infecting many individuals. As of April 2021, there have been 146 million confirmed cases worldwide which has led to over 3.09 million deaths.

Although Covid-19 has taken away many lives, it is not as dangerous as people may think it is. Covid-19 has killed about 2.6 million people. This is much less in comparison to another world pandemic, the Spanish Flu of 1918, which killed over 50 million people. Worldometer, a reference website that provides statistics on current real life topics around the world, reported that Covid-19 has a three percent mortality rate. In the reported three percent of mortality rates, about two percent or more are either elderly individuals over the age of 65, or people who have preexisting medical conditions which have made them vulnerable to Covid-19.

Angelle Adorable, a senior at Clark Magnet High School, dealt with Covid-19 in May 2020 when the pandemic had really started to take effect. “Covid just felt like another cold to me, I wasn’t even sure if I had it until I had been tested,” Adorable said. “I really only had one symptom, and it was that I had lost my ability to taste foods and drinks.”

“During the two to three weeks I had the coronavirus, I somehow managed to get nobody in my family sick. This was due to the fact that I had just socially distanced myself from my family and tried to get in the least amount of contact with them as possible,” Adorable said.

There are some restrictions that help reduce the transmission of Covid-19 from one person to another. In order to stop the spread of Covid-19, the Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created safety guidelines in order to keep people safe from the virus. The restrictions include that all individuals must wear a mask in public, wash hands or use hand sanitizer before touching one’s face or other surfaces, and avoid close contact by remaining at least six feet apart from other people.

Nicholas Garibyan, a senior from Glendale High School, tested positive for Covid-19 and infected his mother as well. “I had felt sick for a few days before testing positive for the coronavirus, but by that time I had already spread it to my mom,” Garibyan said. He also said that he has a younger brother, but that his brother never caught the virus or tested positive although he had spent a lot of time around him. This is another indication that children are less likely to receive and spread the virus to others. Knowing this information, many elementary schools have remained open, or have already opened up due to the fact that even if a child is to be infected with the virus, they will most likely have mild to no symptoms at all unless they have underlying conditions.

Ali Al Hadithi, a senior from Hoover High School, caught Covid-19 in a very unexpected way. “I was on a roadtrip with my family, and my uncle who felt a bit sick that had tested negative for the virus decided to come with us,” Al Hadithi said. “During the roadtrip he still felt a bit sick, so when we got to our destination, he got tested again and his results turned out positive the second time. I myself at that point had also caught the virus.”

Al Hadithi’s experience with Covid shows that not all test results received for taking the Covid-19 tests are reliable. This is another reason as to why individuals should take extra precaution even if their test results come back negative and are still feeling some symptoms.

Despite the fact that Covid is not that deadly if you are young or do not have any preexisting medical conditions, what can be worrisome is that coronavirus is unlike many other viruses. In some scenarios, an individual who has tested positive for Covid-19 may not show any symptoms causing them to be asymptomatic. Unfortunately, these infected individuals can still pass on the virus infecting another person along the way. This was the case for Clark senior Haik Topchyan.

“I felt fine all along,” Topchyan said. “I never even had a clue that I might have had the coronavirus, and I would hang out with my cousin every single day. After about a week, my cousin started to feel sick and had been tested positive for the virus. I knew I was the one to spread it because other than seeing me, he has been staying home and social distancing for the past few months.”