The Coronavirus: What I’m Worried About And What I’m Not.

It’s all about productivity for me.

I started writing an article a few days ago about the nCoV, as the new strain of the coronavirus is now called. In it I detailed my reasons for not worrying about it and my impatience with people spreading fear about the disease. Wearing masks, for instance, when scientists have documented they don’t work.

That noontime, I happened to have lunch with friends, and, as happens now, the topic soon turned to the contagion. I was about to expound on my views when a friend said she and her husband had not gone out to a restaurant to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We raised our eyebrows until she explained that her husband did not want to be in a public place around people. He’s also wearing a mask at work and puts one one any time he has to leave their house.

We all got it, and I shut my mouth.

Her husband has a degenerative disease and a seriously compromised immune system. Of course, he should take extra precautions. If the mask gives him a level of psychological comfort given his risk, I’m all for it.

Upon my return home, I ditched my idea to finish my article. I had a new perspective and didn’t want to make statements that could offend people when I obviously didn’t understand the risks for different segments of the community.

Today, I see my article in a different light. I’m writing from a personal perspective and not intending to rap anyone on the knuckles for what they will or will not do to protect themselves. When I learned about my friend’s husband, I received a little dose of humility and took my absolutism down a notch.

I still have some opinions about the virus. If they help you, I’m glad. If they don’t apply to you, move on with my wishes that you stay well.

Some brief background to explain my turnaround. This past week, I was afflicted with a recurring, mild illness that I’ve attributed to some virus that gives me attacks of extreme fatigue and other distress for a few days and then goes dormant. I don’t get seriously ill but my productivity tanks. I’ve assumed, since my symptoms are mild, that I just need rest and fluids until they pass. This has been going on every few months for more than a year.

This time I’ve been under the weather for almost a week and unable to get my work done. I haven’t written articles or worked on my current novel, and I’ve struggled to keep up my client commitments. It’s been a much longer siege than usual, even though I don’t have full-blown flu symptoms, such as fever, chills, cough, and sore throat.

A friend suggested I call my doctor to see if I have a parasite infection, due to the recurring nature, and I will do that.

I certainly don’t have symptoms of nCoV. Before my lunch with my friend who told me about her husband’s concerns, while I would have been alarmed if we had a pandemic similar to the Spanish Flu, I didn’t see myself at risk.

The death rate from flu in the U.S. each year is in the many thousands, and we hardly pay attention. Some patients with the coronavirus don’t even seek medical treatment due to their mild symptoms.

So what’s the big deal, I thought? I get a flu shot, pneumonia vaccine, and wash my hands whenever I’ve been outside. All the recommendations to prevent contracting nCoV.

It’s the flu, I reasoned. Not ebola.

In fact, from what I’ve read, we’ve likely all had a variant of the coronavirus when we’ve had colds and flu in the past. Calm down. Put away your masks that researchers say won’t help and might only cause others to panic.

But now I see it all differently.

In my defense, I don’t wish any illness on anyone, and a flu sufferer, however mild the symptoms, has my sympathy. As I always tell my daughter, don’t get sick. It makes you feel awful.

When I started thinking and writing about the virus last week, no cases had been diagnosed in my city, San Francisco, and I believe that’s still true. Yet, people now walk around wearing masks. Don’t they read the same stories I do? As far as we know, masks are useless against the virus.

If this virus acts as most others, I’m in the high-risk cohort because of my age and some respiratory issues. While not as vulnerable as my friend’s husband, if I were to contract the flu, I could be very sick.

In the past, when I’ve had flu or even bad colds, I get bronchitis. People with nCoV can have severe respiratory side effects.

That has my attention. Yet, I’m still not going to panic.

The number of cases is worrying if you are an epidemiologist and tasked with containing the spread of a dangerous pathogen. Or, as it has happened, charged with tracking the people who were unwittingly and perhaps negligently discharged from a ship onto planes and other public places around the world who may be carrying the virus.

But in my little corner of the world, so far, there is no reason to worry.

And as yet, no way to protect myself beyond what I have already done and do.

If that changes, I will stay in my apartment and order food and essentials online. But first, I’d have to know people in my apartment building had the virus and a significant number of people in my city.

Because, as I’ve discovered from my mild, undiagnosed “sleeping sickness,” I can’t afford the disruption of my productivity. I depend on my writing income, and if I’m sick, I can’t write.

And I’m only one.

What does worry me — it’s not the symptoms.

Look at what this contagion is doing to world markets, to industries that have shut down, to cruise line companies, to health care systems. And the number of cases is still relatively small.

As far as how I regard this health crisis now, I still refuse to panic because I have a pact with myself. I refuse to live in fear.

However, in a change from last week, when I was happily dismissing news of the virus as an overreaction, now I’m settling myself down.

I’m still not going to wear a mask or lock myself in my apartment.

But I am going to pay closer attention to the coronavirus news. Because, while I feel I would recover from an attack of the flu, I can’t afford another dip in my productivity.

Unlike so many people today who think it’s fashionable to throw shade at the medical profession and scoff at the idea of vaccines, I’m old enough to have had my life saved a time or two by doctors. I lived through the polio scare in the fifties and felt the enormous relief when the Salk vaccine was discovered.

When the researchers tell me to do something new to protect myself, I’ll be first in line.

I don’t want to catch anything that shortens the enjoyment of the few years I have left. And I certainly don’t want to catch anything I could pass on to someone else, especially someone with fewer immune system resources to fight it off, like my friend’s hubs.

In a nutshell, here’s what I’ll do and not do:

I will not panic, overreact, and spread fear by locking myself in my home and wearing masks without reasons.

I will pay close attention to the news to learn if the nCoV has arrived in my city, my neighborhood or my building. Then I will act appropriately as recommended by my health care professionals.

I ate a little humble pie to come to this point. Far better tasting that a serving of the flu.

Now, where’s my doctor’s number so I can take care of this nasty “sleeping sickness?”

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status in several categories. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.