Day 9.
Well, that “T” line looks quite faint – and it took all of the prescribed 30 mins to develop. But the instructions say this is still a positive result. Not that I would be going out anywhere at this point anyway. But it’s a reminder that the Beast is still in my body. I can still feel it, too. Congestion, snuffles, slightly dizzy head. And it’s not too late for the thing to kick back at me. But otherwise OK today. I wonder how long it will take me to get a negative result.
Now I that I have a chance to study this microbe’s work at intimately close quarters, it becomes more and more intriguing. Nobody has yet been able to tell me which variant we all caught 10 days ago at that birthday lunch. Which has made me very suspicious of the accuracy of the daily stats on infections. But it’s a fair assumption that it was the Omicron chap. It seems apparent (and confirmed by some informed friends) that this descendent of the original Covid 19 is much better at propagating itself fast, but much less of a killer.
Current estimates I have seen of the efficacy of the British Booster Jab against Omicron are not good (less than 20 per cent) – so I’m now less sure than I was a couple of days ago that it is my state of vaccination that is protecting me. I would guess it’s a contributory factor – so it’s still worth getting it. But I predict time will tell us that this variant truly has far less deadly teeth than its granddaddy. Why ? It seems (and this is not my idea) that Omicron is very good at procreating rapidly in our throats and sinuses – but for some unknown reason, not so successful at invading our lungs. So it spreads itself rapidly from person to person through our coughs and spluttering – but doesn’t threaten our lives by stopping us breathing.
If this is true, this is REAL cause for long term optimism. We are looking at an organism which is well on the road to be coming just another cold or flu germ to be dealt with as we have always done. But it has to be said that this whole pandemic has taught us a thing or two as far as behaving sensibly in the face of such pervasive pathogens. Right ?
Stay home !!!
With love – Bri