Jeremy Egner for The New York Times: “On March 12, I got a fever that didn’t go away. It hovered around 101 or 102 degrees for the next week, accompanied by severe fatigue and body aches. My office was already working remotely, so I powered through and kept at it, with lots of breaks and naps. I saw a doctor via video who said it was probably the flu — possibly the coronavirus, he added, but tests were unavailable and the prescription, rest and fluids, would be the same regardless.I naturally worried about the coronavirus, but I didn’t have respiratory symptoms. I’m also a 45-year-old, generally healthy nonsmoker (I quit years ago) with none of the high-risk conditions listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I didn’t seem like a probable Covid-19 candidate. Then, about a week in, I began to cough. Taking deep breaths felt as if fire were shooting through my lungs. My primary care doctor, with whom I also consulted via video, thought it was pneumonia and prescribed a course of antibiotics. New York State set up a coronavirus testing site an hour from my home. When I called for an appointment, I waited on hold for 80 minutes, after which someone took my information and said someone else would call me back. No one did.”
Eliza Shapiro on Twitter: Read the entire thread. “I was mildly sick for a few days w/ covid symptoms. Then my 29 yr old healthy boyfriend got really sick. 13 days later, after a relentless fever, awful nausea, pneumonia in both lungs + a reluctant trip to ER, he is finally turning a corner today. Some things I learned: (go to entire thread.)
Jordan Davidson on Vice.com: “Craig Hollander woke up with chills and an unfamiliar lethargy that dogged him all day. It was March 10. The 38-year-old history professor and father of two daughters, ages six and three, is healthy and fit, but his three-year-old has juvenile idiopathic arthritis and is on immunosuppressant medication.’She’s on some hardcore drugs,’ said Hollander, who lives in in Westfield, NJ. Bringing home any illness could have life-threatening consequences for her. The next day, the symptoms hit Hollander hard. His fever spiked. Aches and pains crippled him. Dizziness swept over him when he tried to stand. “‘I was in bad shape, but definitely not thinking it was COVID-19,’ he said. ‘I followed the dogma; I didn’t know anyone who had it; I haven’t traveled; I’m well under 60, and I wasn’t coughing. His primary care doctor agreed. She gave him a flu test, which came back negative, told him the bug would run its course, and ordered him to rest and stay hydrated.” But of course that’s not what really happened.
Dana Goldstein on Twitter: Read the entire thread. “1. Tomorrow I am going back to work after 2 weeks off, in which my family – myself (35/pregnant), husband (40) and daughter (2.5) – had Covid. I am grateful to be alive. We had “mild” cases, but it was a nasty bug that left me confined to bed for the better part of a week.”
The academic Shiraz Maher on Twitter: Read the entire thread. “I’ve been debating about whether to ‘go public’ on having coronavirus – which I kind of did inadvertently this morning. So, now I may as well share my experience(s) with you in order to help those who are worried about it or who are thinking they might have it. Here goes… 1/”
Deep into the thread, after he talks about how he couldn’t go to the hospital, although he was in crisis, he writes: “Coronavirus appears to have a completely different trajectory in different people. I can’t spot a pattern. Although I’m only speaking publicly about it now, I’ve been whatsapping with lots of friends/colleagues who’ve also had it.”
Maggie Astor on Twitter: Read the entire thread. “My husband and I are recovering from COVID-19. We’re getting better. But it’s taken more than two weeks to say that, and that was with the ‘mild’ version, meaning no trouble breathing. This virus is absolutely brutal. ‘Mild’ is not mild by any normal definition. Thread: 1/x”
