Thread by @nataliamangos

A story about COVID in Ontario because I feel like a lot of the younger people in my network might benefit from reading this:

A few weeks ago, my sister (19) caught one of the variants.

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The guy who gave it to her was exposed by his cousin on a Monday. A few days later, his cousin (not public health) told him he’d tested positive for COVID.

Guy got tested on Thursday and it came back negative. On Friday and Saturday, he saw his housemates and my sister.

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They thought since everyone but the guy had been following COVID guidelines, and since he’d just tested negative, that they could get together indoors. After all, they had fewer than the max # of ppl allowed inside a house at one time and case numbers were low in that area

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On Sunday, the guy got a call from public health saying he was exposed to one of the variants (6 days after exposure; at least 4 days after his cousin tested positive). So he got tested again on Sunday and it came back positive.

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By Monday, he, all of his housemates, and my sister were symptomatic—and their symptoms worsened rapidly. All tested positive for a variant of concern by Tuesday.

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For 6 straight days, my sister had a high-grade fever that wouldn’t break even when maxed out on Tylenol. Her resting heart rate was alarming. She had whole-body aches. The cough was painful and sounded wet even though it was dry.

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She also had marked cognitive deficits and described seeing them in her infected friends. No attention span, non-existent working memory, heavy brain fog... they struggled to carry out conversations. Then, she lost her sense of smell.

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It’s been about a week since her fever broke. Her heart rate is still high, she still has brain fog, she feels like she’s lost all motivation, and she still can’t smell. She wonders how long this will last (I don’t have an answer).

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She didn’t know that COVID can cause long-term neurological and cardiovascular problems. “Why don’t they tell us that,” she asked? “Maybe people would actually be afraid of getting it if they knew.”

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And get this: her #COVIDAlert app didn’t even go off when the guy tested positive. Only *some* of his roommates got an alert, despite all of them having been together (and in direct physical contact) at the same time on two consecutive days.

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Most people who spread COVID do so while under the impression that they don’t have COVID. Public health units can take several days to notify close contacts. The COVIDAlert app is not always reliable. A negative test does not always mean you’re not infected.

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And while i’m at it — yes, it is airborne.

Highly transmissible variants are ripping through the province and ICUs are filling rapidly. If you can stay home, stay the f home. The consequences of getting COVID can be serious and could affect you for the rest of your life