Thread by @ChecchiaPaul

1/ Things are better as we wait for our smell and taste to return to normal. Apparently, my post about coming down with a couple of breakthrough cases was taken by many as a rallying cry that vaccines don’t work. Of course, my view is the opposite; but I do realize my bias.

2/ I live my professional life looking at the worst-case scenario, hoping to predict the decline in physiology early enough to intervene.

3/ I don’t know how often it occurs amongst healthcare workers, but the prevalence of the fear of uncontrollable illness blossoming from seemingly innocuous starts is high within those that work in critical care.

4/ I look at the fact that we didn’t end up on ECMO meaning the vaccines worked perfectly. I readily admit that is ridiculously blown out of proportion. I know that most people in the world see the risk calculation of this disease differently than I see it.

5/ They see the “risk” of vaccine side effects as the active danger; the one that they must choose to accept or fight against. I see vaccine risk as non-existent. For me, it is a risky choice to not get the vaccine.

6/ I see not taking the vaccine as missing the opportunity to stack every card in the deck on my side of the table rather than leave my ICU admission to the roll of the dice. I can’t do anything about the opposite view.

7/ In the end, I’m so thankful that my immune system was primed to fight.
That fight is going well. Sure, it’s annoying to be dealing with any of this; but I will take annoyance versus a full on health battle any day.
Now for my final point (literally the final point).

8/ The fact that I contracted COVID after writing so much about it over the 19 months of this thing seems like the perfect time point to step away from these posts.
I started writing posts about COVID on January 29, 2020: 627 days ago.

9/ It all started as a rant, moved to therapy, progressed to enjoyment in knowledge gained, and ultimately became more than I thought it would. I am certainly not “concise”; but to be short would be unfair to the complexity the entire situation.

10/ Despite my inability to shorten my thoughts, so many people have reached out to thank me for helping them in some small way. Hopefully, I have helped inform and in doing so alleviate some anxiety.

11/ Most importantly, I have loved the times that people have written that I gave them the evidence to convince themselves or others to get vaccinated.

12/ I honestly never thought anything would come out of a display of overt vulnerability when posting my thoughts, fears, and theories.
Yet, now seems like a good time to stop and to take a break from social media. I admit a slightly unhealthy addiction to it.

13/ I’m not going cold turkey; I will still look at pictures on Instagram and I will still leave my messenger app open. I also want to make time to capitalize on something that Andrew and I have talked about as a father-son project.

14/ I have kept all these posts in a running document that is now exactly 400 pages long. I would love to try to turn this into a novel with his help (he has the real talent for writing).

15/ Not sure what it will look like; maybe historical fiction/non-fiction, sort of Erik Larson-esque a la “The Devil in the White City” or “Dead Wake”. Who knows? Even if it never comes to fruition, it will be a fun exercise to do together.
We shall see.

16/ For now, I will go and enjoy my newly minted hybrid antibodies.