Immune Defense Day

Apparently a year of avoiding all potentially pathogenic human contact has completely crippled my immune system, because as soon as I started leaving the house with no mask on, I caught a cold. And as soon as I recovered from that cold, I caught another one.

It is now Independence Day—a day for socializing and celebration—and I am holed up in my house with 120mg of pseudoephedrine coursing through my veins and a mean mood.

There are a lot of things I could have been doing today. I could have gone down to celebrate with a friend in Charlottesville. I could have gone out to celebrate with a different friend in Annapolis. I could have met another friend to watch the fireworks in Alexandria. I could have gone to an EDM party in DC. I could have accepted the invitation to go have sex with this one guy I met 3 months ago on a dating app (um, no thanks?). 

I could have done any of those things. But because I was unwell, I chose to stay home. Now let's be clear, I'm not that sick. I spent the morning mopping my floors. I could easily dance a jig and do a couple of cartwheels and not get winded. I'm not staying home because I feel like death; I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do.

If there was one thing that I thought we all learned throughout this year-long-and-still-strong pandemic, is that you don't go out when you're sick! It doesn't matter if your symptoms are mild, or if you have a really important deadline, or you don't want to miss out on the most epic party of your week. It's not a badge of honor to power through your illness, shedding viruses to all and sundry—if you have a transmissible infection, you owe it to your fellow humans not to spread it around!

Apparently, though, it seems that many people didn't get the memo. The fact that I caught two colds in two weeks is a strong indicator that there are plenty out there who are more than willing to go out and share their viral wealth. 

When I informed one person that I'd be staying home today due to my illness, he told me to come out anyway because a margarita would make me feel better (first off, factually wrong! Second off, it's not about how I feel; it's about protecting other people from having to feel the same way). When I declined on the grounds that "I prefer to not spread my germs all across creation," he continued to push the issue. 

Don't be that guy! If someone you know wants to keep their distance in the interest of public health, just let them! And if you yourself are mildly ill and on the fence about whether to play it safe or go to town, just play it safe!

"It's just a cold" is not a legitimate excuse to willingly expose other people to illness! If there's anything we learned from the wide variability in COVID effects (ranging from completely asymptomatic all the way to death), it's that infections can affect different people in different ways. What's just a cold to you could possibly kill the next person to catch it!

I'm staying home today. I'm eating ice cream alone and getting takeout for dinner and showing off my patriotic pedicure to my dog. And I'm writing a grumpy rant on my blog. If you want me to feel better, don't try to coax me into drinking margaritas; just promise me that the next time you get sick, you won't let it spread any farther. Tell me that you've learned the lesson that could stop the next pandemic. Just tell me, if you're sick, you'll stay home!

This post needed a picture, and my patriotic pedicure needed a wider audience than just one dog!