The worst thing about getting COVID-19, isn’t the fevers, sore throats or headaches. It’s not the clamminess or the stuffy nose or thinking you’re covered since you got both shots.
It’s not the fact that you have been extremely careful about continuing to wear your mask when you grocery shop when everyone else seems to have abandoned theirs, or that you have been been exceptionally careful whose company you keep.
Nor is it the fact that your primary care doctor doesn’t want to see you and is in fact on vacation anyway. It’s also not the fact that you have to self-isolate for 10 days after the symptoms have surfaced.
It’s not the shitty threatening letter you just received from the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department saying, and I quote:
“You are hereby ordered to isolated at the following location. (Yes that’s their bad use of the English language, not mine.)
Isolation to place of residence.
Violation of or failure to comply with this order may constitute a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.( Health and Safety Code 120295 et seq)
— Henning Ansorg, MD”
So you see, they are not offering to bring me soup or pick up my mail or take out my trash, but warn me if I do these things, I will be put in the slammer.
I had to inform the Public Health Department that since they had put an incorrect date on this shitty letter, a date of 7/29/2021, that it wasn’t a legal document and they consequently corrected it.
No, all of these things are bad enough, but the worst thing so far is my loss of taste. I can put up with all the other unpleasant symptoms and all the shitty letters from the county, but to lose my sense of taste is a tragedy.
I’m hoping that it’s just a temporary measure because what would be the point of eating if we can’t taste what it is?! I love to cook and to bake, but if I’m not going to be able to taste the food, what would be the incentive?
Just one more thing, please wear your masks, especially indoors when you don’t know who has or hasn’t been vaccinated.
— Kanta MacDermott, a retired pre-school teacher of the Circle of Friends Children’s Center (formerly the Nursery School at Marymount of Santa Barbara) practices yoga, is learning Spanish and, like everyone else, has had to put all travel plans on hold due to COVID-19. The opinions expressed are her own.