COVID-19 has been a confusing illness to pin down in terms of what to expect and what recovery looks like. The illness, which continues to mutate into different variants, has affected members of the community and the nation in unpredictable ways.
On Thursday, Bradford Mayor James McDonald shared that both he and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in quarantine.
“We are quarantining and will continue to do so for the duration of our illnesses and for a length of time that has been determined by medical professionals,” McDonald said in a statement released via social media.
He explained that, due to his quarantine, his attendance for the Feb. 9 City Council meeting will be via speakerphone or remotely by video.
McDonald explained both he and his wife are experiencing mild to moderate symptoms at this time, although his wife’s experience with the illness may be complicated by the fact she is pregnant with the couple’s third child.
“We expect to make a full recovery though, as so many people have done before us.
Take care of yourselves. Better days are coming,” McDonald said.
When contacted Thursday, McDonald shared his frustration with the limited availability of vaccines in our area and the toll the wait is taking on members of the community.
“I’m very disappointed in the lack of available vaccines for those who want them. I’m glad that healthcare workers, police and fire fighters have been offered the vaccine because of how exposed they are to the general public, but why are people like our teachers still waiting for a vaccine?” McDonald said. “The toll that is put on families when our schools are forced to resort to remote learning is massive. Parents have to choose between their jobs and staying home with their kids, oftentimes sacrificing paychecks in the process.”
McDonald also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting individuals in more ways than physical illness.
“The mental health and well-being of our kids being yanked from their routines can’t be emphasized enough. I just think that if we can get the teachers squared away by offering them vaccines, that could relieve a lot of stress for all involved and might also be a big push back to normalcy,” McDonald said.
The experience of COVID-19 is widely varied from case to case. This includes among members of the same household, as well as those of different ages and residences.
“For us, it was the equivalent of a bad flu bug. Each of us had different symptoms. Also, interestingly enough, the instructions for each of us on when we could return to work or school were different,” said Bradford resident Josh Hatcher. “My doctor’s office told me ten days from the start of symptoms. My wife’s doctor told her fourteen days from the start of symptoms. My daughter had to wait two weeks from her positive test to return to school.”
For the Hatcher family, the experience is not yet over, but they are thankful it was not worse in severity.
“There are some lingering symptoms: a little fatigue, and lack of energy. My eyesight actually got blurry, and as they get fatigued, they get blurry throughout the day,” Hatcher said. “We took vitamins and rested up, and are generally young and in good health. I have friends who have had Covid and did not fair as well.”
For Johnsonburg native Michael Hinman, who currently resides in the Bronx and works as the editor of the Riverdale Press, COVID-19 affected him early and still has lingering effects.
“I contracted the virus in late March, very early on. My office is literally across the street from Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School, which was the first school to actually close because of the coronavirus pandemic. A student’s father was the second confirmed case in New York, and because of her exposure, this school was closed down (she ended up testing positive as well),” Hinman explained. “It’s not clear if I contracted it through that specific spread event, or if I picked it up otherwise. I had also attended a job fair hosted by a journalism graduate school in Manhattan. And while we were all elbow-bumping, there was still a lot of close contact (and I took the subway there and back from where I live in the Bronx).”
While Hinman was unable to be tested when he was ill, because of limited testing availability, he later was tested for antibodies. That test came back positive, confirming his belief that he had struggled through COVID-19. In terms of symptoms, Hinman dealt with several but managed to avoid a stay in the hospital.
“I realized the head cold I had suffered at the beginning of my high fever had been gone for like two days, but my high fever persisted. I also lost my sense of taste and smell. I was very lucky that I did not require hospitalization,” Hinman said. “I had a high fever for a week, and after it broke, I suffered from extreme fatigue for another week or so. But I continued to work through all of it (remotely, of course), because I am also not very smart when it comes to resting while sick.”
Hinman feels it took three weeks to recover from the initial infection, but as recently as the last week or so, he has still been experiencing lingering effects.
“I suffer through bouts of pure exhaustion, which I did not have before. A few months back, I was indeed hospitalized for pneumonia,” he stated. “I was negative for COVID, but the doctors believed my previous infection made my lungs far more susceptible to bacteria. Luckily it also generated a high fever (similar to COVID), which had me hospitalized and treated before the pneumonia required intubation.”
Hinman has also continued to deal with bouts of fatigue and minor breathing problems, although he acknowledges these could be less due to COVID-19 and more to lifestyle. Leg weakness, particularly after long periods of sitting in one place, is also a problem, although Hinman noted that seems to have abated within the last week.
For Regina Solecki, a resident of Chester County, Pa., her extended family has fought off the illness with few lingering effects.
Solecki was the only one to test negative out of herself, her fiancé, mother, sister, brother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law, an aunt and uncle and a cousin and his wife. However, she suspects her test was a false negative, as she experienced many of the same symptoms as her loved ones did.
For her fiancé, COVID-19 and pneumonia hit at the same time. Medication prescribed during his treatment also caused issues with his blood sugar, resulting in a need for insulin shots. Both he and her mother still struggle with minor breathing issues, which continue to improve with time.
She explained that congestion and fatigue were the most common symptoms. Her illness led to days with no appetite and filled with sleep.
Her brother, his wife, her cousin and his spouse all were fortunate to avoid any symptoms but all four tested positive for COVID-19, nonetheless.
Her family is well on the road to recovery, grateful to put COVID-19 behind them.
The individual experiences recounted in this story are not intended to downplay the potential severity of COVID-19. The coronavirus is responsible for 22,101 deaths in Pennsylvania alone. Across the nation, 451,000 individuals have succumbed to COVID-19.
