Tom Merritt Finally Got COVID
Well it finally got me. The vid. The rona. The plague. I finally tested positive.
Since 2020 I've been very careful not to say I never had COVID, but that I never tested positive for it. And I tested around a dozen times. My doctor even tested my antibodies. She found them unusually high, which she said could either mean that I had it and was symptomatic or that my body just reacted to the vaccines really well. Either way, it explained why I hadn't seemed to get it. I had a robust immune response.
I traveled to Hawaii. I traveled a few times to San Jose. I traveled to Austin. I traveled to Las Vegas. Didn't get it.
I went to four BTS concerts, two Twice concerts (heh twice), a Seventeen Concert, an Aespa concert, a Stray Kids concert, a wedding and a Dodgers game. Didn't get it.
I got my fourth vaccine shot on September 27th, the bivalent one. I was feeling really good. This virus can't catch me!
And when I wasn't doing all the stuff I mentioned I really wasn't out and about much. Over the past week I hadn't really gone anywhere. I mean nowhere. There was no reason to think I might have got infected.
So Wednesday night, when my throat felt scratchy and I was little more tired than I should be, I took some nyquil and figured it was an autumn cold.
I woke up Thursday and felt really tired. Still just a cough but really really tired. I figured I'd better be sure just in case I did want to go somewhere this weekend. So I went to the clinic. I got the test.
Positive.
How?
Was it the waiter at the Hungry Fox last Sunday?
Was it the fact that Eileen has had to go into work three days a week? Did she carry it home asymptomatically?
Who knows?
The fact is my streak has ended. I did not escape the vid. Few do.
The good news is that by Friday I already felt a lot better. Still a little tired with the cough but not as tired as Thursday. Frankly my reaction seems to be similar to the reaction lots of people described having to the vaccines. I never had any reactions to he vaccines so I figure this is payback.
Nevertheless, I shall begin my five-day coalescence (as will Eileen, just to be safe). LA County sent me an alert and I registered my positive test with Exposure Notification. I'll be getting a call from the county soon to check up on me.
I'm fine. Luckily.
What I'm more excited about than my positive COVID test is this week's episode "A Word." I have admired Andrea Jones-Rooy's many appearances on Andrew Heaton's podcasts so was super excited to talk to them about Identity.
It's not going to be what you think. Andrea has a very nuanced take on identity. It's a really fun and I hope productive conversation that moves past "scoring points" or signalling virtues and into what the issue might actually be about. At the very least I think it will help you form your own opinions without preaching about which ones you should hold. Hope you enjoy it.
Now to pretend I feel worse than I am and milk this positive test for all it's worth! Laying around, here I come!
Tom
Identity - Andrea Jones-Rooy — shows.acast.com
What is Identity? Political scientist Andrea Jones-Rooy talks about how we decide our identities, what they mean how complex they are and whether they are as important as we think they are. Also why her neighbors keep playing New York New York!
Featuring Tom Merritt and Andrea Jones-Rooy.
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https://www.instagram.com/jonesrooy/
Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/a-word-with-tom-merritt.
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Voicemail But Worse - It's a Thing 235 — shows.acast.com
Tom finds a thing that's a smash and Molly normalizes voice. Then Tom recognizing the thingness of cozy, while Molly recognizes the trend of fancy dogs.
Get the transcript here.
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