Adult Children by Stephen Beals for December 20, 2020

My son is an RN who worked five twelve hour shifts every week on the covid ward of his hospital. He hasn’t seen any family members or friends who are not also hospital workers since February. I was afraid when he had only a few patients with it and he was young and in good shape. He was exhausted by his work, and emotionally exhausted by watching them die. Then, he got it himself. He was only in the hospital for four days, because he knew to get there early, and he was in his own hospital, so he got VIP treatment. But, he will be off work, at best for about a month. He was so weakened by the disease that he required home health care, and he has scarring in his lungs and a weakened heart.Those healthy young people who believe that the Trump plague is no match for their immune system need to remember several things.

1. You are infecting people when you have no symptoms at all. This includes your family and people who actually matter to other people even if they don’t to you.

2. When you overestimate your immune system, or underestimate the plague, you wind up competing for a respirator and other materials needed by those who developed the disease because they were essential workers.

3. Many viruses remain within the cells of your body. We don’t know that this is one of them, but it’s not unlikely. They wait there until your body’s immune system is no longer strong enough to keep them in check. That could happen when you are older, or in the car wreck you have next week. Then, with their new assistance, they come back in full force.

4.. You are endangering the medical workers who have to care for you and the people that you infect. They are already risking their lives. What right have you to add to their jeopardy because you need a haircut?