ON JULY 31, a close associate tested positive for COVID.
We were together, albeit separate sleeping quarters, since I arrived in Manila on July 27.
***
To be fair, I always keep my distance, and almost always don’t speak to anyone for more than ten minutes at a stretch.
With talkative friends, I would rather be misconstrued as deaf (I always ask people to repeat things if I don’t understand, and can’t lip read) but they still have to wear their masks.
***
I’ve been sneezing quite a lot with my (new) K95 surgical grade mask.
I’m rather used to my (favorite) KN95.
***
I only started using K95 because a recently bereaved friend in Los Angeles (who just had COVID) insisted to see me.
I said, we are going to be doing K95 if we are to talk.
***
I had some extra K95 left over so I used it for my international flights.
Although the K95 has a tighter feel (and greater sense of security), it has some fibers that somehow irritate my nose.
I sneeze, and I even feel stuffy with mucous.
***
I know why I have nasal mucous, or why I sneeze a lot.
But it’s hard to explain that if some people around you are turning up positive, and some other people are turning up more paranoid.
***
I only have a few self-test kits left over so I have become more judicial with my testing.
But on my fifth day in Manila, on the first of August, I tested myself.
And I’m still wonderfully negative.
***
My sister got COVID in Paris.
Of all places!
Imagine an American COVID nurse catching the virus not from her hospital but in the City of Lights!
Now, she has the bragging rights!
***
So, what did you do in Paris?
Oh, I just caught COVID! Haha.
***
Of course, I am glad my sister got over it.
She went back home to America COVID negative.
***
Me, after all the flights, the airports, the hugs, the kisses, the embraces, the meetups, the museums, the restaurants, the shopping, I’m still COVID negative.
Of course, I thank God for that.
I also thank Pfizer.
I got two shots, plus two boosters.
***
And I thank my other vaccines.
I got two shots of shingles vaccines, for example, because I am over 50.
And although it is not the same as the monkey pox vaccine, the idea that the viruses could belong to the same family or class makes me boldly immune.
***
If I feel healthy, and my mind tells my body that I’m healthy, I am most likely healthy!
That’s just how self-aware I am.
I know my body because I listen to it.
I listen to my body because I make love to it.
***
Anyway, I also feel confident that my PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV) therapy is helping me fight off COVID.
Again, my super suggestive mind is saying that the HIV and SARS-CoV-2 viruses could belong to the same family or same class of viruses.
***
I understand science. And I believe in science.
If science tells me that the shingles and monkey pox viruses are not the same, they are not the same.
If science says HIV and COVID viruses are not the same, they are not the same.
***
But my mind has some positive power, too.
If my mind tells me not to worry because worrying can lower my immune system, I do not worry.
If my mind tells me that maybe I’m more protected from the viruses because I got the vaccines, my body begins to believe that, too.
And my body creates more immunity.
***
I can visualize my body making more of some fighter cells that would fight any onset of infection.
Or, if you still want to contest that idea, you can just believe that I am lucky.
As I believe that I am.
***
The science of COVID has changed a lot.
From knowing almost nothing in 2019, to knowing a little today.
In fact, why some people do not get COVID, they attribute to mere luck.
***
I am pretty sure that at some point in this pandemic (I am convinced that this still isn’t over), I will ultimately catch the virus.
My only hope is that by then, I would have better immunity, or that the virus would be the weaker, non-fatal variant.
***
Of course, I am still hoping that I would be the lucky one, the last man standing.
But if it doesn’t come to that, I just pray that I’ll survive it, and live to tell about it.
***
Last year, I have come to some degree of fatalism or ‘bahala na’ mentality.
I have outlined my death by COVID scenario.
That’s why I started traveling with a vengeance.
Europe, trans-Grand Britannia, trans-America, South America, and now, I’m in Asia.
***
Oh, the life I lived since embracing the thought that I could die of COVID!
Oh, the life I lived since embracing the idea that COVID can’t stop me from living “the life”, la vida loca.
If not lucky, what am I?/PN
