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COVID CAPERS shares the terrible burden of a young man (he didn't want to use his name) who is wracked with guilt over the death of his 85-year-old grandmother in January, assuming he was responsible because of irresponsible behaviour. Here's what he told us:
I have not been sleeping or eating much since late January when my grandmother passed from contracting the coronavirus. I'm fretting that I was the one who caused her to get the virus because I went to an illegal COVID party in St Catherine before she got it.
Mr Allen, I was just tired of being in the house all these months, working from home but with nothing else to do and no little fun or excitement in my life. I have two good 'bredrins' who told me about the COVID party and we decided to go. Now I'm so sorry.
My granny had diabetes, hypertension, [high] cholesterol, bronchitis and things like that, but was able to move around and help herself with cooking, and so on. Since the COVID-19 problem started last year she stayed home all the time. I'm the one who went to the supermarket and the pharmacy for her. My mother is in the States and asked me and my sister to take care of her.
Some people are trying to console me, telling me that since I didn't have the corona, it couldn't be from me that she caught it. But they have been saying that young people could have it and don't show any symptoms. My sister is also wondering if our grandmother could have gotten it from her although she didn't have any symptoms either.
The reason I feel so guilty is that some other persons who were at the party got the virus and I am wondering if I got exposed. I feel so bad I just can't explain. My granny was a lovely person. We could not even give her a proper burial. My mother is still crying over it.
I don't want my co-workers to know that I went to that illegal party. They are going to say I am irresponsible. I try telling myself that it wasn't me but that is not helping. I still feel guilty. It was my girlfriend who encouraged me to write to you. She says hearing my story might help other young people to see the danger in the virus and be more careful. You don't know which of your loved ones you might be killing.
Thanks for the work you are doing, Mr Allen.
Share your coronavirus experience with COVID CAPERS and help someone to cope with the disease or to see how dangerous it is to themselves or others. Write to allend@jamaicaobserver.com or riffraph54 @gmail.com.
FEEDBACK
Blood clotting
D Hart: You need to use another phrase for 'blood clot'. Jamaicans read this article a totally different way than you intended! (Or maybe you did intend it?)
Kit: Anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists will spread their opinions and half-truths with little regard for the consequences and lives lost. There is risk in almost everything we do. The risk of getting a blood clot from a COVID vaccine is way less than the risk of getting in a car accident, yet we blithely travel in vehicles every day.
I urge people to look for reputable information from persons trained in the science and medical fields. Consider what it would take for every scientist or medical doctor around the world to conspire to deceive all of humanity and cause it harm. We can't even agree on simple things, much less something of this magnitude. There IS NO PLOT to sterilise or harm people with the COVID vaccines. If you choose not to get one, remember that you are not just affecting yourself, but also people around you and those you love. I urge you to get vaccinated.
Vinnate Hall's story
TENC: Interesting. In short, she had a headache for two days, dry cough, fever and fluid loss and pain in her legs. Same as I had back in February, but I also had red eyes. Drink plenty of water to rehydrate; the eyes I treated with watered down aloe vera jelly as an eyewash and the leg pains I treated with Tylenol for about a week; the rest of the flu-like symptoms were so mild. My unreported case was better than any cold or flu I've ever had before, not that anyone wants to have a cold or flu.
Vaccine veteran
Geministon: Those days were different when we never knew or heard anything about biological weapons or warfare. Humanitarianism was in the air, there was no synthetic food, inorganic foods, chemical-laced ingredients. Money people are pushing for and influencing population scale down openly, and our leaders are silent when talking people into trusting what none can ascertain about the substances now in this vaccine. So the original concept behind vaccination that older folks are accustomed to has given way to all kinds of fears and unanswered questions.
Chercher: The view that this is not the same as vaccines that we received for childhood diseases is a mistaken view. This is a therapy using the dead virus with the protein to get your system to respond to it so the next time the virus comes to you your body will respond appropriately. It won't overreact because it already knows it and it will quickly stop the replication. This will help prevent you from getting very sick, hospitalised or dying. But nothing is guaranteed.
With this vaccine you can still get the virus, still pass it on to others, still get sick, still die, but your chances are less that this will happen. Aproximately 99.8 per cent of people who get this virus survive... It's mostly people with existing medical conditions or compromised immune system who get into trouble.