What We've Learned about Safety

Norma Gabriela Galván for Pexels

Some things we've learned from our recent encounter with COVID that will change the way we've been trying to stay safe throughout this pandemic...

Outdoors doesn't always mean safe: We had been attending outdoor events and activities, unmasked, all summer. Even if they were a little crowded or if there were walls or ceilings on one or two sides of a space, if it was pretty much outdoors with good airflow, I felt like we didn't really have to worry. However, our best guess is that COVID entered our home via a crowded, semi-outdoor event - either from the crowd around us, or from a specific close-talker. And it was passed to another household just by sitting outdoors talking for a couple hours. From now on, even if we're outside, we're going to be masking if in close proximity to others.

Masked doesn't always mean you're protecting others: We have been vigilant about wearing masks anywhere indoors, no matter how alone we are (with a couple brief exceptions for indoor dining in large cafeteria-like spaces, where we immediately masked back up after eating). There were many times we were the only masked people in an indoor situation. But COVID was passed from our household to a coworker via someone who was wearing a mask all day (the coworker was not). You can bet the next time they worked together, all parties were masked.

A negative home test doesn't mean you're negative: You've probably heard anecdotes of people who got together for a big family event or vacation with friends, and responsibly tested in advance to ensure everyone would be safe. Yet a couple days later, someone develops symptoms, and multiple infections end up coming from the event. The night we realized my husband might be sick, his COVID test turned up an instant, thick, black positive line, but mine was completely blank and negative. However, despite immediately separating and masking, I had obviously already been infected. My symptoms started the next day. Which finally leads me to...

Anytime you don't feel good, stay away from others: My husband's first symptom was that he was a little hoarse, but he'd been out talking in the chilly evening air for a couple hours, so it was easy to ignore. When my own symptoms started, I'd been sleeping with the windows open and thought it may be allergies or just a response to the cool air overnight. If anything, maybe we could have just had regular colds. Even once I knew I had COVID, my symptoms were mild and I've definitely gone to work at my office in the past feeling worse than I did that week. We are lucky to have the luxury of being able to work from home, have things delivered, etc. From now on, no matter what symptoms we have or what we think the cause might be, we will play it safe and stay home and away from others.