After two consecutive negative COVID tests, my brother-in-law Randy is at last preparing for his release from the hospital where he has spent the past four weeks. He is scheduled to move to the same longterm care facility he worked at prior to contracting the virus, where one floor is now dedicated to recovering COVID patients.
Understandably, Randy would rather go home. He is having difficulty processing why he can't be with his family. His care level is still high, and my sister is not physically equipped to care for him until he is able to ambulate. But Randy is still healing mentally as well as physically; his thinking is not yet clear.
Last night on a Zoom committee meeting, a colleague from NW Iowa mentioned his relative's weeks on a ventilator and slow recovery. It was not unlike Randy's journey. The numbers posted on the IDPH site do not tell the full story.
Numbers tested, hospitalized, and released do not express the dire experiences of many who contract this virus. Randy and my colleague's relative haven't died, so are considered success stories. Yet they have suffered terribly, and their families have sustained misery as well.
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Early in the days of COVID, my husband made a passing comment that he'd just as soon get the virus, get over it, and get back to work. Our up-close view of Randy's experience makes get-it-get-through-it look like a terrible option--even if you could guarantee survival.
Gov. Reynolds is loosening Iowa's restrictions this week in an effort to re-normalize, even as no cure, no vaccine, no reliable/accessible testing, and no expert-approved protocols are yet established.
We have worked too hard to flatten the curve, to protect ourselves and our community from the contagion, to now move to a slow-drip model of "manageable" numbers of COVID-19.
Manageable COVID is an oxymoron. Ask Randy.
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