Life As a Non-Covid Getter

There are a few of us left. Let’s not get cocky.

Sunday afternoon, New York City mayor Eric Adams, on his 100th day in office, announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19. He had woken up with a “raspy voice,” took a rapid test that came back negative before taking a PCR test that returned positive. While having Covid-19 is certainly worse than not having Covid-19, Adams will surely be fine. He’s fully vaccinated, he’s a healthy 61 years old, he’s already taking anti-viral medication. You wish him well.

But you also can’t help but cluck your tongue a little. After all, just last week, on Wednesday, Adams boasted to reporters how he never got Covid-19, which is very much spiking the ball before you’ve reached the end zone. The quote is an all-timer:

“I’ve never had a positive diagnosis,” Mr. Adams said. “I’ve felt good and I haven’t felt the symptoms, and I am around people all the time — even in the heart of Covid. I was at ground zero. For whatever reason, I think it’s a combination of my eating lifestyle, and some luck maybe involved but no, I never had it.”

He tested positive four days later.

There is an old joke about a man who believes that death is an urban legend: After all, it has never happened to him. When you’ve spent every day of the last…