What Do You Say to Someone Who Gets Covid Now?

Our views have changed a lot in the last two years.

The first person I knew who had Covid-19 was an old friend who had been traveling in Spain in mid-March 2020 and, upon returning to New York City, came down with a nasty, debilitating fever. She was “as sick as I’ve ever been,” and my friend, who is rarely ill, was bed-ridden for several days. “It was really scary there for a few days,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to die. But I wasn’t sure I was ever going to get better.” I remember talking to her, at the end of that month, and being both happy she was better and terrified for her. Who knew what lay ahead of her? Was this really the end of it? Would her life ever be the same after she was infected? I found myself thinking of her, if I’m being honest, as if she’d been in a horrible car accident: It made me feel bad for not spending more time with her, you know, before. It felt, in a way, like the end of the world.

It no longer feels this way when I find out that someone I know has Covid. We’re in the midst of what seems like another wave, at least among the East Coast; cases are up 39 percent over the last two weeks. The BA.2 variant is now the primary variant in the United States, and it’s reportedly even more transmissible than the evil Omicron. Athletes are starting to test positive again. It’s up for considerable debate how…