For me, it was the shift from “prevent” to “prepare”. The 15-second unskippable YouTube ads had stopped telling me to prevent the spread and were now asking me to brace myself. It felt like an admission of defeat. After two years of watching the Covid burn through the rest of the world, seeing that one word change made me realise that our time was finally up. Covid was here.
When Dunedin registered its first case, I realised that out of the 403 million global Covid cases, I barely knew anyone who had actually contracted it. And, like you, I began to wonder what we were in for. So I reached out to some friends overseas, in communities where the virus had already become a part of normal life, to see what their experiences were like.
I talked to five people. They are all typical university age (two of them studied at Otago as international students - remember those days?), none of them are immunocompromised, and they were all double vaxxed. But they all had a different experience with the virus, which just goes to show you that five people is not a large enough sample size to draw conclusions. I guess STATS110 could’ve told you that, if you paid attention.
So, as we all wait to see what happens in Dunedin, as we all wait to see whose vape initiates a super spreader, we can look at these stories to try to get a feel for what we’re in for.
Blaze
(22 | USA)
Blaze got Omicron on Christmas of this past year. It lasted for about six days. Everyone with him at his ski field employee housing tested positive for it. Every last one of them. However, due to the nature of the job and the fact that most bosses don’t particularly care for your well-being, Blaze was told to go back to work after four days despite him still producing positive tests.
Blaze also had what he described as “O.G. Covid” in March of 2021 and didn’t have any symptoms. But this time around, after being double vaxxed, he experienced a shortness of breath, more snot than usual, and a constant buildup of phlegm that he still has to this day. Yum. The shortness of breath is what truly confused him as it’s something he’s never encountered before and made him realise that “this is like, a real thing”. Despite the lasting phlegm Blaze still described Omicron as “a really bad cold”.
Joni
(22 | USA)
If your ideal form of isolation is being completely alone surrounded by mountains of ham, you’ll be pretty jealous of Joni’s experience.
Everyone at Joni’s home university was getting covid. It got to the point where she consistently overheard people calling their parents to tell them that they had tested positive, Joni recalled. Therefore, she reckoned, “it was only a matter of time” before she tested positive for Omicron. The day of her positive test she felt incredibly lightheaded, like she “hit a vape one too many times” and was going to pass out.
Joni’s symptoms were severe. From a headache that wouldn’t go away for a day despite lots of ibuprofen, to shivers, to sweats, body aches, tiredness, and brain fog, Joni had it all. Joni is scared that some of the brain fog “never went away” and she’ll never be “as smart as she was before”. The flu symptoms were gone by day 5.
With all of these symptoms came the infamous loss of smell and taste. Joni realised that she’d lost her senses when she ate a spoonful of peanut butter and couldn’t taste anything. Joni reckons peanut butter has “the strongest taste known to humankind”, but all she got was texture. The only thing she could still taste was lunch meats, and she began to crave them for their sweet release from oral monotony. She ate what she described as “a fuckton of ham”. Still, nearly two months later, she only has around 85% of her original smell-ability. The silver lining, she says, is that her spice tolerance has gone “way up”.
Joni describes the experience as “multidimensional” because on hand her “antibodies are so great”, but she remains scared about the lingering effects of long Covid.
Marie
(24 | UK)
Marie first got the Delta variant in August of 2020, and it rapidly spread through her family’s household. Her main symptom was a headache, but she also lost her sense of taste and smell. Fortunately, these came back within a week. Marie’s boyfriend contracted long Covid and is attending smell training in an attempt to gain his sense back. Critic wonders what smell training means, but in the meantime, Marie can fart worry-free.
Marie had gotten the first vaccine by the time she contracted Omicron. She did not lose her senses again but felt “incredibly run down”. Marie describes Omicron less like a bad cold (since she was not sneezing as much as last time), and more like a constantly foggy brain. Kind of like if you smoke weed all the time. Marie also noticed that she was out of breath going upstairs, which is “highly unusual” for her.
The most surprising thing for Marie was the experience of losing her sense of smell. This happened with Delta, but it’s possible with Omicron too. Some of her mates said the only smell they retained was the lingering smell of petrol, but Marie’s olfactory experience was a vast void of absolutely nothing. Her senses have regained fully, but she somehow developed an aversion to eggs. Raw or boiled, she cannot deal with the smell. Her period also got much heavier after Delta, which can apparently happen for those with uteruses.
Marie described a sense of relief after getting Omicron and Delta because she “visits London heaps and it was just a matter of time” before she contracted them anyway. She now maintains a peace of mind knowing her body can handle it.
Alex
(24 | US)
No one ever wants to see a text from the Clinic saying “make sure you have a bag packed, you need to be ready to be hospitalised”. Alex had both the flu and Omicron when he received this message. Luckily, Alex never was hospitalised. His illness lasted for 6 days with the main symptom being “super tired” and a sore throat which turned into a state of “gnarly congestion”.
Alex kept trying to smell and taste things to ensure he didn’t lose his senses. Luckily, he never did. He agrees with the general sentiment that it’s similar to a pretty bad cold. While Alex still has a lingering cough six weeks later, he reckons it could be from the plethora of “shit I put in my lungs”.
Leaf
(23 | Canada)
Leaf checked herself against the online Covid chart symptoms and only related to the symptoms of a flu. However, to be safe, she got tested and tested positive for Omicron. For Leaf, the virus lasted 5-6 days with the main symptom being heavy fatigue and becoming exhausted very quickly. During the first few days of Omicron, Leaf slept for around 20 hours each. After that brief hibernation, Leaf experienced fever chills for another day and a lasting tiredness for another 5 days. She also described a piercing headache that lasted for two weeks.
Leaf was so worried that she would lose her sense of taste and smell that she “ate six-course meals every day” in an attempt to stave off that side effect. Despite the day of shivering and persistent headache, Leaf does not think that Omicron was “that bad”, calling it “basically a really bad flu”. She says she feels “invincible in a way” because it’s “out of the way” and not as bad as she originally thought it would be.
Remember, as this virus enters our community, it’s up to you to get tested and keep the public as healthy as possible. There are heaps of testing sites around Dunedin to take advantage of as we all brace for an interesting semester.