• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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CNN’s Richard Quest and the ghost of coronavirus

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It is no longer news that the quirky presenter of “Quest means business” on CNN tested positive to COVID-19 a couple of months ago. Ditto the CNN reporter, Cuomo. They have made their Coronavirus journeys pretty public. Just as Cuomo has been reporting the long term after effects of Coronavirus, long after you have conquered it, so has Quest. But Quest has been particularly forthcoming and I would like to share.

Many persons after testing positive are released from a controlled isolation after they test negative. Some in fact self-isolate and this is quite possible if you are disciplined and not putting it up for show. You stay in your home; people deliver your food at the door and you stay out of contact with your family members. It can be traumatising for a lot of people but hey, this thing is not even a joke. It’s the difference between life and death. And according to billionaire/Entrepreneur Jack Ma, your profit as an entrepreneur in these uncertain times is staying alive.

So back to Richard Quest.

In April, Richard Quest tested positive for COVID-19. After doing the needful, he tested negative but his writing on the matter this month indicated that he is having to face the consequences of even having it at all and believes that it will be with him for a long time to come. Quest’s post-COVID feelings are well documented in his CNN Health article, I got COVID two months ago. I’m still discovering new areas of damage. He starts the article by saying “The cough has come back, without warning and seemingly for no reason. So has the fatigue. True neither one was as debilitating as when I had the actual virus but they are back.”

It is truly traumatic when people have been told that they are now COVID negative and they still have to deal with symptoms like feelings which they now cannot explain to anyone. Quest says his Doctors say it will all wear off but cannot tell him when. He adds for good measure “I am also discovering new areas of damage: I have now become incredibly clumsy. I was never the most lissom person, no one ever called me graceful, but my clumsiness is off the chart. If I reach for a glass, or take something out of a cupboard, I will knock it, or drop it on the floor. I have tripped over the curb and gone flying. I fall over furniture. It is as if that part of my brain, which subconsciously adjusts hand and movement to obstacles it sees, isn’t working.

We all must find ways of staying safe knowing what we now know. High risk behaviour like going to a crowded place without masks is not on. Also remember it’s not just about you, it’s about your family, children, parents, uncles. It’s true we are all tired but we must trudge on

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At times there’s a sense of mild confusion. The micro delay in a thought, the hesitation with a word. Nobody would notice but me.”

This is truly hard and can be pretty unnerving. People are going through stuff in this pandemic. Many are just not sharing.

During the week, I spoke to a dear friend and brother, Akin Oke. He told me he had made up his mind that this Coronavirus business is a long haul. It will take a while before we return to normalcy. Maybe late next year if we are lucky. He says he had been reading about the 1918 virus and is making comparative analysis. A truly wise thing to do. Then he told me of a friend who informed him that he would stop talking to friends who do not take the virus seriously, who trivialise it and make it sound like it’s nothing. Because his friend says, such people are extremely dangerous and can harm themselves and put you at risk. True that!

We all must find ways of staying safe knowing what we now know. High risk behaviour like going to a crowded place without masks is not on. Also remember it’s not just about you, it’s about your family, children, parents, uncles. It’s true we are all tired but we must trudge on. This business still has some way to go.

Staying alive should be your ambition, your ultimate goal. No matter how tiring and inconveniencing it gets, don’t expose yourself to the virus. It’s not worth it. And in concluding let me again quote Quest “Like many others, I am now coming to realise that I am living and suffering from the long tail of COVID-19…For those who have not had it or witnessed the mess it leaves behind, I urge you do whatever you can to avoid this tornado.” Word!