A Starting Over at 60 Blog
I’m working with an old friend. She’s talking about the complexities of a web site build. “Wow,” I think, “she really knows her stuff.” And then I remove my high heeled loafers— penny loafers with actual pennies in leather slots but with high, chunky heels— and walk out a nondescript door to a New York City street. It’s another crazy Covid dream oozing from my synapses while fever-sweat pours down my back.
I haven’t had Covid since February 2024– over 2 years ago. But this year? I had it for my birthday. Lucky me. I spent my “special day” on the couch binge-watching Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. I also slept deeply— the kind of sleep when your body presses the “off” button and demands REM— not the rock group, but deep dream-state sleeping.
This round of Covid surprised me. My sister, with whom I live, seemed to have an intestinal virus. Cyclospora, we wondered, even though we had been diligent about eliminating contaminated foods. After 2 days of misery, my niece, a nurse, recommended her mother take a Covid test. Sure enough, my sister had Covid. I took several tests, all negative. I had cared for my sister during her health misery. Five days into the illness, my husband tested positive, though his symptoms were nothing like my sister’s. I still came out negative.
A few days later, a day before my birthday, I felt the enveloping fatigue. Another test: positive. I was the last one to fall. Damn. I found substitutes to teach my Jazzercise classes and canceled appointments.
Covid has been different each time I’ve had it— 4 times in total. This oddity of the virus: it manifests in unexpected and sneaky ways. I’ve never had the coughing and congestion associated with the virus’ typical symptoms. I have had high fevers, loss of taste and smell, and extreme fatigue. This time, the fatigue returned. Along with it came joint aches I haven’t had since I injured my back 10 years ago. My right hip joint felt as if a dog were gnawing at my bone. My right shoulder, which had never ached before, felt overused and sore. My left thumb suddenly froze and got stuck— trigger finger symptoms. I felt none of these pains before I became ill.
This separates Covid from the common cold. Whenever someone says Covid “is like having a cold,” anger surges within me. No cold I’ve ever had— and I’ve had bad ones like I’m sure you all have had— has resulted in unrelenting joint pain and other bizarre symptoms. One symptom I seem to have when Covid infects me is “burning tongue syndrome.” Just as it sounds, the symptoms include extreme burning sensations on the tongue. Imagine eating a pepper on the highest end of the Scoville scale. This is burning tongue syndrome, distinguished from neurological issues by the fact that only parts of the tongue experience the sensation and not the entire tongue.
When I first had Covid, I had numb lips for months afterwards. This symptom has returned each time I’ve had Covid. This time, it returned as well, along with the incessant burning. These symptoms are nothing to minimize. The tongue issues mean that the virus has transgressed the blood-brain barrier. Common colds and flus don’t do this.
Covid is not a cold, people. It’s an invasive virus that infects multiple parts of the body, sometimes resolving without ongoing problems but often resulting in hard-to-define and mysterious symptoms that remain for months or years. I know someone who developed heart palpitations after her first bout with Covid. A cardiologist diagnosed the palpitations as long Covid, not the patient herself.
For this reason, I feel compelled to remind you that Covid is a thing. It’s real, persistent and sometimes fatal. It continues to be unlike any illness I’ve had in my life— and I’ve had the Mumps and Scarletina Rash when I as a kid.
Measles is a dangerous disease. And yet, thousands of parents now refuse measles vaccines for their children. They mistakenly believe that fighting measles makes the immune system stronger. In fact, measles completely tears down the immune system. In the U.S., the measles’ rate has soared, with almost 3,000 confirmed cases as of August 21, 2026. This is the highest number of reported cases since 1991. For three decades, the U.S. had nearly eradicated the illness.
Misinformation fuels the anti-vaccination movement, as well as a bizarre idea the humans can conquer diseases on their own, without medical intervention. Anti-vax supporters use hogwash science to support their claims. Now, backed by a misinformed and undereducated Trump administration, they find political support for the unscientific and unproven claims.
I don’t know where my sister contracted the Covid virus. I do know the number of working days three adults gave up to recover from the infection. Lost productivity, ongoing symptoms, harmed organs— all of these should be enough to encourage Americans to vaccinate themselves. My incidence of Covid was fairly mild, as was my husband’s. My sister experienced the most serious symptoms. If people had engaged in vaccination at the necessary rate to gain herd immunity, perhaps we wouldn’t have gotten sick at all.
Science is not the enemy of the people. Uneducated politicians are. What will we need to do to return our country to logic and scientific method? Scientific techniques, which evolve continuously as we learn more and more, prevent ongoing plagues, leprosy and many other diseases. I want to cry, “Wake up, people. Science is good.” C’mon, chant it with me.
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