Back in the good old days (pre March 2020 - BC; before Covid), when you had a bit of a sniffle in your snuffle, it was nothing more than the annoying and survivable common cold. You'd either push through it, or succumb to its powers and retreat to the couch to be lulled to sleep by the sound of the TV after a bowl of comfort food - often something like Wedding Soup or Chicken Soup; depending on your heritage. These days however, as the title implies, what starts out as a "Co" could either be the aforementioned innocuous mucus monsoon, or something more insidious - the now-dreaded Covid-19.
Fortunately, in just a few short years, much progress has been made with vaccines and medications to combat Covid and manage this modern malady. Young or old, cancer-ridden or devoid of comorbidities, we must all now reconsider our congestion, scratchy throat or lethargy, and presume that this could possibly be Covid. With all of the new strains developing every day (those viruses are crafty and adaptive buggers), the list of known symptoms keeps changing, so you can't even relax if you still have a sense of smell/taste, or are not exhibiting any of the other early classic signs of coronavirus.
Rapid home testing, or the more definitive PCR, can supply some results (the latter being much more conclusive and reliable). One could end up chasing their tail with endless daily testing if Cold/Covid-like symptoms persist; seeking the knowledge and reassurance of their need to isolate, or contagiousness - or not.
This is all data and decisions that I need to be particularly aware of. Covid will not kill me (fortunately), but like everything else, it will affect me adversely and last longer than the typical patient. I try to stay ahead of the scourge/curve and jumped on Paxlovid as soon as I had a recent positive test result. But at some point (like the annoying cold and post-nasal drip that I am tolerating now), I have to believe/accept my series of negative test results and just ride it out. It's not reckless or rogue, it's just reasonable and realistic. Sometimes it may actually be Covid, but most times it's going to turn out to be just a cold - like the good old days.
