I HAD CORONAVIRUS

Hello Neale, 

Was listening to your podcast this morning where you were relating your weekend wedding experience in ‘The Covid Era’ (bass reverberating voice).

I empathise with you but felt I needed to write and offer my two-bob's-worth.

First, and just to emphasise, I am not talking ‘out of my ass;’ I have to point out that my original area of study at Sydney Uni was in microbiology and biochemistry.

Secondly, as someone who has been infected with this Coronavirus I can say that, although the experience was not a pleasant one, it wasn't that traumatic either.  I've had flus which had me on my back for two weeks.  This one manifested itself with one day of fever, a bit of a cough, as well as loss of taste and smell for nearly four weeks.

I am not a conspiracy theorist or a denier but I do think the media has had a role in creating this wide-spread fear and the consequent rebellion against the rules, which some people are embracing.  That's not to say of course that media hype is not completely warranted, given how some people fail to do the minimum in order to contain this pandemic but we are, in a way, lucky as humanity that it is not as deadly as it could have been.  Let's hope we learn from it and are more prepared for the next one... because there will most assuredly be, a next one.

Here in France on the most part people are complying with the regulations.  I tend not to think too much about the fact that I need to put on a mask when I enter an establishment.  It's no big deal really and I certainly don't see it as a form of state oppression on my liberties and other such tripe.  I haven't had any photography jobs yet but wouldn't think twice about taking one when it appears.

If you do as you did last week and stick to your guns despite the peer-group pressure, whether in the professional or social arena you'll be alright. The peer-group pressure should be on those not complying but in the end Darwin always wins.  Personally, I believe the potential psychological trauma is more of a threat than the virus itself.

As for us, my wife and I, see our contracting the virus as a blessing in disguise given that she is eight months pregnant and we hope it will give our immunocompromised daughter to be born mid-September antibodies to tide her through a potential second wave.  One thing is for sure, having been through it we are definitely more relaxed about it even though we still take all the necessary precautions.

Take care of you and yours.

Best regards,

Elias Kamaratos

P.s.  I attach an image of my daily podcast walk in Burgundy.