Everyone is tired of COVID. We’re in the middle of a fresh wave of infections. It’s super stressful.
Now some folks are saying they want to catch Omicron just to “get it over with.”
Like, maybe if they catch COVID, they can stop worrying about catching COVID. What a relief, right?
Wrong.
We’re here to tell you that’s a bad idea.
Well, it’s not just us. Doctors everywhere are telling people it’s a bad idea.
Dr. Paul Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He told CNN that he’s hearing this idea everywhere. “It’s all the rage,” he said.
Dr. Robert Murphy is executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University. He told CNN that the idea has “caught on like wildfire.”
He also said, “[y]ou’d be crazy to try to get infected with this. It’s like playing with dynamite.”
Just in case the idea had crossed your mind, here are the top five reasons not to catch COVID on purpose.
1. It’s not a bad cold
Imagine a terrible fever, headache, sore throat, incredibly stuffy nose… Oh, and you’re exhausted. And it’s hard to breathe. That’s a “mild” case of Omicron.
“People are talking about Omicron like it’s a bad cold. It is not a bad cold,” Murphy said. “It’s a life-threatening disease.”
Just because Omicron isn’t killing as many people as Delta doesn’t mean it won’t kill you.
2. You could get Long COVID
Long COVID is the gift that keeps on giving. Only no one wants it. Think shortness of breath, severe fatigue, fever, dizziness, brain fog, diarrhea, heart palpitations, muscle and stomach pain, mood swings and trouble sleeping.
Sound like fun? Now imagine that no one can tell you how long this will last. Months? Years? Who knows!
COVID can get into your brain. Some folks have brain fog months after their symptoms go away. If they get brain scans, it shows cloudy regions where the virus has wrecked their brain tissue. And no one knows if they will get better.
3. You could pass the disease on to children
Kids under 11 aren’t fully vaccinated yet. Before Christmas, kids were catching COVID more than any other age group in Canada.
Sure, COVID hasn’t hit kids as hard as it hit older people. But still, do you want to risk giving your kid a disease we don’t understand?
New links are being drawn between COVID and diabetes in children, too. COVID doesn’t cause diabetes, but the virus could bring it on if your kid is predisposed to it.
4. You could put more pressure on the healthcare system
Hospitals all over Canada are low on staff. The nurses, techs, doctors, and cleaners that we need to keep hospitals running are getting sick themselves. Surgeries are being cancelled.
One BC doctor had a blunt warning: “Now is not the time to get injured.” If you get hurt, there’s no one left to help you.
You might not end up in the hospital if you go out and catch COVID on purpose. But you could spread it to someone who will. So don’t take that chance if you can help it.
5. Mother Nature might waste your ass
You know the chickenpox virus just hangs out in your nerve tissue, right? Years after the spots go away, the virus is just chilling near your spinal cord. And sometimes, it wakes up again. You can get shingles. Or you can get brain damage.
What the $%*!, right?
Dr. Offit says chickenpox parties were also a bad idea. We just didn’t know that until we learned more about the virus. The same is true with COVID.
“Don’t mess with Mother Nature,” he said. “She’s been trying to kill us ever since we crawled out of the ocean onto the land.”
