The Great Covid Scare Of '24
Keinehora.
It’s Yiddish and means, roughly, no evil eye. The word is used to ward off bad luck, to make sure that a comment is not seen as envious or filled with hubris; if you did say something like that it could be seen as an invitation for something bad to happen.
Everything’s in the oven; dinner should be right on time. Keinehora.
I studied really hard for the test and should pass with flying colors. Keinehora.
The Mets are playing really well. Playoff baseball here we come. Keinehora. That said, there may not be enough keinehoras in the world to keep the evil eye from looking down on Citi Field.
In Christianity, the equivalent is “knock wood,” referring to tapping on the cross for good luck, protection against something going wrong.
One last one.
We don’t have Covid. KEINEHORA. (At this point, just assume I’m saying keinehora after each word that I write. Not taking any chances; keen… you get the idea).
For a good part of Monday, my better 83 percent (from here on referred to simply as B83)and I thought that was no longer the case. We’ve been really careful for the last four and a half years, avoiding exposure; most importantly, avoiding the disease. Neither of us have the world’s strongest immune system so from wearing masks all the time to washing our groceries and stocking up on necessities, we have been VERY careful. Keinehora (sorry. Needed to actually write it there).
Lately, we’ve had some close calls: having dinner with someone who tested positive the next morning; having a houseguest who tested positive while here; being on a trip with someone who tested positive the day after we went our separate ways.
Each time turned out ok.
Monday was different.
B83 had gone swimming with a friend the day before. Monday came, the friend, feeling a bit off, went to the nurse’s office to get a test. Immediately turned positive. Same with a colleague. Figuring better safe than sorry, B83 also tested.
Also positive.
She let me know immediately and I quickly went to the medicine cabinet to grab a test. Positive. Crap.
Here’s where it gets weird.
The thing is, Covid doesn’t show itself quickly so to test positive just a day after seeing someone seemed unlikely if not almost impossible. Then there was another interesting twist. The tests used at work by the three of them were all expired. So was the one I used.
Even though all four of us tested positive using expired tests – again, worth noting the three of them were using from one batch while the test I used was from a completely different batch – it didn’t seem possible that all could be wrong. Studies have shown that if expired tests show a bad result, it’s a false negative, not a false positive.
B83 picked up new tests on her way home so we could test again with non expired tests; same with her colleagues. B83 and I tested. Both came back negative. We tested again. Again the results were negative. Same for B83’s colleagues. In between taking the first test and the later two, my mind went a million places as I assumed that I had Covid.
We had a virtual appointment with a doctor. We had scheduled it right after the first positives came in figuring we would need Paxlovid. With the new tests showing negative, we figured it was best to keep the appointment and see what the doctor said.
He suggested stopping with the home tests before we go broke (there must have been a note in our file) and come and get a PCR test, which is much more effective and precise. So, we got in the car and took the tests.
A couple of hours later, the results came back. Negative for Covid.
Also negative for RSV and negative for the flu.
So, here we are. Tuesday and Covid-free. Keinehora.
Just goes to show that Bobby Kennedy was right when he said, “Science? No one really knows anything.”