Cough Syrup for a Coronavirus

Covid numbers are up. Don't cound on Trump or RFK Jr. to tell the truth about the growing numbers or do the right thing when it comes to vaccination.

This week a friend told me he had a cold. We spent a couple of minutes agreeing that summer colds are the worst kind, which is one of those things people say to each other every July and probably isn’t true.

Then he mentioned the aches. And the sore throat. That is not a cold, I told him. It sounded more like the flu or COVID.

It was COVID. Day two, which meant he had two days left to do something about it. Paxlovid only helps if you start it inside five days of symptoms. Go to urgent care, I told him. Ask for it by name.

The nurse practitioner declined. Her explanation, as my friend relayed it me, was that COVID is basically a cold now.

She reccomended a prescription cough suppressant and a course of steroids.

Nobody gives narcotics and steroids for a cold. Whatever she believed about the virus, her own prescription pad disagreed with her. I was a frontline worker in 2020 and so I got the vaccine first. I was fine. In 2024, after the vaccine efficacy had dropped, I did get COVID and ended…