We’re Making a Mistake That’s Going to Haunt Us Forever

Covid isn’t done with us.

Jessica Wildfire
9 min readDec 23, 2021

Something was wrong.

Our infant daughter wouldn’t eat, and wouldn’t stop crying. Her nose gushed. Her fever kept creeping up, higher and higher. A bright red rash was spreading up and down her legs. And so, we spent that Sunday afternoon at an emergency center, where we learned she’d caught respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a “common” illness among infants. Left untreated, though, it can lead to serious lung infections, and death.

It was a miserable, sleepless week.

Fortunately, the ER was almost empty. We didn’t have to wait long for a whole slew of doctors to help us. Just knowing what she had, and what we should do, was an enormous relief.

A few days later, we came down with RSV, and got to experience what our daughter had gone through. Imagine feeling like you’ve been ingested by a python, but you still have to care for a child who’s recovering from illness herself. Statistically, what we had was “mild,” which means a high chance of full recovery if you’re treated.

In America, we never question the if part…

We’re spoiled like that.

Americans don’t understand “mild” disease.

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