Edie Weinstein, shares what it means to practice social distancing when you are in multiple high-risk categories for COVID-19. She reminds us that social distancing is more about physical distance than it is about social isolation.
The coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, does not recognize sex, race, religion, or politics — but it does, however, discriminate against age. Being over 50 puts people in what is known as a “high-risk category” for coronavirus complications, as does having an immune deficiency, circulatory, diabetic, cardiac, and respiratory conditions. At 61, having had asthma since I was four, experiencing a heart attack at 55, and overcoming pneumonia around this time two years ago, I’m smack dab in several of those cautionary categories.
Even while acknowledging that reality, my initial reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic was that I was not going to fall into catastrophic thinking. But that lasted, oh, a few minutes and then the what-if’s in my mind grabbed hold and gripped tightly.
What if I got so sick that I needed to be in the hospital as I had when I felt like I was drowning when I had pneumonia? What if my family or friends were diagnosed and became severely ill or died? What if I couldn’t work and support myself?
