Three Things I Learned From Catching Omicron

Like most places in the US right now, my home state of Michigan is currently in the throes of a massive COVID outbreak. Spurred on by the highly infectious “Omicron” variant, Michigan is seeing its worst levels of daily COVID cases since the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Seeing this trend early, I tried to take every precaution possible. I upgraded to KN95 masks, made sure I disinfected all my surfaces at work and continued to practice social distancing. Despite all this, I still contracted Omicron. As I began to feel my body sink into a sea of sickness, I was comforted by the fact that I was vaccinated and boosted.

Most reports I’d read and watched up to this point, had described Omicron as a “mild” version of the virus. One that didn’t project as much lethality as its predecessor, the Delta variant. I had done really well up to this point. Having successfully dodged all previous versions of COVID while keeping myself informed, I felt like I was readily prepared for what lied ahead. Almost immediately after the initial onset of symptoms, I quickly learned that my bout with Omicron would be both similar and wildly different from everything that I’d read.

Here’s three things I learned from catching Omicron.