A Covid-19 reporter gets the disease, and learns some lessons

Sarah Ladd took this photo of herself as she suffered from Covid-19.

By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern

For more than three years, I’ve written about Covid-19. The people who caught it and those who kept it longer than they should have. The people who bought into misinformation. And, worst of all, those who died from it.

Finally, I tested positive myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had several Covid-19 scares over the last few years. In early 2020, before tests were available to young and healthy people, my doctor at the time believed me to have it. But she couldn’t spare a test for me, so we never knew for sure. Since then, I’ve had several flu-like bouts, but always got “negative” back from Covid-19 tests.

That changed on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. And now that I have hard confirmation of a Covid-19 infection, I see that nothing I experienced before compared to this. Does that mean this is my first true bout with the disease? Maybe I’ll never know.

Here’s what I do know. I’ve come to understand Covid-19 during my time in isolation in a way I never did before.

There’s a sick sort of forced independence in this illness. No one can rub your back when you ache or hold a cool rag to your fevered head. Getting a comforting hug? Out of the question.

While lying on my back in air that felt heavier than it ever had before, I thought to myself: No wonder Covid-19 is so divisive. We deal with it alone. Without seeing a smile or feeling a pat on the back. Without humanity.

Similar isolation is true for other illnesses, but this was all new to me.

All these things I knew — in theory. I’ve sat through enough press conferences with infectious disease specialists to know Covid-19’s symptoms backwards and forwards. But I think I fell into the age-old trap of never expecting a thing that affects other people to affect me as bad or the same. And my idea of a Covid-19 infection was, I realize now, very clinical. Distanced.

I’d been renovating my house the day I tested positive. All day long, I scraped old paint from 100-year-old wooden door frames. Too busy to check in with myself, I never stopped to question why I kept having to sit down because I felt like I might pass out.

By the end of the work day, my throat burned and the air was heavy around me. I gasped for air, but thought maybe I was just tired from a day of physical labor. Better take a test just to be safe, I thought. My nose burned and throbbed when I stuck the cotton swab up one nostril, then the next.

My 15-minute timer wasn’t two minutes in when a deep red dash popped on the second line of the at-home test. A “positive” indicator. Oh well, the instructions say not to read the test before 15 minutes. So, I left the bathroom and came back at the 15-minute mark. Two bright red lines. Positive.

I had a few thoughts in quick succession: I just unknowingly exposed my friend to the virus the night before and needed to let her know. I’d have to miss another friend’s birthday party over the weekend. And, finally, well, I’m young and healthy. This will run right through me.

It was a mistake to think that. Over the next few days I’d lose my sense of smell and taste. I’d grow weaker until I could barely walk across a room without a break. All of my strength disappeared. I’d go on Paxlovid within days.

Through all this, I abandoned the subconscious idea that people under 30 don’t suffer. But – I still consider myself extremely fortunate to not have ended up in a hospital, like so many have before me.

After testing positive, I withdrew to the attic to isolate away from my dog and spouse for the recommended five days.

In isolation I felt humanity slipping from me. My friends can tell you I am a notorious introvert. But this level of aloneness was new, unwanted. I heard my dog, Ronon, cry for me at the bottom of the stairs. He could not understand why we had to be apart, that he could catch it. I was afraid to touch anything in my bedroom, worried I’d contaminate everything and hyper aware that anything I touched now would need to be sanitized later.

I feel like a walking plague, I texted my friends.

So, I cataloged my very existence. I touched the door handle to the bathroom, my jewelry box. What have I forgotten? What have I breathed on?

With no smell or taste, I laid strong mint toothpaste across my tongue to try and feel. Nothing. Covid-19 is the first illness that ever robbed me of my senses. It was disorienting and depressing. I grasped at sensations but found little to satisfy. The Paxlovid made my eyes burn. So for days, I did little but sleep. Eyes closed. No strength, no scents, no taste — except for the disgusting “Paxlovid mouth.” All this felt like a horrible limbo, like my life had stopped at the door to the upstairs. 

I decided to post on social media about having the virus. I thought little of it, until comments riddled with misinformation about Covid-19 poured into my mentions.

The rhetoric from 2020 and 2021 about vaccines not working, Covid-19 being nothing more than a cold, and more flowed in after I posted about my experience. It was frustrating to hear the debunked myths thrown at me in a moment of vulnerability.

Much of my role as a Covid-19 reporter has been — and still is — unpacking misinformation. But my mentions after posting about my Covid infection told me we have a long way to go in educating people about the virus.

Indeed, three years in, I wonder if we may never fully get there. But I promise to keep trying.

How can we face a pandemic in unity and with compassion when they’re stripped from us when the virus comes for us? I don’t know the full answer to that, but I think it involves putting in a lot of work toward empathy. As we continue to deal with Covid-19 and its fallout, I hope we can try to come together on that one singular point, if nothing more.

As for me, I’ll never again take for granted the smell of a pumpkin candle in the fall, the greasy french fries at my favorite restaurant, or the way it feels so good to move my legs.

My strength is returning a bit more each day, and I’m able to go for walks again and wrestle my dog. I feel my other senses returning, too, despite being a bit slower than I’d like.

Every day, I feel such gratitude to be alive, to breathe.

Sarah Ladd covers health for the Kentucky Lantern. This story was first published Oct. 23.

Op-ed looks at ways to address loneliness, which is linked to a number of health conditions; Ky. is above average for loneliness

Kentucky ranks in the top 20 states for loneliness, which can involve far more than feelings of sadness from being alone. Research shows it is linked to strokes, heart disease, dementia, inflammation and suicide.

"It breaks the heart literally as well as figuratively," opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof writes for the New York Times as part of a series titled "How America Heals," aimed at finding ways to fix this problem. 

The physical and societal harms that come from loneliness are so bad that America's top public-health official, Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, issued a rare advisory with a framework to rebuild social connection and community in the U.S. in May.

Graph from surgeon general's advisory,
"Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation" 

Loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and more lethal than consuming six alcoholic drinks a day, according to Murthy. It is also more dangerous than physical inactivity, obesity and air pollution, he says. 

Research also shows America has been growing lonelier. A majority of adults (58 %) report experiencing loneliness, according to a Morning Consult survey commissioned by The Cigna Group, a health-insurance company.

An Aging In Place study found that Kentucky tied with Arkansas for loneliness at 18th among states, with scores of 5.16 on a 10-point scale. Maine was first at 7.6, and Utah was best off, at 0.72. The study noted that more than half of Utahns identify as Mormons, which "may contribute to the low numbers of divorce and single-person households."

The study looked at a range of factors, including the percentage of single-person households, number of people widowed, number of people divorced, searches for dating apps per 10,000 people and searches for friendship apps per 10,000 people, to determine which states struggle the most with loneliness.

Kristof writes that there are ways to build connections that bind us together and writes about some of those approaches taken by the United Kingdom, which he says "is the pioneer of these efforts, having established the post of minister for loneliness in 2018. Britain oversees public-private partnerships that collectively knit millions of people together with programs like nature walks, songwriting workshops and community litter pickups." And, he adds, other countries have followed suit.  

"That’s because if the researchers are correct, social isolation probably kills far more people in the West each year than terrorists and murderers, and it costs the public enormous sums in unnecessary health costs," Kristof writes. "Countermeasures can make a huge difference: One review of 148 studies concluded that social connections increase the odds of an individual’s surviving over roughly the next seven years by about 50 percent." 

Kristof says he writes from troubles he's witnessed: "More than one-quarter of the children who rode the No. 6 school bus with me in Yamhill, Oregon, have died from drugs, alcohol, suicide and other so-called deaths of despair. These pathologies are linked to social isolation." 

However, he notes that despite the economic devastation of during the Great Depression, mortality then didn’t rise but actually fell." He attributes this to the "strength of community institutions -- like churches, men's and women's clubs and extended families -- that existed during that time." 

Ninety-odd years later, "Those community institutions have frayed," he writes. "Now we’re on our own, and perhaps that’s why so many are also dying alone." 

Kristof says he recognizes that it's not easy to rebuild such networks, but says we have to try, and offers some suggestions. 

"The steps to tackle loneliness aren’t grand, high-tech or expensive. In fact, one of the strategies is simply to get people back into old-fashioned patterns like eating meals together, holding parties and volunteering to help one another out," he writes.

He notes that the U.K. ministry has spent "some $100 million" to address loneliness since 2018, often to support local initiatives. One of those is a local, weekly family-style luncheon for women and children, many of them immigrants who struggle with English. 

He says decline of religious attendance has left a gap in community building, but "church buildings can still provide a physical architecture for connections, even if the faith architecture has eroded." 

He also points to several community-wide events to combat loneliness, including an event held for King Charles's coronation in May called “The Big Help-Out” to encourage people to come together and volunteer, and 6 million people, almost a tenth of the nation's population, did so. "The response was so impressive that this may become an annual event," he writes.

Why did loneliness increase? Kristof says the trends toward larger homes and longer working hours has left less time to share meals, and he notes studies that show social media has led to people being more lonely. Pets and talking robots have been suggested as solutions, he writes, but "It seems that there’s something to be said for friends who are living, breathing human beings." 

In his advisory, Surgeon General Murthy offered a strategy to address loneliness that begins with building up infrastructure that enables social connection: physical infrastructure such as parks and libraries, and social infrastructure to weave together volunteers or enthusiasts with similar interests.

Britain can serve as a model for this, Kristof writes. He points to a town that has has trained more than 1,100 volunteers to be “community connectors" who engage people and encourage them to join events or participate in programs. He also points to the idea of a "chatty bench" adopted in the U.K., Sweden and Australia, a bench with a sign encouraging strangers to talk to each other. 

"Solutions to loneliness are like that — little nudges to encourage us to mingle the way we evolved to," Kristof writes, suggesting that government do more: "President Biden, how about creating a senior government post analogous to a minister for loneliness? And mayors and governors, how about some chatty benches in American parks, along with volunteers deputized to bring us out for nature walks and sing-alongs?"

As a whole, Kentucky seniors are the third most unhealthy in the nation, ranking better than only Louisiana and Mississippi

Photo from Getty Images via Kentucky Lantern

By Sarah Ladd

Kentucky Lantern

New data shows Kentucky among the worst states for key health points among senior citizens, including tooth extractions, food insecurity, insufficient sleep and more.

The statistics, published in the America’s Health Rankings Senior Report in May, show Kentucky seniors have the most tooth extractions.

As a whole, Kentucky seniors rank second for insufficient sleep, exercise and cognitive difficulties; third for food insecurity, and sixth for obesity.

As a whole, Kentucky seniors are the third most unhealthy, healthier only than their counterparts in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Dr. Michael Stockman, a geriatric physician based in Minnesota, said there is a “bright side” of the report: Older Kentuckians, generally, don’t drink too much or have severe housing insecurities, and they consume sufficient fruits and vegetables.

For older Kentuckians not to drink excessively “is great because excessive drinking can lead to things like liver disease, diabetes,” said Stockman, who works for UnitedHealthcare. “It can also interfere with the medications that people are taking as well.”

The United Health Foundation released the report, which examines the health of older adults with 52 measures including social and economic status, physical environment, clinical care, behaviors and more. The rankings are based on data available up to March 8.

Kentucky had higher rates of physical inactivity than the national average, the report showed, which Stockman said can itself lead to poor health.

Nationally, 31% of seniors 65 and older are physically inactive, while the number jumps to 37% in Kentucky.

“It’s important to do those simple daily things like walking 30 to 45 minutes a day to really make a positive impact on overall health and well being,” Stockman explained.

Exercises like walking, stretching, yoga and tai chi can all help strengthen the body and prevent falls, which can lead to fractures, he said.

Social isolation

Kentucky seniors are at high risk of social isolation, the report says, a fact exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The report ranks Kentucky ranks fifth in social isolation among older adults.

“The pandemic did really create a social isolation amongst all of us. I think seniors were disproportionately affected and it … worsened during that pandemic,” Stockman said. “Being socially isolated puts people in a very vulnerable situation, particularly as they’re going through stressful life events common with aging, such as losing maybe a close friend or a family member, or as they move into retirement. Being socially isolated can lead to, really, a decline in a person’s cognitive functioning. It can increase the risk of depression and decrease the overall quality of life of older adults.”

The bright side to that point, though, is that there are more households now with access to high-speed internet than in 2019. The internet can help seniors gain access to telehealth appointments, stay in contact with family and friends and participate in social activities.

Kentucky seniors seem to be closing the gap in high-speed internet. From 2019 to 2021, 9 percent more of them used broadband, while the national increase was 7 percent.

Loneliness poses a public-health threat, prompting a rare advisory from the surgeon general, with a plan to rebuild social connections

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

The physical and societal harms that come from loneliness are so bad that America's top public-health official has issued a rare advisory with a framework to rebuild social connection and community in the U.S. 

"Loneliness is more than just a bad feeling," Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy writes in an opinion piece for The New York Times. "When people are socially disconnected, their risk of anxiety and depression increases. So does their risk of heart disease (29%), dementia (50%), and stroke (32%). The increased risk of premature death associated with social disconnection is comparable to smoking daily — and may be even greater than the risk associated with obesity."

Social disconnection was worsened by the pandemic. 

“What Covid did is really pour fuel on a fire that was already burning,” Murthy told Fenit Nirappil of The Washington Post. “I want the entire country to understand how profound a public-health threat loneliness and isolation pose.”

Murthy's opening letter in the public-health advisory, titled Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, adds, "The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day . . .  And the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces, and civic organizations, where performance, productivity, and engagement are diminished." 

To further this point, the advisory says, "Data across 148 studies, with an average of 7.5 years of follow-up, suggest that social connection increases the odds of survival by 50%." 

In the Times, Murthy tells the story of his own experience with loneliness after his first term as surgeon general and how, with the help of others, he found his way out of it. Research shows he was not alone in this feeling, he reports: "About one out of every two Americans is experiencing measurable levels of loneliness. . . . Its invisibility is part of what makes it so insidious." 

Murthy goes on to say that loneliness and isolation have led us to a place where we "are less invested in one another, we are more susceptible to polarization and less able to pull together to face the challenges that we cannot solve alone." And this, he says, "has fueled other problems that are killing us and threaten to rip our country apart." 

For all of these reasons, Murthy writes, "rebuilding social connection must be a top public-health priority in our nation." To do this, he offers three key suggestions in the op-ed, which are outlined in greater depth in the 68-page advisory. 

First, Murthy says we must strengthen our social infrastructure, such as school-based programs that teach children about building healthy relationships and workplace design that fosters social connection.

Second, we must figure out how to create space in our lives without our electronic devices so that we can be more present with each other, with a commitment to promote conversation that amplifies understanding. 

Third, we need to take steps to rebuild our connections to each other, reaching out to people we care about, talking to our neighbors, checking in with co-workers who may be having a hard time, and seeking opportunities to serve.

Murthy has long advocated treating loneliness as a public-health issue wrote a 2020 book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World.

Research cited in the advisory shows that nationally, social connection decreased between 2003 and 2020 as time alone increased: Isolation increased by 24 hours per month and social engagement with friends dropped 20 hours per month.

Research also shows that loneliness and isolation are most prevalent in people with poor physical or mental health, disabilities, struggling financially or living alone, says the advisory. It adds that younger and older populations struggle the most. 

"For example, while the highest rates of social isolation are found among older adults, young adults are almost twice as likely to report feeling lonely than those over 65," it says. 

The advisory provides a national strategy to advance social connection that involves six pillars and the report goes on to lay out a detailed plan for how to support them. They include: strengthening social infrastructure in local communities; enacting pro-connection public policies; mobilizing the health sector; reforming digital environments; deepening our knowledge; and building a culture of connection. 

Graphic from Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation public health advisory 

The report says, "We can choose, in short, to take the core values that make us strong—love, kindness, respect, service, and commitment to one another—and reflect them in the world we build for ourselves and our children. This strategy shows us how to create the connected lives and the connected world we need."

Murthy talked to Christina Caron of the Times about how to build meaningful social connections in an increasingly lonely world. He offered five tips: 

• Reconnect with people: "To get started, take 15 minutes each day to contact a friend or a relative. Put a reminder in your calendar, if needed, so that it remains a priority. Your relationships cannot thrive unless they are nurtured," she writes
• Minimize distractions: For a more satisfying quality time, put the devices down and give your full attention.“Focus on the conversation,” Murthy told Caron. “Listening is as important as what we say.”
• When people call, pick up the phone: Even if you are busy, he said. Pick it up, make a time to talk later, and do it. "That 10 seconds feels so much better than going back and forth on text," he said. 
• Serve others: Studies show that volunteering can ease feelings of loneliness and broaden our social networks, she writes. “When we help other people we establish an experience or a connection with them — but we also remind ourselves of the value that we bring to the world,” he told her. 
• Get help: Murthy said to tell someone if you are struggling with loneliness, whether that be a relative, a friend, a counselor or a health care provider. And, if you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call the 988 crisis hotline.