Daily News New York City. March 29, 2020

32 Sunday,March 29, 2020 DAILY NEWSNYDailyNews.com

SSUUNNDDAAYY

I

was what you might call an early

coronavirus adopter. I first came

down with the main symptoms of

fever, chills and dry cough on —

clichés come to life — Friday the

1 3th. As of that date, there were only

1 54 confirmed cases in NYC. The

greater irony of the timing was that I

had just decided to close my compa-

ny’s office at the E. 23rd St. WeWork

the day before. And here I thought I

was being proactive.

Idid not fully appreciate the signifi-

cance of being so far ahead of the

pre-flattened curve until I posted a

note on Facebook about my condition.

The reaction was unlike anything I

had ever experienced. Hundreds and

hundreds of likes and comments.

Over and over, friends told me I was

the first person they knew who had

COVID-19. They were desperate for

information, especially about what to

expect. And they encouraged me en

masse to keep posting updates. So I

did.

The first thing everyone wanted to

know: Did I get tested? No, I could not.

Iwas initially told by my doctor that I

didn’t meet the criteria because I had

not traveled to a hot spot or been in

direct contact with someone who had

tested positive.

Then I found out on Day 4 that a

fellow WeWork member from my

building had tested positive. When I

called my doctor back, I was told the

criteria had changed. They were only

testing people with symptoms acute

enough to be hospitalized. The rea-

son? There was a mass shortage of

protective gear for medical workers

doing the testing.

At first I was outraged that I could

not get tested. But the more I read, the

more I understood that by that point

in the spread of the disease, this was

the right decision for America’s public

health.

The fact is, we had missed the win-

dow to do mass diagnostic testing.

That was a well-documented act of

criminal negligence on the part of the

Trump administration. But given the

limited supply of tests and the poten-

tial risk to the frontline doctors and

nurses, we now had to give priority to

the people most in need.

Iwrite this as a public service to

anyone who might be cavalier about

coming down with the novel co-

ronavirus. My life was never threat-

ened, but it felt much, much worse

than the standard flu.

The first 10 days with the virus

were brutal physically. I had a non-

stop fuzzy headache and a case of

lethargy I had never experienced

before. It felt like I was wearing a

5 0-pound lead blanket.

On Day 7, I started feeling a little

better and was hopeful I was on the

mend. But the next day I got hit with

second wave symptoms — nausea,

diarrhea, and a return of the chills.

Thankfully I never had any signs of

respiratory problems. By Day 14, the

last bit of fever finally let go.

The emotional toll, though, was

even worse. The uncertainty was

unrelenting. How long would it last?

Would I suddenly develop the dreaded

shortness of breath? I had heard sto-

ries of people with mild cases like

mine spiraling downward out of no-

where.

The hardest part was strain it put on

my overburdened wife. Simona is

Italian, and before I got sick, she was

already in despair over the mass trage-

dy that had been unfolding there. By

last week upwards of 800 people were

dying a day. Even worse, she had to

live with the possibility that something

could happen to her parents, socially

isolated and all those miles away.

Knock wood, they are so far safe and

sound.

We followed the news from Italy

zealously, and the stories were mind-

blowing. The death toll became so

great in Bergamo, a well-to-do village

outside Milan with many elderly

residents, that the local crematorium

had to run 24 hours non-stop. Within

afew days, even that was not enough

to keep up, and the army had to be

called in to cart away the mounting

stack of coffins.

Just as staggering was the crushing

burden on the frontline doctors and

nurses – about 1 in 10 of whom had

tested positive as of last week. The

New York Times did an unforgettable

interview with Dr. Fabiano di Marco,

the head of the respiratory unit at a

Bergamo hospital, in which he de-

scribed their triage efforts as being

“like a war.” He talked about the agony

of having to treat so many of his col-

leagues as patients... and to watch so

many people die alone in isolation.

“We cry every day.”

This is why, in the days before I

closed my office, Simona begged me to

be more careful, to wash my hands

more frequently, to stop using the

subway or going out altogether. It’s not

that I ignored her. I did begin to

change my habits, probably more than

most New Yorkers. But not enough. So

when I became symptomatic, she was

furious.

BE OUR GUEST

BY DAN GERSTEIN

OOUURR VVIIRRAALL

WWhhaatt ccoorroonnaavviirruuss ttaauugghhtt mmee aanndd