Is The Better Part Over?

Not Ray's reopened and P braved the unmasked waters to get us a slice

During my strong days I float along, follow the rules of society, and generally try my hardest to keep good thoughts based on my limitations and abilities.  But once in a while I get these blockbuster, morose ideas that form like supercells inside my head.  I can't help but consider this COVID-19 could be so much worse then we ever imagined.  Opposite to the folks that think this is an overblown simple flu, I'm starting to believe instead its not only nothing we've ever seen before, which is already a known fact but that it's capable of inconceivable things. many of which are not yet known.  After reading about those poor little kids developing that related syndrome, adding yet another chapter to this bizarre bug, simply calling it a bug makes it sound too innocent.  There is nothing sweet about a virus that has the ability to warp your mental state.  Now that I have some distance from it's epicenter, I'm reading not only may there be permanent damage but some are questioning if it ever really goes away.  What if when your immune system weakens, it can come back, like genital herpes.  In Italy, weeks after supposed recovery, and no longer testing positive many are finding themselves hovering in an endless convalescence, not well enough to work.  This is where we are after 7 weeks. 

A recent article in the Times left me both relieved to see our very odd experiences are not uncommon....

But even some of the infected who have avoided pneumonia describe a maddeningly persistent and unpredictable illness, with unexpected symptoms. Bones feel broken. The senses dull. Stomachs are constantly upset. There are good days and then bad days without apparent rhyme nor reason. 

....and with chills how the article ends.

 “It leaves something inside you,” she said of the virus. “And you never go back the way you were before.”