Idaho faith: Saving a life means saving humanity. The COVID vaccine can do both

At the end of August, I received an overseas call from an uncle informing me that one of my best childhood friends had died of COVID-19. I was shocked and stricken with grief.

My friend was a doctor of internal medicine and a relatively healthy man in his mid-60s. He worked on the front lines with sick patients all day, some of them possibly infected with this virus. I wondered how a fully vaccinated person could succumb to this virus. How did he spend his last days? Was he admitted to a hospital and placed on a ventilator? Did he gasp for oxygen?

To chase away these negative thoughts, I remembered him as a young teenager who liked to turn misery into a source of amusement. One time in high school, he broke his leg and had to wear a cast for several weeks. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he would entertain us in the courtyard by walking on his hands. He had discovered that he could use the weight of his cast to balance himself upside down!

In late September, my wife returned from a trip to North Carolina. A few days after her flight, she started running a fever of 102.5 degrees. We immediately had her tested for COVID-19. She received the dreaded news early the next day that she had tested positive. Her doctor referred her for a monoclonal antibody treatment because she is older than 65 and has Type 2 diabetes.

We made an appointment for her, and the next day she received four shots of medication under the rib cage. The attending nurses continued to monitor her for about an hour to make sure she did not have an adverse reaction. We then decided to self-quarantine at home until she got better.

In the meantime, I had myself tested one day after my wife’s positive test and was informed that the test result was negative. However, a few days later I started running a high fever. I had a second test done and it revealed that I was positive for COVID-19. I contacted my doctor immediately and he prescribed the same monoclonal antibody treatment.

I went to bed that night feeling anxious, and I had trouble breathing freely while sleeping on my back. The next day, I received an intravenous injection of the antibody treatment. A nurse, dressed in a protective gown with tubing like an astronaut’s gear, administered the treatment in a small room. She told me that the treatment is effective if it is administered during the first 10 days of the infection. She added that I would start feeling better within 48 to 72 hours.

My wife and I can attest to the effectiveness of the treatment, as we began to feel much better within 48 hours. However, we both felt sorry for our Bengal cat, who may have caught the virus during our convalescence, because he exhibited the classic symptoms. He also became lethargic during this period, which is highly unusual for a high-energy cat always on the hunt for something moving.

My wife and I had relatively mild symptoms and recovered quickly after the antibody treatments. My wife had a slightly higher temperature than I did, and she lost her sense of smell and taste, whereas I did not. Both our physicians told us that had we not been vaccinated, we could have very well ended up in the hospital and placed on ventilators.

My wife and I are grateful that we received the vaccines that gave us a fighting chance against a dangerous virus. My faith tradition tells me that saving one human life is equivalent to saving all of humanity. My faith also tells me that there is a cure for every disease.

I cannot explain why some folks are refusing to be vaccinated. We have the shot for this virus and some folks do not want it. Some of our elected leaders in Idaho do not seem to be taking the necessary actions to save lives. On the contrary, they were busy writing new bills that would have been detrimental to the safety of our communities during this public health crisis.

Recently, I called a cousin overseas and asked him whether my childhood friend had been vaccinated. He told me that for some unknown reason, my friend was not vaccinated. I could not believe that a doctor on the front lines would not be vaccinated. This news added to my sadness, because his death was preventable. I thought of his wife and children, and his other relatives and friends that he left behind, mourning for him.