Colm O'Regan: the people working to find this virus are working their holes off
Cough, she said. Cough, cough cough, she went on. My wife got a cough. A cough we hoped wasn’t The Cough. She rang the doctor confessing the cough hoping to gain absolution. Hoping to be told everything would be fine but then, she had a coughing fit while on the phone so the doctor didn’t have much choice but to recommend The Test.
Spoiler alert: She’s negative for covid. This is not a big dramatic story. But it was interesting how even the smallest brush with world of The Virus makes you first lose perspective and then gain a bit of empathy.
After the doctor’s advice, we were mortified. How could we do this? Was it me? Did I bring it into the house? And … oh no … the school. We’ve closed the school! Parents will be cursing us. They’re all going to know who it was and think we were having house parties. My wife wasn’t even thinking that much about the reality of having the virus. It was all about logistics. And I was thinking about the work I wasn’t going to get.
An appointment for a test arrived half an hour after the doctor’s phone call. We were on our way to the test centre two hours later. And the sense of perspective came back. We had a result within 24 hours. But even that small window gave us a tiny insight into the stress so many others are going through. Waiting for the result to arrive in by text. Jumping when the phone pinged. Cursing those who had the poor timing to text during that time. And also that weird feeling of not being allowed outside the door. Imagine that for a long period of time.
Driving into the test centre, this complex that’s part of the massive parallel health system, I got a second dose of empathy. For the people doing the testing (you don’t see them) and the swabbers who you do see.
Ireland has done nearly 1.7 million tests. Think about that. Doing 1.7 million anythings is impressive but that’s 1.7million swabs, 1.7 million labellings and trackings and getting it tested in The Yokes*.
(*Real time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. I won’t insult ye by explaining how it works. It speaks for itself really.)
Everyone we met was dead sound. This despite the fact many of them were clearly frozen, working outdoors marshalling cars, or in VERY well-ventilated buildings and tents. My wife was back in the car within five minutes. She rated the man who took the sample as having ‘excellent swabbing game’. Maybe they are selected for their car-side manner or tentsability. But the ones we met seemed to be very aware they are dealing with many worried people.
She had the good news 22 hours later. We know now for definite that least one of us is in the clear. Over the last seven months, we have felt sure we had it many times. Not really, just that psychosomatic hour-long sore throat you get from watching the news.
This system of real people working hard to swab and test and find this sneak of a virus are working their holes off. I don’t think they’re getting enough credit. Frequently there is criticism the testing hasn’t ramped up enough. Maybe the system hasn’t expanded enough but no one we saw was mooching around playing pitch and toss. We mightn’t be outside applauding people in this lockdown but still, you might throw the testers a thought as they do their job.
So all’s well. No big drama. But there’s nothing like a smidge of lived experience to give your empathy a good clatter.
