Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the position of Positive Women’s Network – USA.

March 5, 2020

by Brooke Davidoff

When the CDC and President Donald Trump’s administration talk about the Coronavirus’s rapid spread across the country, I hear preexisting condition and death.

I am a single mother, and a full-time college student on one or two campus locations five days a week. I was diagnosed with HIV ten years ago; my CD4 is still well below 500.

I didn’t want to go to school today when I woke up to the news I have been dreading. It’s here in Los Angeles County. Am I overly paranoid?

My mind replays the first season of Fear the Walking Dead where one day Americans are normal and going about their daily lives. The next day everything changes. Family members, friends, and neighbors get sick with a new virus. Soon after zombies are roaming among us.

I know Coronavirus is not the same as becoming a zombie. I have not boarded up my windows or stockpiled years of supplies. I am not freaking out or babbling to cause alarm among readers.

States and the number of people infected go up hourly; it’s only a matter of time until my city and yours make the list. Is the HIV positive community more at risk than most? Does PTSD magnify unknown fears?

According to an article by Roger Peabody on aidsmap.com March 2, “there is no evidence to determine whether people with HIV are at greater risk of COVID-19 acquisition or severe disease. The main mortality risk factors to date older age and co-morbidities including renal disease and diabetes.

As I continued reading my moment of calmness melted away, “if we do discover there is a greater risk for people with HIV, it would be likely to primarily affect those with weaker immune systems, as reflected in a lower CD4 cell count (below 350). The lower a person’s CD4 count, the risk is likely to increase, so it makes sense to follow general advice on avoiding infections.”

International, national and local news stations have done a good job supplying viewers with updated statistics like how many people have tested positive or how many are dead. Sometimes we get hourly updates. But what are the symptoms we should be looking out for?

The Center for Disease Control or CDC has a whole page of helpful information. Stating symptoms may appear between 2-14 days after exposure. Symptoms are: fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

The CDC urges people to call their healthcare professional if they develop symptoms, have been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19 or if you recently traveled from an area with widespread or ongoing community spread of COVID-19.

I am however aware that what I am afraid of is invisible. As I write this, I’m sitting in my college library, a 20ish year old directly across from me is coughing. He is not covering his mouth. There are at least twenty students and staff in this room staring at him and each other.

“The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person,” states the CDC’s website. Between people in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet), through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.

The Coronavirus will spread like wildfire. Not everyone who coughs or sneezes covers their mouth or their nose. Paranoid I watch college students surrounding me ambivalent about these warnings. The more news coverage I watch and read about the spread across the east side of Seattle, the more I visualize Los Angeles’s fate much the same.

Countless people in crammed high populations interacting with each other on a daily basis.

I am majoring in human services and minoring in journalism, and I am on the Dean’s List for the second semester. I want to be an HIV positive women’s advocate and/or HIV activist. My health is one thing I don’t take for granted. I can’t. So here I sit in Long Beach, a dense city that will soon become my petri dish. 

I moved into a private study room in the library, but I can’t do that every day. I have hand sanitizer ready. I can only recommend you do the same. Having a preexisting condition makes us more vulnerable than others. Follow basic personal hygiene wash your hands at least twenty seconds with soap and hot water, avoid touching your face, wash your hands when preparing and eating food. Please cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing.

The CDC also states it is possible to get the disease from contact with infected surfaces or objects, which is why on TV we see people in protective gear sanitizing subway stations, buses, trains, etc. It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes. This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

Whether we are blowing this out of proportion or this is only the tip of the iceberg only time will tell. All we can do is keep vigilant, pay attention to your body, try and avoid sick people, and wash your hands.