Write a short story on the theme “In the Times of COVID-19” in about 400 words
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COVID19
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How will we tell the story of COVID-19?
Some illnesses are little more than anecdotes. Others grow into parables and allegories, and some become epics.
Written By Stephen Alter |
Updated: May 3, 2020 1:42:19 pm
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A Spanish 15th century woodcut, Massacre of the Firstborn and Egyptian Darkness, depicts a Bibilical plague. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Every disease is a story. It has a beginning, middle and, hopefully, an end. Some illnesses are little more than anecdotes or riddles. Others are parables and allegories. A few grow into epics, containing a multitude of episodic tales, one leading on to another. The novel coronavirus, which is responsible for COVID-19, sounds like something out of science fiction. It is still in the process of being deciphered, a mystery told in a language that has yet to be translated. Nevertheless, it spreads among us with very real and immediate results. In early January, my wife, Ameeta, and I both got sick with pneumonia in Denver, Colorado. When we were tested for the flu, the results were negative. Our symptoms — fever, cough, shortness of breath, inability to taste food, etc. — seem to match everything I’ve read about COVID-19. The worst of it lasted two weeks and for half of that time, I needed supplemental oxygen to breathe. The doctors who treated us offered no diagnosis beyond pneumonia and prescribed drugs that had little or no effect.
All of this happened before the disease began killing people in large numbers around the world. Phrases like “social distancing” and “shelter in place” hadn’t yet become a regular part of our vocabulary. Perhaps, one of these days, when medical technology catches up with the pathogen, Ameeta and I will have an opportunity to get tested for antibodies and learn whether or not our pneumonia was a result of COVID-19. Until then, it is a story without a clear conclusion, full of enigmatic ambiguity, like something Milan Kundera might have written.