As it stands now, there will not be any full-length newsletters this week. I came down with COVID-19 on July 23 and did not write anything for this week.

I was running a fever, and I had body aches and nausea. I am fully vaccinated and boosted, so that may have spared me a more severe reaction, but there is no way to prove a negative. Unfortunately the vaccine is not particularly good at preventing infection, as even fully vaccinated people can pass the virus to each other.

This was more of an inconvenience than an ordeal, and the good news is that I now have natural immunity on top of vaccine immunity.

COVID-19 lasted longer – about three days – but the reaction to the second dose of the vaccine was more intense. The fever, body aches, nausea and fatigue were worse with the second dose of the vaccine than with the disease itself.

I still recommend getting vaccinated, especially if you are vulnerable to severe illness. Most people do not have the strong reaction to the vaccine that I did, and the vaccine is still effective at preventing hospitalization and death. That is the whole ballgame.