Whenever I get together with colleagues from another part of the country, something that is happening exclusively by Zoom these days, the informal conversation always includes a bit of storytelling about brushes with Covid. The pandemic is at the top of our conversations because it is having a dramatic effect on all of us, even those of us who have not personally contacted the disease.

Our family has been pretty careful to do what we can to decrease Covid spread. We became vaccinated as soon as we were able and kept up with our second shots and boosters. We have kept our personal bubble very small. We have had unmasked contact only with our son and his family and my sister. We work in a very covid-conscious setting. Our congregation has an active Covid advisory committee that has guided the Church Council in making conservative decisions about allowing gatherings. We are currently not meeting face-to-face for a few weeks as the Omicron variant spreads rapidly in our county. Nearly one sixth of the Covid-19 cases in our state occurred in our county last week.

We know, however, that it is impossible to eliminate all risk of contacting the illness. We have been fortunate, however, and until last week we didn’t have a Covid story to share. Now, however, we have our own story. It is the story of a minor brush with happy results.

We have some familiarity with the at home self-tests that are available. Some of the members of our family have had cold symptoms in the past month. Normally we wouldn’t have been concerned, but it is difficult to distinguish between cold symptoms and Covid. Because health care providers are overwhelmed and testing is difficult to obtain, the self-tests are a convenient screening tool. Although they are not 100% accurate, they can give some information. One of the things that we discovered is that if a person has cold symptoms it is difficult to obtain professional screening or care. Susan had a regular appointment to see a doctor for an annual wellness exam, but she was coughing a bit. She reported this to the doctor’s office. Their response was to immediately reschedule her appointment to several months later. We commented on the quirks of a health care system that means you can’t see a doctor if you have any symptoms and wondered how people who are really sick get the care they need without going to already overburdened emergency rooms. Her symptoms were not severe, however. She wouldn’t have missed a day’s work in pre-Covid times. Out of an abundance of caution, however, she stayed at home and I used a self-test before participating in leading worship.

When our grandson had some general tiredness and complained of having trouble catching his breath, his parents watched him closely and he was kept home from school. We used our last self-test to check and his test came back positive. Following the CDC guidelines, we all isolated, staying at home. His symptoms quickly faded. His sisters and parents did not develop any symptoms. The girls were tested by the school and their test results were normal and they returned to school. Our grandson returned to school after the required days of symptom-free isolation. More self-test kits arrived and we did another round of testing. So far it seems that our grandson was the only one infected. He had minor symptoms and recovered quickly.’

Our family has been very careful. We’ve upped our face mask strategy using KN-95 masks. We have a small circle of people with whom we have contact. We observe guidelines about distance. We keep track of personal contacts. That means that we are fairly certain that the way the virus got into our family system was through the public school. We don’t blame the school. They have been very careful. The children wear face masks. The school is very careful about isolating children who have symptoms. At the school, if a student asks for a tissue, the request is treated as a symptom and the child is sent home.

The reality is that the omicron variant of the disease is extremely transmissible. Its symptoms are similar to those of a common cold. Even though our covid precautions mean that we are less likely to catch cold viruses, they remain a constant part of our environment. A few minor symptoms are going to occur. At the same time, health care facilities are overwhelmed. They are only able to treat those who are extremely ill. Testing facilities are overwhelmed. Most people are not able to obtain a full PCS test until after the symptoms have passed. The County test site is so overwhelmed that it takes 10 days or more to obtain a test. The wave will pass, but in the meantime, a lot of people are going to get sick.

Our family is very fortunate. I still don’t have much of a Covid story to share and that is just fine with me. I’d much prefer to keep it that way. Fortunately, the need for us to isolate from our son and our grandchildren was a short period of time. They have a new baby expected within a month. We are the childcare plan for the other children when the time for the birth comes. We also occasionally pick up the children from school and provide care for them when the school has breaks and their parents are working. For better or worse, we are all in the same bubble when it comes to the virus.

Meanwhile my sister is in Oregon where her daughter will be delivering a baby any day now. We intentionally parted in advance of that so that she had time to isolate between visiting us and being with her daughter just to be safe. They are getting adept at administering self-tests as well. Her dog, however, is with us. We will need to make a plan for her to return before too long. And, at the end of the month, we will host our daughter-in-law’s father and stepmother in our home. They are as eager to meet the new baby as we are. We can’t live our lives isolated from the people we love.

With care and a bit of luck, however, we hope to keep our Covid stories to a minimum. We hope you will remain safe as well.