Catching a Cold

My “dear" cold ?

The best things in life are free. So are some unpleasant but insignificant things, like the common cold. How much does a common cold cost? Or, rather, how much ?did it or would it cost?, as inflation is a very broad concept with many "legs".

A simple cold would only cost a pack of painkillers and two packs of tissues. Now, the issue is not the rise in painkiller and tissue prices. The point is that a sneeze is now a guilty thing, it is the source of evil and inflation, starting a chain of things and events.

A most common phrase of our times is: "Bah, it must be from the air conditioner". Hmmm, so had X and Z said, and it was Covid after all. And so the domino begins.

You increase your stock of masks at home, in the office, and in the car and, at the same time, the stock of tissues, painkillers, and vitamin C tablets. On the same day, you undergo your first rapid test at the pharmacy, praying "pray, let it be just from the air condition". In one week, you do 3 rapid tests in a row, while the stuffing in your nose persists. It's only natural, you reckon, since I'm constantly behind a mask. Now, however, you also feel your throat "scratching". In addition, despite the 3 negative rapid test results, your arms and legs are hurting and you can find no comfort anywhere, neither physically nor psychologically. It's also the week you were supposed to go on your planned vacation, and you just can't get your feet moving. Plus, how are you supposed to go if you're not 100% sure you’re Covid-free? You simply put it off. There goes another “leak” – and the damned running nose keeps running.

You decide to go for a molecular test, as well. 3 + 1. Anything, as long as you make sure it's just a simple cold from the air conditioner. Just look at how the times have changed, a little cold is the villain, the air conditioner is innocent!

Excellent! PCR test also Negative. Perfect, you say to yourself - under the mask that makes the nose-stuffing worse and worse despite its non-Covidness. Whatever, at least, you can go on vacation, at last, even if a few days were lost.

During the last days of your vacation postponement and after the PCR, all the junk shopping you hadn't done before this year’s holidays occurs to you. Suddenly, your legs are no longer stiff or aching. At last, free and Covid-free, you indulge in a shopping spree, including a complete pharmacy kit - which you'd never taken on any previous holiday - plus a good stock of self-testsing kits. And sunscreen, better and dearer than ever before, since "the simple cold adventure" has activated your prevention mechanisms to the maximum in every respect.

Catching A Cold in 2022.

Marina Papageorgiou