As quarantines and stay-at-home orders continue into their second month, many workers and students fear the worldwide coronavirus pandemic will be more than just a minor annoyance.
Though early reports out of China suggested that young people had relatively little to fear from the disease, data coming out of pandemic hot zones like Italy and New York City disagree. While people younger than 30 are not in as much danger as older people, they are not immune; people between the ages of 20 and 40 represent 20% of all COVID-19 cases that require hospitalization, reported statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In this climate, many of those who originally saw coronavirus as just an “old person’s disease” are starting to sweat a little bit. Kai Gooden, a 25-year-old, caught pneumonia last month while working at their family’s hardware store in Jackson, Wyoming. They spent a week in the hospital recovering, and are still dealing with some lingering effects. Pneumonia is a respiratory illness similar to the coronavirus, and if Gooden catches the virus while still fighting pneumonia, they are not sure they will survive.
“If I get the virus, it’s like a death sentence,” they said. “I shouldn’t have to worry that I’m going to die because someone didn’t wash their hands and touched a can of beans at the grocery store.”
Gooden has left their house only a few times since the beginning of the pandemic, and they have no plans to leave anytime soon. They said they are particularly fearful of asymptomatic carriers, people who carry the disease but do not display any symptoms. The CDC estimates that anywhere between 25 to 75% of those infected are asymptomatic.
The behavior of the virus is still poorly understood; some of these carriers later develop symptoms, while others never do. There is not enough data yet to determine what percentage of the population actually carry the virus, but one thing is clear – asymptomatic carriers make up the majority of COVID-19 transmitters.
“It’s just like, you can do everything right, and you can still get the virus, because someone decided that they didn’t need to wear a mask or wash their hands or self-isolate,” said Gooden. “It’s kind of scary, you start to look at everyone as a threat.”
The hardware store that Gooden works at remains open, as it is an essential business under Governor Mark Gordon’s current orders. Gooden has not returned to work yet, and does not plan to as long as the pandemic continues.
Other workers in essential industries are not as lucky. Some must balance their fear of COVID-19 with their need for a paycheck, including Madeline Evans who delivers pizza for a restaurant in Casper. She has not exhibited any symptoms of coronavirus yet, though that does not mean she is virus-free. Natrona County is one of the state’s hot spots for infections, with 25 cases as of press time on April 6.
“I go to all these people’s houses, and they just aren’t doing anything about the virus, they’re acting as if nothing’s wrong,” she said. “I hate going into work knowing that I could be giving all these people corona.”
Evans said the restaurant management has started requiring deliverers to wear masks and gloves, but “there’s not enough gloves for an entire eight-hour shift, and there never will be.” She also feels bad about using disposable masks when many state health organizations are running out. Some customers have complained to management about the employee’s lack of PPE (personal protective equipment).
“It’s like, if you’re really scared about the virus, don’t order pizza from outside your house then,” Evans said.
With infection rates in Wyoming on the rise, and no end in sight to the pandemic, it remains to be seen if Gooden and Evans’ fears of the coronavirus will be realized.
