A Personal Note To Readers
Yes, I got Covid. I'm gonna be fine, but need to take this week off.
After over two years of masking, isolating, and shoving vitamin D down my throat, I finally got Omicron. I’m one of the little stats in an uptick in the DC area. I found out after several nights of sweating through my t-shirts, and feeling generally exhausted. Despite several days passing since my first test, I’m still positive — although the positive line on the test keeps fading in intensity.
Because of long-term HIV and chronic asthma problems, my doc put me on Paxlovid, which I’m almost done with. It may be psychosomatic, but I did feel a turn for the better a day after taking it. It turns out that a key drug in this anti-Covid cocktail is my old friend ritonavir, one of the first protease inhibitors to break through HIV in the 1990s — evidence of how progress in one medical area can translate into progress in another. The difference between now and 1996 is that I take two pills a day — when I used to take 18 (we were guinea pigs and they were terrified of under-dosing). But the weird metallic after-taste remains oh so familiar after these decades — like an AIDSy madeleine.
I hoped I’d be able to do the Dish this week, as my fevers have not been that bad, and my lungs are doing better than I expected. But every time I make a concerted effort to write, my energy collapses and I need to nap. I’m definitely improving, but I decided today to take this week off to recover fully, so I can come back next week with guns blazing.
Forgive me. I’m human, have to be particularly vigilant with bronchial infections, and my doc wants me to rest entirely. I had to postpone a podcast with Francis Fukuyama — but we’ll re-record in May. The good news is that Chris will still produce the View From Your Window contest this week, and we have a new podcast archive to show off. So we’ll be able to offer something.
Thanks for understanding. As it happens, the Dish has been on a roll lately — at 110,000 on our weekly email list and edging toward 20,000 paid subscribers. We have more than a 50 percent open-rate on the unpaid subscription list and an over 70 percent open-rate on the paid — percentages almost unheard of in the newsletter business. I’m deeply grateful. Chris and I will do all we can to keep it coming — as soon as this bout with the rona ends.
So see you next Friday. With bells on.
Andrew