In the time of COVID-19

by Casey Griffin (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find Thailand

I haven’t left my hostel for two days. This is my third day in Bangkok and I know I’ll regret it if I don’t get out of the room and into the city. Even though I feel like an elephant is sitting on my head. I need to get my camera fixed anyway. I can at least do that today. I tell myself as I get dressed that morning. I step out into the sunshine and it feels like my eyes are going to explode it’s so bright. I clear my throat and blink a few times to get used to the sun and start walking. I found a place that can fix my camera. I have directions. I have tissues. I know who I need to talk to. I just have to walk there and back. It’s only a ten minute walk from my hostel. Unfortunately, it’s so hot and humid out it feels like I’m walking through a steam sauna instead of down the street and I’m drenched in sweat in only a few minutes. I feel the need to cough but decide to hold it in. Hopefully, it will go away. Nope. Damn. I subtly clear my throat in the hopes that it will reduce the urge. Unfortunately all that does is weaken my resolve and I let out a small cough. I cough again, a bigger one this time, despite the herculaneum sized effort I’m exerting to contain it. Do you know how hard it is to hold in a cough when every thought you have is commanding your throat to behave? I’m walking around Bangkok’s Chinatown and I have a cough. Every time I lose the battle of holding it in, it’s impossible to let just one loose so there’s at least a few minutes of hacking my lungs out. But, I’m here to tell you: I don’t have the coronavirus. I have a sinus infection. Which apparently has a lot of the same symptoms. I keep walking, ignoring people, hoping they don’t get the wrong idea about me. I can imagine what they’re thinking: oh, don’t cough on me lady and Get away from me! and OK, don’t inhale around her. Following Google Maps I take a left and I’m consumed with my need to not cough and immediately run into a wall of people. The street is lines with stores and the people are wall to wall. Almost everyone I see is wearing a surgical mask. It’s the time of coronavirus and people are scared. Understandably, of course. But articles I’ve read are discouraging the use of surgical masks as a way to protect yourself. Instead, they're pushing sick people to wear them so as to not spread their own sickness. What do they need to wear a mask for? I should be the one with one on. I’m the one they think possibly has the like I’m carrying the newest, most modern, easily communicated, possibly fatal virus that has recently taken the world by storm. I look around and see hundreds of people. I see a woman standing in the door of her shop holding the sacred product that I and just about everyone else is looking for. It’s a five pack of charcoal surgical masks. I know I need one, even though I don’t feel like fighting for one. I feel the urge to get the mucus out of my throat again and try to be quiet about clearing my throat this time. The person next to me glances at me with a pinched face. It shocks me enough to get a cough out of me. And I can’t stop. I cover my mouth with the sleeve of my jacket but I’m hacking my lungs out again. Some people are moving away from me. Some are looking at me with wide eyes. The shop lady points at the bags of masks looking a little scared. I get out my hand sanitizer and rub my hands together vigorously. Handing her fifty baht and grab the masks. I mutter khap khun kha and walk away as I put the mask on. Now, to get my camera fixed and go back to bed.