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I have been fully vaccinated since May 2021, and I have just tested positive for Covid-19. I am very symptomatic and am not feeling well as of this writing. My head is beating. I have fever. My body hurts a lot. I can not eat. I just want to sleep. It’s like a very, very bad flu.
I got infected during our annual family vacation to the South Carolina shores. Looking back, I should have known. And if I had had a recovery, I would have canceled the trip.
The challenge is that South Carolina is a highly unvaccinated state, recently leading the country in new cases of Covid-19. While vacationing in one of the best counties (Charleston) I went against my best judgment and thought the six of us were safe because we are all fully immunized and healthy. We have spent the last 15 summers here. Also, I had just taken a Covid-19 test before my trip due to the demands of the workplace at the university where I teach as an assistant professor.
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After testing positive on Tuesday of this week, I thought long and hard about whether I even wanted to write this article. Would that embolden anti-vaccines? Would it hurt the cause of getting more people vaccinated? Part of me wanted to shut up, the other was screaming “you have to share!” After much deliberation, I decided that as a national opinion columnist and television expert with a global platform, it was my social duty to be transparent.
The recent warning from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urging unvaccinated Americans not to travel over Labor Day weekend also influenced my decision to share. In doing so, I hope that even one person does not take unnecessary risk. The CDC is also urging those who are vaccinated (like me) to weigh the risks of traveling, which I would like to do now.
Health experts say that even if you are vaccinated, you should still consider several variables, including your general health, where you live or travel, and the risks you take.
The anti-vax movement is huge and the anti-mask movement in the Deep Red South is alive and well. I saw him every day I was there. My family from California had never been to the south before, and they noted at their first night’s dinner, “people don’t wear masks here.” Coming from California, where Governor Newsom can now be recalled, in part because of his pro-mask policies, they quickly took note of the difference.
Let me be blunt: those of us who are vaccinated also face risks, especially when we are in public spaces where there is no mask policy, no social distancing, and no mandatory vaccine policies in place.
I went to a wedding in the Bahamas in June 2021 at a resort. It was beautiful and very safe. You had to take out health insurance to enter the country. You had to show full proof of vaccination. You had to take a Covid-19 test on site to leave the station and return to the United States. You had to do social distancing. Masks had to be worn at all times in the resort and outside by the pool. People felt safer, and we were safer because everyone was fully immunized. None of this was the case in South Carolina.
What makes this so surreal is that I had Covid-19 in February 2020 before the pandemic was declared a national emergency. I tested positive for antibodies in May 2020. I got it speaking in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at a huge conference. I was sick and have health problems to this day. Still, I felt grateful to be one of the lucky people who overcame the virus.
Having to face this scourge again, while being fully vaccinated leaves me speechless. I thought I was safe from infection.
I am also worried about my 75 year old mother, who is vaccinated and who was with us on this trip. We are currently waiting to see if she (and the rest of the family) is positive for Covid-19.
Having such a good time with Covid-19 is disheartening, but it is also a lesson to be learned. I knew the state had low vaccination rates. We discussed it as a family. We have discussed this with the station. People who are fully immunized are made to believe we are safe. But it depends on many factors, like other people around us who are also vaccinated.
Be careful this Labor Day weekend. The problem is not those of us who are vaccinated. The problem is those who are not. I learned it the hard way.
Sophia A. Nelson, Esq., is the award-winning author of three non-fiction books and winner of the Corporate Diversity Champion award (2012) for her work in corporate diversity strategies and training for the Fortune 100 She has worked in Congress, the United States Chamber of Commerce and one of the nation’s largest public / government affairs law firms. Nelson is a frequent guest on NBC News and MSNBC, as well as many other networks, and has written for various media including Essence, Huffington Post, The SGrio, Politico, Politico Magazine, CNN.com and Ebony.
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