Once the details of COVID-19 came out, I’ve been living with the fear of catching it.

Obviously nobody wants to catch this virus or have their family or friends catch this virus.

I am a CPAP device user and have some comorbidities that would make fighting the virus off much more difficult than someone with a younger body and no comorbidities.

As I’ve written about in this column, I have a group of friends who have known each other since elementary school. We get together a couple times a year. We talk daily using Messenger.

One of those friends, who lives the furthest away, has worked up the ranks in the culinary field to be an executive chef at a resort in Georgia.

Last Thursday he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Obviously he immediately went into quarantine. He’s got wonderful medical care through a regional hospital and wife is a registered nurse. Other than carrying a bit of a spare tire, like many of us men in our 50s, he’s in good shape. I wouldn’t say he’s ready to run a marathon, but he regularly golfs and due to his job, he’s constantly moving.

The day after he was diagnosed he told me he was scared.

We talked for a while about that because as I’ve already mentioned, I’m scared of COVID-19. I don’t think it’s an irrational fear.

I’ve seen this fear shared by my aunts, uncles, older family members and older friends. There’s an understanding that if we get COVID-19 it’s a very serious illness we may not survive.

My friend and I talked about all the things he’s done and has been doing to stay healthy. He’s been working — always wearing a mask. He was feeling good last Thursday into Friday, and then things got more difficult. He started to have difficulty breathing through his nose. This problem persisted. By Saturday afternoon his wife was driving him to the emergency room, where they could address his breathing.

They checked him over really well and provided him with a ventilator he could use at home. He was back home that same night and never went on oxygen.

During the period he was in the hospital, my friends and I stayed in touch with his wife and talked among ourselves. Of course we were all frightened. This isn’t the “living in fear” comment we heard so often from some people early in the pandemic. This is different. I was hoping my friend’s medical condition would get better so he didn’t get put on oxygen.

We received good news late Saturday night when he was sent home with his ventilator and was breathing more easily.

When this edition of the newspaper comes out he will have been six days out from being diagnosed. I was amazed by the time elapsed from diagnosis to where my friend, who is healthier than I, needed emergency medical care.

I’m not making a point about politics, science or fears for society.

COVID-19 has frightened me. I at one time called it a “version of the flu but without a vaccine.” And that still scared me, because I have respiratory ailments that could make overcoming such a virus difficult. But COVID-19 is much more contagious than the flu.

I realize the virus has been here in Wisconsin since March, but we live in a fairly rural area. I’ve done the best I can about isolating myself due to my own personal medical fears. In the past when I’ve gotten flu-like symptoms and had fluid in my lungs it feels like the inside of my lungs are coated with concrete. In preparation for that, I keep a reasonable supply of over-the-counter expectorant medication at home which can be a big help.

I’ve gotten better about wearing a cloth mask to the store, I practice social distancing.

However, finding on-the-rack, medical-quality masks and aerosol-propelled Lysol is retail stories is nearly impossible.

I hope soon these products become more readily available, because this will ease the minds of people like me who have fears over getting COVID-19.

I don’t want to deny anyone their freedom, but simple courtesies to protect the population during a pandemic are appreciated.

Even the smartest of our world’s scientists don’t know what will happen next with COVID-19. I know that wishing it away won’t work. I hope my friend will soon get a clean bill of health.

As for those of us who have comorbidities, I truly believe that isolation practices and following “Safer at Home” rules have been a huge help. Yet these practices aren’t good for mental health and I know I’ve missed interacting with coworkers and people in the community to a point where it’s impacted my behavior. I hope removing restrictions regarding COVID-19 works.  I truly want the threat of COVID-19 to go away so that I can return to my normal lifestyle.

I hope this not just for me, but for all of us.

— Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times.