Self Isolation and Avoiding the Common Cold

For years I never had a cold because I was living in social self-isolation because I thought we still lived in the same age as when I was in Weymouth during the Foot and Mouth Epidemic. During that epidemic we avoided going to the new forest, we ensured our shoes were cleaned if going to certain places and we ensured that eradication was possible.

During the COVID pandemic for many, many months there was the concrete goal of COVID zero, to eradicate the disease but beause of the wrong people being in power in the right countries at the wrong time, it was allowed to become endemic.

I could handle self-isolation and pandemic solitude for years, but eventually, even I, was unable to deal with the loneliness of weeks in a row of barely talking or seeing people. In the end I had to give up on valuing my health over social interactions.

Last winter I had a very bad cold that resulted in me getting a 42°c temperature. I was afraid I was sliding into the same cold two weeks ago. Luckily within an hour or two I felt better. The cold however lingers. I was feeling better for two or three days, and then I think a second old virus got me.

What I find shameful about society is that people who are sick don’t mask. They cough and splutter and infect everyone around. They cough into the air, without coughing into their hands or sleeves. They just aerosolise the virus and propagate it in cafés, restaurants, shopping centres and more.

Why Are You Sitting Outside in November

A week or two ago someone asked “Why are you sitting outside in November?” and my answer, if I had given one, is air quality. Air outdoors is usually cleaner than indoor air. Fewer people coughing, and when they do cough it is taken away by the wind. Indoors it has time to spread.

The highest disease vector places I have been are two shopping centres, a bar, a café and a pub. I doubt the pub was the disease vector. I suspect that the café is the most likely, as well as group rides.

Busy Indoors

I usually skip the brunch/lunch part of social rides because the place is usually crowded but also because I don’t want to risk my bike being stolen. it’s the cheapest on the rack, but I don’t want to be without a bike, or have to buy a new one.

Disease Vectors and Normal Life

Up to last year I would have known where and when I was infected because I almost always masked, rarely socialised, and always did things outdoors. Last year I suspected that it was the train from Gruyère that was the disease source for a cold. This year I don’t know.

A Nuissance

More than anything, I find having a cold, to be a nuissance. Right when we’re trying to sleep we will find our nose beginning a 5k run, and our cough will increase, so “going to bed at a reasonable time” becomes “getting to sleep at an unreasonable time.

We also go from looking forward to our daily walks and social rides to questioning whether we will have the stamina to participate without abandonning.

I had considered riding with the medium group last Saturday but chose the easy group because I didn’t feel on top form. On Sunday I saw that this decision had been wise as I had very little energy. A three kilometre walk was difficult enough.

Tiring Conditions

Cycling at this time of year is tiring. If you’re hiking, or skiing, or doing other sports you can wear layers and you can take them off and put them in a bag. When you’re on a bike you can open layers, but you can’t really remove them. We’re not bikepacking, so if we have too many layers we keep them on.

I think that these tiring conditions help make us more vulnerable to falling sick, like winter swimming does. Ironically I was rarely sick when I was cold water diving all year long many years ago.

And Finally

We can mask, and we can self-isolate but none of these is a good long term solution for single people, especially. It’s easier for people who are full of cold to stay home, or, at the very least to cough into their hands or their sleeves. With the COVID pandemic we would expect to have learned the moral lessons of hygiene by now.

As I write this the air temperature has dropped to freezing, and the sun has come out. Two effective ways of ensuring that the cold season might be closer to an end. I suspect I will skip tomorrow’s social ride.