Asthma in the Time of Corona

Susanna Wacker
5 min readMar 26, 2020

Living in a Time of Mass Hysteria

Same as in the movie “Love in the Time of Cholera”, we keep on living despite all the craziness currently going on around us.

However, asthma symptoms are shortness of breath and coughing. So, according to the current medical recommendations, we asthmatics wouldn’t be allowed out of the house at all.

It was refreshing to listen to Teal Swan, who also doesn’t buy into this mass hysteria. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying don’t protect yourself and take precautions (and of course, that ‘s also her message). Just remember that this too shall pass.

It reminds me of SARS and how one day, after work, I was sitting on the subway tired and with a headache. Because of that, I held my forehead and closed me eyes. Now, being an asthmatic, I let out a very slight cough (much less than after something goes down the wrong tube when you eat), which has been typical of the past 30 years of my life. Oh my God, you would not believe how the subway crowd completely moved away from me as if I were a leper. (And just for the record: I never had SARS and wasn’t even the slightest bit sick at the time.) When I realized what was happening, I remember thinking: “This is so crazy. I’m not sick.”

As many people out there, my life has been full of struggles and challenges over the past year — year and a half. I broke down several times crying unstoppably, feeling that I cannot keep living like this, that I was beyond the end of my rope. So, when I got invited to a sweat lodge, I very happily accepted. I was lucky that it didn’t get cancelled during this pandemic. But instead, all 8 of us came out of our isolation, did the healing ceremony and prayed very hard for everyone’s health and safety and then went back into our self-isolation. It felt extremely important to do it and, in my case, it gave me the over-due healing from all that negative stuff that’s been going on in my life. We all felt extremely renewed and I certainly felt ready to face any challenges still coming my way.

So, when driving to the sweat lodge and listening to the radio as well as remembering the e-mail requesting that we don’t share food. (I’m talking about a feast, which is basically a potluck party following a sweat.), I started getting angry about this fear-making mass hysteria that’s now all around us. On the radio, it was impossible to escape constant updates about the Corona virus and I just felt too bombarded by it.

I’ve been in self-isolation and social distancing for the past 15 years because of my perfume allergies and asthma: many people in public literally make me feel sick, esp. when they are dowsed in perfume or cologne. But even in the ridesharing, despite my request for passengers to be scent-free for the ride, about 30% of them still show up with scented creams or perfume-/cologne-infused clothes. They then plead ignorance, but I think only in some of their cases that might actually be the case. Esp. here in the province of Quebec, I have often encountered a cold, uncaring attitude of not being willing to accommodate me or even acknowledge my scent allergies as a legit medical condition. (It’s sad, but that’s why I’m considering moving back to Ontario even though I had moved here full of enthusiasm to practise my French.)

Also, I can’t visit most of my friends at home because they either have pets or mould, both of which trigger my asthma as well. So, for years, I’ve been isolating myself, going for solitary walks, avoiding crowds and going shopping during off-hours (in the middle of the day, right before closing or in 24-hour stores). I rarely go out anyway and when I do, I — more often than not — end up sick afterwards. Having been surrounded by dismissive people most of my life, I often downplay my symptoms so that I’m not perceived as a total “hypochondriac”. But fact is that if I get triggered now, I might wake up with bronchitis tomorrow and be sick in bed for 5 days to even a month.

Anyway, to come back to my main thought: I look at the world around going all crazy with fear and I think to myself: Welcome to my world and getting a taste of what it’s like to constantly live with the possibility of falling sick. By looking at this fearful mass hysteria, I realized I refuse to live in fear. In fact, we should all remember something that most people have a hard time facing: if it’s our time to die, then it will happen one way or another, otherwise, even if infected, we’ll pull through! (Now, forgive me, this might be a dark way of looking at this pandemic, but if you have this kind of spiritual belief, then it’s a lot easier to face reality and trust that you will come out o.k.)

Yes, of course, we should take all possible precautions, but leave it at that and enjoy this personal time for some introspection and to get grounded. When you actually take this time to yourself, it really nourishes and refreshes the soul. In my opinion, this is the universe’s way of forcing some sanity onto all of those who are addicted to constant social distractions. I know this is a time when everyone seems to be more glued to their devices, but let’s all please take some time away from this technology and really allow us to get quiet. Meditate, do yoga, pray or just sit in silence. Maybe even just take a bath with relaxing music.

Coming to the end of my blog here: let’s look at the latest statistics from China according to https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8002835/Virus-death-toll-nears-1-400-China.htmlNow almost 64,000 confirmed cases in mainland China, of which 1,380 died.” However, to put this in perspective: according to https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-01-17/Chinese-mainland-population-exceeds-1-4-billion-NjXS8zQD8A/index.html, the total population of China (as published on Jan. 17, 2020) was 1.40005 billion at the end of 2019. So, that means: 1,380 out of 1,400,050,000 is just under 0.0001%. So, the death toll is not only below 1%, it is 1,000 times less - and that is from January 2020 when it started until now.

By looking at these statistics, I’m not trying to fully dismiss everyone’s worries, but hopefully erase that panicky fear. Yes, let’s take precautions, but chill and enjoy that “me-time” (or “us-time”).

Last, but not least, the question is: might there be some truth to the rumours circulating that this whole situation is orchestrated? Are conspiracy theorists right? Could it be connected to the looming financial crisis or possible collapse as some people think? I am neither interested in politics nor the world of finance, but I do feel compelled to put these questions out there so that you might find your own answers.

To finish off, I’d like to wish all of you a wonderful time of social distancing and please share anything positive coming out of it with the world. Stay healthy and be safe! Lots of loving thoughts to everyone out there.

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Susanna Wacker

She worked as an ESL teacher for 15 yrs, taught some German, did social work (with the homeless), office work, briefly tried out trucking & the hotel industry.