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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC with our latest time capsule call-in today. One thing you will always remember about the experience of having COVID-19, 646-435-7280. Gail in Bergen County, you're on WNYC. Hi, Gail. Thanks so much for calling.

Gail: Hi, Brian. What I wanted to include in the time capsule, if we could, is just how confusing this disease is. I, my husband, and my son all had it and I'm a recent cancer survivor and I had a very mild case. My husband, who's always been in great health, was really floored for almost three weeks. My son, who was 21 and in perfect health, ended up in Albany Medical Center for five days. He was a SUNY Albany student like you and I were, Brian.

Brian: [chuckles] True, that's my alum and now I know it's yours.

Gail: [chuckles] Yes.

Brian: Is it the randomness of who it would give serious symptoms to? Even though we know, statistically, it's older people, its certain underlying conditions that exacerbated. Even within that, a certain randomness of who gets hit really hard?

Gail: Yes, exactly. You just don't know what case you're going to get. I don't know how much virus my son was exposed to, I was exposed to, and maybe that made a difference, but each of our bodies handles it differently. Our immune systems handle it differently and you don't know what's going to happen. That's why we all have to be really vigilant.

Brian: Gail, thank you very much. Debra in Keyport, you're on WNYC. Hi, Debra.

Debra: Hi, Brian. How are you? I'm calling in because I just don't think I'll ever forget not being believed by just about anybody that I had COVID. Even in the beginning when-- even before I lost my sense of smell and taste, I wasn't feeling well. I was telling my family and they just didn't want to believe, I guess, at this-- Looking back, maybe they just didn't want to believe that I was sick.

Even when I was sick and I lost my sense of smell and taste and I was having all these odd symptoms and the worst part was when my heart would go crazy. I would just think that I was having a heart attack or about to. I just couldn't get anybody to believe me and the fights that I would have with my husband, my mother, my sister, all of these people who I love so much that I never fight with.

Brian: Was that really early before there was easy testing?

Debra: Yes, in March, before I could get-- when loss of sense of smell and taste was just not a thing that you could get tested for.

Brian: Did they apologize afterwards eventually?

Debra: Yes. I think still to this day, sometimes they think that most of my symptoms were caused by anxiety. Yes, of course, I was anxious because I couldn't get help. I wasn't being believed. I couldn't get anybody to help me with the symptoms that I was having. Now, I know after talking to so many people that have the same symptoms as I did, but it wasn't in my head that these things that were happening to my body were real.

Brian: Debra, I'm glad you're okay now. Thank you very much for calling in. Gene in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Gene.

Gene: Hey, Brian. I got the COVID right at the beginning. We went to a bridal shower on March 16. At the time, there was no social distancing guidance. There was no wearing mask. At the time, it was just a, "Don't shake hands." I'm a big guy. I've never been sick and then I was like, "Oh, I'm never going to get it." Two days later, I start feeling the symptoms and I was in bed. Thank God, my girlfriend was with me. I couldn't believe-- I thought it was a flu, but then all the symptoms that people were starting to talk about, if you lose your smell, if you lose your taste.

For about 15 days, I was in bed and couldn't move. At the time, you couldn't even get tested because there was no test available, a cold doctor to say, "Stay at home unless you can breathe." It was scary because there was no medicine. They used to tell you to take Tylenol, but you couldn't find Tylenol. Everybody was rushing to get some, so it was scary to know there's no medicine and there is nothing you can do.

Brian: That is, of course, any diagnosis, anytime people fall sick, and think it might be something serious. It's scary. Thank you for documenting for our time capsule some of the unique ways that having COVID was scary as we continue with this time capsule call-in for people who have had COVID and something you'll never forget about that experience. Esther in Trumbull, Connecticut, you're on WNYC. Hi, Esther.

Esther: Hi, how are you? Thank you for taking my call.

Brian: Sure.

Esther: I'm calling in because I just recently got COVID right before Thanksgiving. The biggest thought that came to mind as I was going through this was, A, the fact that I was asthmatic and my biggest fear is not knowing how my body was going to react to it and if I was going to be able to manage it. The second biggest thought was, was I going to survive this and was my husband not going to have to take care of our six kids? Just that thought alone scared me in so many different ways. I was one of those that was super protective. They didn't allow people to come into my house, not even to pee for anything.

I always use the mask. Everybody used the mask and then you sit there and you think about, "How did I get this?" Who was honest in saying, "Hey, I was sick?" You just think about things that you would never ever think of. Even after getting it, people are like, "Oh, you have the antibody. You don't have to worry about it," but I'm super scared still to this day that if I ever have to be put in that position again, I can't imagine what my family would have to go through to have to take care of all these kids by themselves. I think that's the biggest fear.

Brian: If something that people who are relatively young with kids usually don't have to think about, right? You assume. Of course, some people do get sick and die at tragically young ages. For the most part, you don't walk around. I don't know how old you are, but you don't walk around in your 30s or 40s or even 50s with children at home thinking, "I might die or, long-term, not be able to take care of my kids at any moment."

Esther: Oh yes, absolutely. Again, I started thinking about my life insurance like who I have in place. It's just things that you would not-- and I'm 40 years old. I would not ever think about it. I was extremely ill for three days. My husband was asymptomatic and it's just one of those things that's so unknown. You think about everyone who takes it completely so lightly.

It shouldn't be something taken lightly because everybody's different. No one knows how this is going to react in each other's body. I just hope that for the future in this time capsule that we all take some advice from this and say, "You know what? In the future, just let's think about all the things that happen and it could have happened. Let's just really take the advice of our medical teams out there."

Brian: Yes. Esther, thank you for that. It's like all those life insurance commercials that you see on TV right there. Always these parents in the prime of life and then, "What if you weren't there?" COVID has-- I don't know if life insurance purchases, that's one thing I never looked into, have gone through the roof this year. That small chance that people have of serious health issues or even death as younger adults. Suddenly, it's a chance that was in front of people's consciousnesses this year in a way that's so unusual. Definitely one of the takeaways from this. Chris in Greenpoint, you're on WNYC. Hi, Chris.

Chris: Hi, Brian, how are you today? Longtime listener, a couple-of-time caller.

Brian: Glad you're on.

Chris: I started feeling crummy around Election Day. My wife and I, we have three kids. I thought it was a little bit of a post-Trumpy boat crash. I was feeling a little blur that I took a long nap. Within two days, my wife and I could barely stand up. It kept going in levels. We would get sicker and then sicker and then sicker. It was horrible. We were dizzy. My wife had all kinds of horrible symptoms. At one point, I had to bring her to the emergency room as sick as we were and we got like-- Sorry, I'm having a COVID word search here. The asthma treatment, chest X-rays.

The family is better now. My kids were mostly non-symptomatic, but I'm still having a lot of issues with tiredness, word searching. I find the COVID foggies being there quite real. I will say that I can't smell a damn thing for the last six weeks. I have this phantom, like burnt toast, and dust smell in my head. Yes, I have life insurance. At one point, it was quite disturbing. We were discussing wills on the way to the emergency room. Not a conversation you want to have when you have three children.

Brian: Absolutely. You articulated a number of those things really well and things we haven't heard before in this call-in like the COVID foggies as you put it, which I know a lot of people can relate to. Can you go back to the beginning of the story you told where you and your family members seem to fall sick at the same time on Election Day? Did you say on Election Day?

Chris: Yes, I started to feel kind of-- It's funny because probably the weekend before, my wife was complaining a little bit, "I'm tired." We're freelancers. We work hard and we work long hours, so I wasn't here or there. On Election Day, we both-- At the same time, we're like, "Ugh." We're just wiped. We both took long naps that day. Within 24 hours, I was getting scared. I lost my sense of smell. At one point, I made my kid's bacon carbonara.

Standing over the bacon, I couldn't smell it and that was like, "Okay, we have COVID," and it was very frightening. I was worried mostly about my son. He's 16. He has bad asthma and has a long history of having pneumonia and his chest and I was very worried about him. At a certain point, we started to get very worried about us because within two days after the election, like I say, it was the worst flu ever. We had inner ear stuff, diarrhea, vomiting, cramps. We could barely stand up.

Our energy level was at like a phone on 2%. It was horrible. We're trying to keep our kids going in school, feed them. At a certain point, it was like, "Kids, it's oatmeal day." We could barely function as human beings, much less parents. It was terrible and we got very frightened. You realize, "Okay, I'm mortal," and you hear stories about people dying. It's never in your head that it could be you. It can be you. [chuckles] We had been very careful, hand washing, spraying shoes when we come in the house, all kinds of stuff.

Brian: Chris, thank you for documenting all that. I'm glad it seems like you and your family members have at least stabilized, though it sounds like you're not all better yet. Chris, thank you very much for the sake of the time capsule. Alyssa in New Mexico, you're on WNYC. Hi, Alyssa.

Alyssa: Hi, Brian. Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to just tell my story. I got a little sick before Thanksgiving. I'm actually a student and I was actually doing in-person classes. I don't think that was the cause for my getting sick luckily, but I just, one morning, woke up feeling like I had allergies, sneezing a lot. I had just no energy and decided not to go to class that day, which I'm really grateful I decided not to do that.

Told all my professors and then just quarantined from there. The symptoms progressed and I ended up having really bad body aches, chills, and ended up losing my sense of taste and smell right before Thanksgiving, and then I also had really weird leg pain. They were just like shooting pains all over the calves, my thighs. It was almost like restless legs but eventually got better. It took about two weeks and my partner took really good--

Brian: Did your partner took really good care of you?

Alyssa: I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Brian: I'm glad to hear it, I was just going to ask because we have 30 seconds left in the show, for you to say a word about the college scene since you said you're an in-person student. For the sake of posterity in the time capsule, what did it do to the scene?

Alyssa: Honestly, they were super on top of it. I let them know as soon as I tested positive. They've been taking so many necessary and great precautions and it's actually one of the safer experiences I've had. It's only a very select few classes. I'm an art student, so some classes do have to be in person. Most classes are online, but I'm just really grateful that they're taking this so seriously.

Brian: Alyssa, thank you so much and thanks to all of you who called on our latest time capsule segment. We're going to put it in the vault and open it in 2030 and we're going to do more of them between now and the end of the year.

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