Contracting the coronavirus can be seen as shameful for some San Jose State students because of negative connotations since the pandemic began. Students who tested positive opened up about their experiences one year into the public health crisis.
Political science senior Beatriz Raz said she was “embarrassed and ashamed” when she contracted COVID-19 because she was warned it spreads faster among people ages 18-30 who are more likely to attend big gatherings.
“It’s something that could have been avoidable,” Raz said in a Zoom call. “Being a young college student, we were warned the most to avoid going out and seeing people. It made me really embarrassed to find out that I was a part of that demographic that wasn’t being careful.”
She said she developed a deep cough after seeing her friends for the first time during the summer and knew she contracted COVID-19.
“I had the flu a couple years back [but COVID-19] was a cough that I felt deeper than just something in my throat,” Raz said. “I felt it from my chest and it was really painful.”
People experience COVID-19 symptoms differently, including asymptomatic people who won’t experience any symptoms at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Symptoms can include fever or chills, loss of taste or smell and shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, according to the CDC symptom webpage.
While some symptoms are similar to the common cold and flu viruses, the loss of taste or smell is distinctive to COVID-19.
Chemical engineering senior Brandon Chung experienced cold and flu symptoms and lost his sense of taste.
“I figured that out from trying to eat a bunch of stuff . . . you can feel the sensations that you’re eating but there’s nothing that you can associate it with,” Chung said over Zoom. “You could taste sour but you can’t really taste what it is . . . if I tried eating an orange all I tasted was the sadness from the orange but no orange flavor at all.”
He said he tested this by trying different foods with strong flavors like pickle juice and Hot Cheetos, but still couldn’t taste them.
“After a while, it starts getting tiring [to] crave for something in your head,” Chung said. “You just want to eat something but you can’t really like anything without being disappointed.”
Although these symptoms don’t seem life-threatening, they can have long-term effects.
Dr. Melissa Frederick, a Santa Clara County cardiologist and skilled nursing facility medical director, said many COVID-19 patients experience “post-COVID syndrome.”
She said these are long-term symptoms including difficulty breathing, increased fatigue, difficulty sleeping or staying awake, chest pain and headaches among others.
“These symptoms are real and impact your life, studies and work,” Frederick said in a phone call. “For post-COVID [syndrome], you may take a few steps forward, then a few steps back, but overall moving forward.”
Mark Schwartz, an adjunct business marketing professor, said the number of people experiencing long-term symptoms is unknown because it’s only been a year since the pandemic began.
A study published Sept. 9, 2020 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that out of 3,000 people ages 18-34 hospitalized by COVID-19, 2.7% of them died and 21% were in an intensive care unit.
According to the CDC, 0.5% of people ages 18-29 who contracted COVID-19 resulted in death and overall, more than
523,000 U.S. residents have died from the disease.
Schwartz advised students to look into unbiased and non-political websites to do their own research about COVID-19.
“Educate yourself from people that are knowledgeable and don’t have a political agenda,” Schwartz said in a Zoom call. “Then you make the decision [on how to respond to COVID-19] based on what you and your critical thinking deem to be the best decision.”
