Can we just agree at the outset that we are all sick of the coronavirus.

Not sick from it, thank God, but sick of it. Corona, COVID-19, call it what you like ... it has plagued our lives for the past, what, 32 months or so? At least it sure seems like it.

We are all equally tired of the debate surrounding how to handle said once in a century global pandemic.

At first we locked everything down, stayed home, watched our hair grow (and return to its natural color), cooked every night, did jigsaw puzzles, binge-watched everything on TV and told ourselves how heroic we were being, how noble, how public-minded.

And after a few weeks we went stark, raving mad. We had to get out, go to Walmart, get groceries, get our hair and nails done, take the dog to the groomer, interact with people to whom we were not related, stock up on toilet paper to last until disco comes back and live free.

Click.

That was the sound of a revolver dry-firing on an empty chamber. For, you see, the reaction of many to the easing of restrictions surrounding the coronavirus has been the equivalent of a game of Russian roulette.

You know the game. Take a revolver. Load one chamber with a live round, spin the cylinder, put the gun to your head and pull the trigger.

Sound like fun? Of course not. It is a horror show. But that is what we are doing when we ignore the warnings about the novel coronavirus that has so plagued our world in 2020.

When you gather with a group of friends and dont practice social distancing, click. When you go out without a mask and enter a store or church other location crowded with people, click.

But you are not only pointing the gun at your own head you are pointing it at everyone with whom you come in contact. And you are pointing it at their loved ones at home. And you are pointing it at the members of your own family.

Like a game of Russian roulette, the results of each action are not necessarily lethal. You may go out, party, shop, live your life as if COVID-19 never existed and remain unscathed. Same with the people with whom you come in contact.

And even if you come down with the virus, you might suffer little more than cold and flu symptoms, spend two or three days in bed watching lousy daytime TV and be as good as new.

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But thats the chance you take, isnt it? And thats the chance you take with the lives of strangers, your friends and family, as well. Will anyone you know get it, or wont they? And if they get it, how bad will it be?

A lot of people have recovered from COVID-19. As of this writing, 34,320 Oklahomans were listed as recovered from the disease. Nationwide that number is upwards of 1.5 million.

So, you say, fine, you get it, you stay home and eat chicken soup, you get better and you go back to work. Uh-huh, unless you are like Nancy Blodgett of Portage, Mich. Despite being listed among the recovered on that states public health website, she says no. Heavens no, she told the Detroit Free Press. Recovered is when you can go back to work (and) when you can walk to the mailbox and not struggle to breathe.

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Abbigail Singer is a 22-year-old from Kansas City. She has recovered from COVID-19. After being exposed to the coronavirus March 25 at a wedding, she began exhibiting symptoms March 30. She was tested four times for the virus between then and July 7. Only the last one came back negative.

Sundays are the worst day of the week for me, Singer told the news website, The Pitch. Thats the day her family drops off groceries for her outside the front door of her apartment. She says getting up to move the groceries inside and put them away takes all the energy she has. I have only taken one shower standing up this entire time, she adds.

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The Rev. Terrence Big T Hughes, of Denver, contracted COVID-19 in early March. He wound up spending two months in a hospital, much of that time hooked up to a ventilator.

But Big T pulled through. He is home now after spending time in a rehabilitation center.

I was already dealing with some things as a disabled vet, but those things are heightened extremely due to COVID, he told TV station KUSA. I had to relearn how to walk again, I couldnt walk. How to use my hands. (Afterward) I used to have extreme tremors, where feeding myself was difficult. It was almost like I had Parkinsons, my hands would shake so bad.

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Other lingering post-COVID-19 symptoms include chronic fatigue, a racing and irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, loss of sense of smell, achy joints, foggy thinking and damage to the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain, according to the journal Science. And that, of course, is only if you dont die.

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So its up to you. The gun is in your hands. Wear a mask, dont wear a mask, its your choice. Hole up at home or party like a rock star, its your call. Enids city government has apparently seen fit to declare our town a COVID-19 sanctuary city, so its anything goes around here. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe

Click. Boom.

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COLUMN: Playing the crazy game of COVID-19 roulette - Enid News & Eagle