> This plugin would only make sense for people who are vaccinated of course, since for those people, like myself, COVID has been defanged. Isn't it time for those of us who have had two doses, or even three (I have yet another one scheduled a week from now...), to stop worrying and start enjoying life the way it is meant to be lived?

I want to tell my short story with COVID so far, as a double vaccinated individual (last dose 2021-08-18) who took all the precautions and got infected due to an irresponsible person (older than me, didn't get vaccinated simply due to their own laziness and lack of empathy towards others).

I tested positive a couple Tuesdays ago (2021-12-04) on an antigen test, I took the test after waking up with a runny nose.

I didn't experience much of the physical symptoms, no cough, barely had fevers (one instance it broke through 38.3C, otherwise hovering on the lows 37C), no fatigue.

Instead I've been experiencing quite a few cognitive issues, I lost my smell and taste last Thursday, so about a week ago, and since then I've noticed that my thoughts aren't on the same level as before.

It started when I was playing chess with my girlfriend a week ago, I noticed that I simply couldn't string thoughts together, they became "loose" and it was hard to get continuation. I'd start thinking about a strategy and would experience a "brain fart" where it didn't make sense what I was thinking about, then I couldn't figure where my pieces could move and my thought would start spiraling. It is really, really strange.

When I tried reading books I felt similarly to what some of my friends with ADD/ADHD described how their thoughts wander away. I simply couldn't focus enough to finish a paragraph without having to re-read parts of it. Sometimes it would take me 4-5 times reading the same sentence to finally settle it. I don't understand or know the mechanism behind this but it's happening.

I've been also experiencing bouts of anxiety, physically, I do struggle a little with anxiety but never happened this way. I learned to cope through the last week and noticed these bouts come in waves so I just endure the few seconds or minutes while it's happening.

Today was my first day back at work, as a SWE my job is basically to mentally juggle multiple things and considerations about them to find a solution or a way forward. I simply cannot do that at the moment, I still feel these waves of brain fog creeping up where I simply can't make sense of something that was said or shown. I've been trying to pair program but it's been mostly pointless as sometimes I can't finish my train of thought, or remember why I started one.

I believe the same way as you, that my double vaccinated status would protect me from the worst case and it's definitely protected me from the worst (as well as my girlfriend, also vaccinated and who endured the whole quarantine/isolation period with me and never got infected). I didn't feel shortness of breath or other dangerous symptoms but I feel a tight chest and sometimes a burning sensation. Still, it's not all fine and dandy, I cried multiple times from panic attacks (some induced by my psyche, some from COVID); the brain fog is lingering and making me question how and when will I ever get back to "normal", if it stays for long it will impact my job and expectations on me.

Bottom line is: yes, we are protected from the worst, it is still something I don't want to go through again, it's still something I would have avoided as much and for as long as possible because medical research is still in its infancy about long-term side-effects. I have no idea if I will experience issues with clotting later in life (brain aneurysms are one of my worst nightmares), the symptoms on my chest are pretty weird and uncomfortable.

I'm a pretty healthy individual, low 30s, always commute by bike (averaging around 4000 km/year on a bike for the past 6 years), gym-goer and with mostly healthy eating habits (not crazy, still stuff my face with sweets, ice cream, etc. but overall healthy compared to the general population).

Just adding my report because I believe I was misguided in believing this would be a much easier time than it was due to the vaccines.

Vaccines work, they save lives and protect our healthcare system. It is still a fucking nasty bug causing a really strange disease that we know very little about.