Matt

Age at interview: 58

Brief Outline:

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White British
Background: Matt is 58 years old and is White British. He is retired and lives with his wife. Matt thinks he was infected with Covid after attending a football match. While he was sick, he felt very fatigued and didn’t want to do anything other than “curl up into a ball”. Matt fully recovered from Covid after ten days.

 

More about me...

Matt was planning to retire when the pandemic started. He wanted to go traveling and see relatives overseas. However, these plans were ruined, which was a "bit of a disappointment." 
 
Matt also experienced the death of his mother during the pandemic. Although it is unconfirmed, he is pretty confident that she died of Covid. He says this because she was experiencing "classic" Covid symptoms like "flooding of the lungs." Matt also says that the people who had been around his mother had also died to Covid at a similar time. 
 
Matt got Covid himself in August 2021. He thinks he caught it after attending a football match. He explains that several people were singing, and because his team won many people got "jubilant." 
 
When Matt first caught Covid he felt strange and like something was not right. He experienced "excessive fatigue where the only option really was to curl up in a ball." About seven days after the football match, Matt received a positive lateral flow test. After the positive test, Matt went to a PCR testing centre with his wife, where they both tested positive for Covid. They were both quite unwell and would only get out of bed to make a cup of tea or go to the bathroom. After ten days, Matt and his wife both felt "pretty buoyant, healthy, and recovered."

 

Matt found that there are lots of different perspectives on what was ‘true’ about Covid.

I think one of the issues was credible sources at the time that weren’t either over exaggerating and I think that’s just a, a slight problem with British society at the moment. It’s the lack of credible authority. Where do you go to find viable untainted view on any subject, frankly? You know, you gotta, I think you've just sort of look to those sources that you've found in the past that sort of ex post facto you could rely on. And you know, which is why you might trust the Financial Times and broaden your trust the Daily Express or whatever your political views. But you, you, I think we’re all becoming much more conscious of the role we play individually in constructing the truth that we think applies to different scenarios and I don’t and I think pandemics would be included in, in that. You know, there’re people, I have a younger, say younger relative in his 30s who says he’s not an anti-vaxxer, but he’s just read so much that it’s more likely to do him harm to have a vaccine than not, you know. But that’s his version of the truth from what he and his presumably his cohort and his immediate group of friends honestly believe. I mean, why would he believe anything otherwise? It’s just his sphere of influence happens to be different from mine. And, you know, I’m slightly more convinced of my thinking than I am of his. But I think it does go partly to that problem of where is the reliable touchstone? Who, who do you, who do you trust, you know?

Matt talks about how regular zoom calls in his family provided valuable support to older people.

We, like many set up a family Zoom quiz once a month. And with anywhere, it was anywhere between say 12 and 25 participants. And we’ve kept those up and I think although it’s, it’s unsaid, I still feel like I’m the younger generation where we are my generation and the generation below me, we’re all keeping it up for the benefit of the oldies to be absolutely honest. You know, we could face the, us youngsters in our 50s we’ve been happily Facetime with each other whenever we like. We don’t need to have anything organised. But it’s to give the older generation in our family a sense of involvement and being able to see everybody on the screen and see that everybody’s okay, ‘cos that’s what they really care about most. And we’ve also what I often do, in fact yesterday so it’s probably, it’s another four weeks. We had a Zoom quiz yesterday from one of the cousins, was 60th birthday we had a sort of an online cocktail party as well. We all made the same cocktail to celebrate with him in Australia. But I think after those occasions my aunt feels a bit flat, you know, ‘cos she’s locked, locked down and can’t see her kids. Can’t see her nephews and nieces or whatever. So, you know, I sent her some online articles about stuff we’d ended up discussing on the call. Just so there’s something else to keep engaged and socialised and I know I will get a really nice email back. She’d have read the articles, thought them interesting or even if she didn’t, she’ll pretend that she did. You know, it keeps her involved and it gives her yeah, that continued engagement with not just ‘cos it’s family, but with the outside world.

Matt described feeling unsettled realising that the virus could affect anyone.

We were at a wedding about six weeks ago, got talking to, I’d not met before and it was a man about my age and his son who was 18. And we only worked out part way through the wedding, talking to someone else, his wife wasn’t there because his wife had died of Covid. And it’s almost when you make it, when you meet those. And so, it’s not just people you know well have been effected, it’s almost quite, I don’t know what the right word is, upsetting, disturbing, it has an impact when it’s, I suppose it’s people you think, well, there but for the grace of God go I, you know. It’s that element. People are totally, innocent you know, probably done, probably been washing their hands and doing whatever, they, it reminds you of the indiscriminate nature of it and that’s the thing that’s a little bit unsettling.

Matt didn’t think of Covid at all until his extreme tiredness didn’t improve after a few days.

On the Saturday morning it reminded me of the feeling I had when I was, I’d got chickenpox in my 40, in my 40s. And it was that slightly strange, what, what have I done, you know, something doesn't feel right. Excessive fatigue where the only option really was to curl up in a ball, in bed that sort of almost the same thing you get when you get extreme dehydration as well, that sort of thing. So, it just, I just thought I’d been unlucky and you know, yeah. I didn't think of Covid at all. It’s only that nothing improved.

Matt got a positive result on a lateral flow but his wife’s test was negative. They both tested positive on a PCR the next day.

So, we then…my wife just did a PCR test, ‘cos she plays Mah-jong with a group of much older ladies and it’s part of the pact that they have that have respect for each other. They all do a lateral flow test before all meeting up on whatever day of the week, Friday or a Monday. And so I thought this was exactly seven days after I’d gone to the football match and started to feel really ill that I thought I’d join in and do the lateral flow test as well. My wife’s was negative and mine was immediately positive. And I mean when I say immediately, I if it was ten seconds it wouldn't surprise me if you know, the drop going in. So, we, at that point just spoke to the NHS and they said, can you get to a PCR testing centre this morning which we did and we both tested positive.

Matt did a lateral flow test at home before seeing friends and family who were particularly vulnerable.

When the NHS made available free lateral flow tests, we just went to our local chemist who gave them out. We picked up a, you know, batch of them and we thought they may well come in useful or again, if we were going to go and see friends or family who were particularly vulnerable we’d want to make sure that we’d test ourselves before we went.

Matt was backtracking through all the people he had seen recently, hoping he hadn’t infected anyone.

And, of course, then I felt terrible on the day of getting tested positive the following Friday. Of course, I was backtracking those people who I’d seen within the last two weeks. I thought, I could’ve got it wrong about contracting or getting infected at the football. It could’ve been days before that. So then, of course, I was in a rather tired state just trying to contact those people who I’d had close contact with in the previous two weeks. And hoping to goodness that I hadn’t infected any and luckily, I hadn’t, surprisingly.

Matt caught Covid in August 2021. He felt ropey for a while was very grateful to have had the vaccine.

It was sort of standard tale of isolation I think for about ten days pretty, in bed or you know, not venturing much further than the kettle or the television. And we were pretty ropey for about ten days after that as well and that pretty much takes us to about ten days ago, I think at which point, since when blissfully felt pretty buoyant, healthy and recovered and were grateful, really as we are for the vaccines.

Matt and his partner took it in turns to care for each other and do household tasks while they were both ill.

We were just as grumpy as each other, that’s okay [laughs]. I mean, we are pretty good at taking turns at everything, so you just, we, we take turns of, providing we’re both home. One of us cooks one day, the other the next, just always. So, everything, we’re already, we’re totally used to sharing everything 50% anyway. So, we just carried on doing that, ‘cos we were both sick, you know. Neither of us had any great appetite, so it’s not as if it was a huge demand or share for the washer upper.

Matt preferred to get advice about Covid from a helpline, because the information on NHS websites was too generic.

Luckily my wife’s pretty sensible to and she, you know, between us, we just sat down and looked on our laptops and looked up NHS, basically Google, I’ve got Covid, what do I do sort of thing. And the instructions were relatively straightforward. We did find it was much easier to speak on the phone. There were a number of competing potentially contradictory bits of messaging on the NHS apps and different sites and as if it still wasn’t quite clear what you should do in any circumstance even 18 months on or whatever it is. So, we did find that getting on the phone was, was the best thing to do. Some, somehow it’s the ability to ask questions, I think that helps because you know, you can refine things more precisely towards your own condition, rather than, you know, at the generic level of what do you do with person Covid? Well what do you do with person Covid whose got these three symptoms and had them for such and such days, number of days. Has been double vaccinated and lives near a PCR centre, gets you a much more direct sort of result than just looking at something which is addressed at the sort of social society level. We found the phone just much, much easier. Very straightforward.