Tony X

Brief Outline:

Gender: Male
 
Ethnicity: Black British
 
Background: Tony is Black British. He is retired and lives with his wife. 
 
Brief Outline: Tony developed symptoms before the first lockdown. When they persisted for two weeks, he knew it was Covid. He was anxious about Covid at first because he is Type 2 diabetic, but feels his healthy lifestyle helped against Covid.

 

More about me...

Tony experienced flu-like symptoms before the first lockdown and realised he had Covid when they continued for more than two weeks. He didn’t find his symptoms to be too bad but still kept his fluids up while resting to try to recover. As he has been managing type 2 diabetes for over a decade, Tony was worried about Covid at the start of the pandemic because of reports that diabetics were at greater risk from the virus.
 
Changes Tony made to his lifestyle when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have meant that he hasn’t had to take medication to manage his condition. He feels that his high levels of activity, as well as diet, meant that his immune system was better prepared to respond to Covid. Tony feels that men are often in denial so they are the last to see the doctor for many conditions, and Covid is no exception.  
 
Tony took retirement after thirty years in the equality and diversity field but continues to remain active by engaging with communities which have been described as “hard to reach” – which Tony disagrees with. He points out “they are not on the Moon, Mars or any other celestial planet” and people need to “get from outside of your nice ivory tower, often behind your laptop and go out there and engage with communities”. Tony also feels it’s important that health information comes from a “familiar face…familiar voice…somebody who they can relate to”.
 
As part of his community work, Tony found that people were getting depressed by listening to the news about Covid “24/7” and he recommends watching comedies to keep back some of the “doom and gloom” as mental health is as important as physical health. Despite being a “technophobe”, Tony feels he still mastered webinars and other ways to keep connected with people virtually during the pandemic.
 
Tony was “at the front of the queue” when it came to receiving a vaccine against Covid, as he felt that not taking it would be “selfish”. He says that it’s important to check scientific websites when doing your own research, and not to rely on social media.

 

Tony X has lived with Type 2 diabetes for several years but felt that his healthy lifestyle minimised his risk.

I take no medication. I’ve never done because of the physical activity and diet and lifestyle that I lead with my family. We eat very healthily. So, this is why the doctor said my immune system was not compromised. I don’t do fast food. I don’t do junk food. We eat freshly every day. We don’t do fry ups. We boil, we bake, we steam, we grill and we roast in our household. I do a range of physical activities such as Pilates, yoga, Zumba.

Tony X didn’t tell his daughter when he had Covid because he thought it would send her into ‘scare mode’.

And yeah like what, did you tell your daughter, I’m thinking, was she worried about you?

No, no, no, I didn’t, no, I kept it from her [laughs]. No, ‘cos she’s a performer and I don’t want her to be thinking of other things and thinking, “oh when is dad-” because the news was, it was, it’s pure doom and gloom in March, April, May when you heard of the death counts and this and the numbers going up and so on. So, that, that was kept from her, no, I wouldn’t have shared that with her because that would have just sent her into scare mode, fright and it’s either fight or flight or what have you. So, no, I, I, didn’t want her to, to have that at the back or front of her mind, ‘cos it would detract from what she does in, in her profession. So, she was not told.

Tony X sees vaccine hesitancy in his community as deeply rooted in historical racism.

There’s a mistrust from, from the past. And, and there was a Tuskegee study which was done some years ago into syphilis. There’ve been, people don’t, don’t trust politicians in terms of they say one thing and then do another. The, the fear factor of the, the rumours of, I won’t even mention them. I don’t wanna mention all the, the rumours that came out and, and was circulated on WhatsApp. The technology that, that came out and, and people sort of tuned into that and so on without going and doing their proper research. Because I say, only go to the tried and tested scientific websites. Those are the ones you need to visit. Don’t go to some person whose gonna say, “Oh, try these herbal remedies and, and this homeopathic thing and so on and that will cure you of what have you.” One needs to be mindful of where you’re going and researching for your information. And, and some of the reluctant people have eventually come around.