Age Didn't Keep Us Safe From COVID

I almost felt like I was choking and drowning. Put that together.

It starts with really bad fevers, stomachaches.

I've been coughing up blood and phlegm for the last week or so.

I was so afraid that I would wake up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe.

I was actually on the opposite side of the spectrum, where it was like, ha! Me? It ain't gonna get me.

And I decided that if I was going to die, I'd rather do it at home.

My name is [INAUDIBLE]. I am 30 years old.

My name is Billy [? Roden. ?] I'm 42 years old.

Hi, my name is Adria and I'm 12 years old.

My name is Jaime Martinez. I'm 34 years old.

My name is Carter Bridges. I'm 21 years old.

I'm Valerie Joy Wilson and I'm 34.

I've always been a really healthy person. Like, I don't get sick. And when I do, I don't stay sick for very long.

I eat right, I work out six days a week. I take all my vitamins. I did absolutely everything that I had to do prior to even knowing that COVID existed.

I wasn't necessarily afraid. There were just so many rumors that Black people weren't getting the virus.

I've never, ever been terribly sick, especially bedridden, go to the hospital sick.

I got sick so early that I feel like we didn't know as much. But the news was just coming out that this is something we really need to watch out for and take really, really seriously.

I wouldn't say I was using any precautions. We weren't being told to use any. I was just carrying on with life like every normal person back then.

No one was wearing masks yet when I went to Florida. I was actually on vacation when I got it.

I was that guy that didn't care, didn't want to wear masks, went out drinking, went out and hung out with friends.

I had ordered a ton of hand sanitizer, I had ordered face masks, and I had even locked it down really early. I had decided my last day to see anybody was March 5.

I knew that it was a possibility that I would get it. As a matter of fact, I was expecting to get it. I just didn't expect it to be as bad for me.

My mom had it, and then I started getting it. It was just really annoying for me, because I couldn't really do anything, and it kind of ruined my summer. A lot of my friends were going with other friends, even though it was like, a pandemic.

I remember sitting on my shower floor. I remember just trying to do breathing exercises, trying to cough up stuff.

I was laying on my couch and I couldn't breathe. I just couldn't get enough air in.

I was finding it really, really hard to breathe. It was just really scary, because I'd never, ever felt like that before. I thought, honestly, I was dying.

It's the worst headache you could ever think of in your life. You're not eating, you're not sleeping. I hadn't slept for six days, seven days, at all. If there was a big red exit button on life, I would have tapped it over and over and over. I was done.

I had to isolate myself, because I was just so scared of infecting my mom. I couldn't have dared it if I passed it along to her.

My father, who I gave COVID to, because of my stupid decisions, is in the ICU, on a ventilator.

You're not invincible. It doesn't matter who you are, or how old you are, or how healthy you are. Don't turn something this serious into a political debate. It can kill you.

It was definitely a scary experience to know that I had underlying conditions that could have killed me. It could happen to you.

And it can happen to you.

It can happen to you.

It can definitely happen to you.

It can happen to you.