PANDEMIC STORIES
Covid Hasn’t Infected My Body, But It Has Infected My Mind
What it’s like to live the state with America’s lowest vaccination rate when you have a high-risk factor
I used to wonder if I’d be the last mask-wearing person in America. Now I know that I am. Or, at least, it seems that way.
Throughout the pandemic, I’ve lived in Alabama, the state that’s tied with Wyoming for having the lowest rate of residents fully vaccinated against Covid-19. It also ranks high on lists of mask-averse states.
Those two realities make life a minefield if you have asthma, as I do, a condition that can interact precariously with respiratory diseases like Covid. I’ve survived two crashes that totaled the car, but I’ve never feared for my life as I did during my first asthma attack, when it seemed that my lungs — without warning — had stopped working.
Another fact of life here adds the risks: Alabamians are exceptionally sociable.
The University of Alabama has been called the nation’s top party school, but the truth is: The entire state…
