What it’s like to be the pandemic’s most vulnerable – San Francisco Chronicle

I feel like COVID is a lot like Russian roulette, said Kristen Coleman as she waited in line for a COVID-19 booster shot at a clinic in Marin County. You can go anywhere from zero symptoms to having a tube down your throat.

Coleman is one of the estimated 7 million U.S. adults who are moderately to severely immunocompromised and athigh risk in the coronavirus pandemic. When public health guidance includes the aside except for the immunocompromised, she is part of that caveat.

On this episode of the Fifth & Mission podcast, producer Ta Francesca Priceshares how people with underlying health conditions have navigated the pandemic, from locking down inside their homes and delaying in-person medical care to begging loved ones to get vaccinated. And she asks an important question: Has the pandemic changed the public perception of health?

People with compromised immune systems arent the only ones at higher risk from the coronavirus: 40% of Americans have at least one chronic health condition, which could impact their immune response. Price herself is in that group. And she asks an important question: Has the pandemic changed the public perception of health?

Photo above: Artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenbergs installation, In America: Remember, memorializes those who've died of COVID-19 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

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What it's like to be the pandemic's most vulnerable - San Francisco Chronicle