A British teenager is beginning to recover from a 10-month coma without apparently knowing about the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the world around him, despite having been infected with the virus twice.
As reported by GuardianJoseph Flavill, 19, was hit by a car while walking in Staffordshire, UK, on March 1, 2020, when less than 40 cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country. He was left with a traumatic brain injury that left him in a state of unconsciousness for months. During that time, COVID-19 dominated the world and tens of millions of people were infected with the virus, including Joseph, who reportedly caught the infection twice while in hospital.
He has now regained consciousness and is beginning to show some promising signs of recovery, such as answering yes and no by blinking and following basic commands. But how to reach someone in the past year?
“He will not know anything about the pandemic, as he has been sleeping for 10 months. His conscience is starting to improve now, but we just don’t know what he knows, ”his aunt, Sally Flavill Smith, told the Guardian.
“I just don’t know where to start. A year ago, if someone had told me what was going to happen last year, I don’t think they would have believed it. I have no idea how Joseph is going to understand what we all went through. “
His family set up a campaign called Joseph’s journey, which raised more than £ 32,000 to support the teenager in his long-term recovery. Due to COVID’s restrictions, only his mother has been allowed to see him so far and has had to be socially aloof and wear full PPE.
“I think it was really a challenge because, from Joseph’s point of view, you have someone who is not close to you, who is wearing all that PPE and obviously doesn’t know that we are in the middle of a pandemic,” said his aunt, speaking with Sky news.
In the first stage of the pandemic, the world had some groups of people who were unaware of COVID-19. In March 2020, was reported that many sailors aboard nuclear-powered submarines were kept unaware of the pandemic to avoid undermining their morale and keeping them focused on their task. Employees working for the United Nations migration program also said they found many Ethiopian migrants who were unaware of the pandemic until June 2020.
Still in March, producers of the reality show Big Brother in Germany, they were left with the dilemma of telling competitors about the pandemic in the outside world. Eventually, the housemates were informed live on the air and, after making sure that their loved ones were well, they decided to stay at the house. After all, a detached house, isolated from the rest of the world, was the ideal quarantine situation.
[H/T: The Guardian]