Skatta Burrell says COVID is real!
Producers warn colleagues against spreading anti-COVID messages
Published:Thursday | August 19, 2021 | 12:07 AMShereita Grizzle/Staff Reporter
Skatta Burrell says his thoughts on the COVID-19 virus have taken a complete 180-degree turn. The producer, who caught the virus late last month, told The Gleaner that contrary to his original thought, the virus is not a common cold and should be taken seriously.
“To be honest, I wasn't thinking I could really catch this thing. I thought this thing was just like a common cold weh anybody could catch, but I thought my immune system was so strong that it woulda overlook me,” he shared, adding that he thought he would be asymptomatic. ”[I thought] even if I did catch it, I wouldn't show any signs. But COVID is not just a simple disease. When it does leave your body or yuh go get back a negative result, it takes something away from you. You don't feel like your normal self. Your mind, at times, feels like it wah play tricks on yuh, like an alien invading your body. We have to take it serious. It's not just a normal illness,” he said.
Recalling all the symptoms he experienced, Skatta said that at times he felt he was close to death. He said there were moments when breathing became so difficult, he could feel his lungs empty. “When the shortness of breath came, I had numerous episodes when I was unable to breathe. I was coughing a lot, and when yuh cough, it gets worse. I have never in my life pulled in for oxygen and it is never available. The first couple times it happened to me, I got small panic attacks,” he said.
SERIOUS SYMPTOMS
Burrell said he felt the symptoms before getting tested. “I got tested on Thursday, July 29th, but I was feeling symptoms two days prior to that. My joints started to feel stiff; I was having a nauseated feeling, and den at times, I realise that I was sweating. The chills came after that, along with a fever. I got every symptom that was aligned with COVID — diarrhoea, the headaches, shortness of breath, coughing, the loss of smell, loss of taste and appetite. It was really bad,” he said.
Having survived the illness, Burrell considers himself lucky and is now sounding a warning to his colleagues in the industry who still do not believe the virus exists. While he remains unvaccinated and does not intend to change that status, the producer expressed that because of the virus' high mortality rate, persons should be more cognisant of spreading anti-COVID propaganda.
“A lot of people are against COVID, and they are being very protective of themselves. They don't go anywhere and don't interact with people, and because they are not catching it, they think they are above it. It's not right for them to disperse this (anti-COVID) information, because they are not out there every day with regular persons,” he said. “You cannot be in a safe space and speaking against COVID like it doesn't exist. We are not immune to this thing. It will, and can, affect anybody. Up to the biggest advocate against COVID, it can, and will, affect you.”
His advice, “If you are going to be that way (anti-COVID) and spread that kind of message, you guys need to put together a fund for these people that you're going to encourage to do the opposite of what is correct. So that when they fall prey to the disease or get locked up for not wearing a mask, they have some kind of trust fund to help dem out,” he said.