DECATUR, Ga. — As COVID-19 crept into our communities, the Centers for Disease Control set out to learn more about how the virus was spreading at home – between family members.
It found that in more than half the houses studied, 55 percent, at least one other person got sick. That’s even after the infected person slept in another room, used a different bathroom, and wore a mask around the house. Men were more likely to spread it than women and adults spread it to their children more often than to their spouse.
The study focused on 58 households in Utah and Wisconsin. But 12-year-old Aniyah Davis says even in Georgia she knows the study's results are true.
“I felt like there was just pain poking at my head. Poke, poke, poke, poke,” Aniyah said describing how she felt during her 10 day recovery from the virus.
“I felt like COVID was in my lungs and it hurt. And that scared me," Aniyah said.
She turned her fear into drawings, helping others to understand what it was like to be sick with COVID-19.
“She drew her emotions. The pain that she had and what she felt, she drew it,” her mom Latrissha Davis said.
It’s no surprise, she wished for a superhero, someone who could take the infection away, or stop it before anyone else got sick.
“So he's doing this type of spider man pose shooting hand sanitizer out onto the street,” Aniyah explains of one of her drawings.
But her COVID spiderman couldn’t work fast enough. Her dad was the first to get the virus and even though he tried to stay away from the rest of the family, her mom got it as well. Within days, Aniyah started to feel a pain in her throat.
“Aniyah’s symptoms or way worse than mine,” her mom said. “She had every symptom. Like, the no smell. No taste. The stomachache. The chills. She had everything.”
Everything, but what she wanted. Time with her sister and the ability to be close to those she loved. Aniyah wore a mask when around other family members. She couldn’t touch the remote to play video games or play with her younger sister.
“I missed my sister. I miss her a lot," explained Aniyah.
Her self-isolation turned to loneliness. Out of that sadness came another drawing. A single hand in the rain.
“The raindrops give it the sad vibe,” she explained. “I was definitely reaching out.”
Aniyah says there were days she was scared, especially when her oxygen levels dropped and she thought she was going to have to go to the hospital.
But a simple note from her 11-year old sister, did something spiderman couldn’t. It said simply, “You may not be the nicest, funiest, smartest sister but you are my sister and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So I need you to do something. I need you to get better.”
“And then the next day, POW! I was, I was better," Aniyah said.
She wants families to know, children can get COVID, and they can get really sick from it. Now that she’s feeling better, she wants to use her art to encourage others. She says the picture of the boxing gloves, shows this is a fight worth fighting.
“Be the boxer. Keep your head up. They get punched so many times, but they keep fighting. And the person who has COVID or the person who needs to hear this, they need to keep fighting, because I know they can get through it," Aniyah said.