Social Distancing

Chapter 19: Set a Schedule

Weeks two, three, and four back at work flew by. We completed the first analysis of the clinical trial data. Every subject, including Noah, who was still alive after the initial administration of the vaccine showed varying amounts of the antibodies that protected against COVID-19. And since this was a slowly mutation virus, the vaccine worked against all nine strains.

In some strange way, I liked having Noah in the study. His blood samples were among the highest performers in terms of antibody development. Oddly, I felt reassured to have some physical part of him in the lab as well. But we had enough antibodies within our test samples to keep moving forwards, which is encouraging. Ninety percent of potential vaccines didn't get past this stage. While Amy and Paul continued to monitor the clinical trials, Dr. McKenna coordinated our work with NHS and the other labs.

The best part was how Noah was back in my life. We had a set routine: we woke up, went running together, he did his online coursework while I went to the lab, we went running again, ate dinner together, and said goodnight. Weekends were a bit harder, so I just put in extra lab hours and worked seven days a week. The new schedule blurred weekends into the weekdays though, and I found myself having more difficulty keeping track of which day it was anymore.

"You ready?" I asked into my Bluetooth. "I've never used this before, so I might lose you."

"Whenever you are," Noah replied.

"Okay, let's go." I started running on my normal path. Boris Johnson had permitted Brittains to go outside for one exercise routine per day, and I intended to use my time to go running. And, at the same times, Noah went jogging in Canterbury while he spoke on the phone with me.

The idea came up during one of our late night conversations. I'd mentioned going running, he said he wished we could do it together, so the next thing we ran in our separate locations while on the phone. Sometimes we shared pictures or a video chat, and it wasn't exactly the same as if his bony elbow stuck into my arm, but sometimes if I closed my eyes then I more easily pictured him striding next to me.

We were actually quite blessed to be dating in such a digital age. Monday and Tuesday evenings, he set up his phone at the end of his family's dinner table while I got dinner from the cafeteria and ate it in my flat. That idea came to him once when his mom interrupted us on the phone with, "Just bring her with you already, dinner's ready." They had quite an interesting family dynamic and a lot of insults were tossed back and forth at their table.

They asked me a lot of questions of London, particularly how things were looking "out there." I didn't have a lot of exposure but tried my best to keep them updated. As his mom had pointed out, I wasn't much of a talker.

Once I told them that I worked on research for infectious diseases, that information opened up a floodgate of questions. They were very difficult to answer, since a lot of information I wasn't allowed to discuss outside work. I also struggled on explaining things in simple terms.

A recent example concerned the vaccine we'd currently developed.

"So, is there a vaccine?" His mom asked one night. Her tone was casual but my eyes darted over to Noah. He shook his head, as if to say he hadn't shared anything. His family at this point knew that he was in some kind of study, since he had to go to the Kent NHS site for weekly bloodwork.

"There are more than forty labs in the world working on that problem right now, including ours," I answered honestly. "So we'll get there. But the best thing is to stay distant for awhile." What I couldn't tell her is that our third floor had been producing the antigens for the past two weeks. Dr. McKenna and Amy also had daily calls with members of those forty labs, the scientific attack against COVID-19 behind the scenes was quite a joint shared effort.