Mainstream media is full of COVID-19 horror stories, patients dying slow and awful deaths, suffocating alone. These stories have caused anxiety to millions of people.

While illness and death have been a sad reality for some, somewhere in all the hysteria, people concluded that contracting COVID-19 was a death sentence. Not so. Yet never has any illness been more globally hyped up and feared. Here is the story of a couple who contracted the virus last month.

Testimony

Tammi Magie works in a nursing home as an occupational therapist. Recently she discovered that many of the patients she was treating tested positive for COVID-19. Needless to say, without knowing that the patients were sick, and taking adequate protective measures herself, she soon caught the much-feared bug. Here is her story,

After two days of intense fever, she started getting worried.

“You’re going to feel lousy for a few weeks, and tired for a while,” Tammi Magie said, 51, who tested positive for COVID-19 and is on the mend, “but most people are not going to die from it. Had I not listened to any of the media, I would not have gotten afraid at any point. People go around fear mongering, and that’s the real issue.”

The current data indicates that the COVID-19 death rate is similar to seasonal flu. The older and more unhealthy you are, the more likely you are to die if you get it. No shock there. Flu or COVID-19 could both be serious illnesses for an older and unhealthy demographic. But a majority of those who test positive for COVID-19 didn’t feel ill at all. Thousands of stories, if not millions, look much more like what Mike and Tammi Magie experienced. “It’s a little worse than the flu,” she said, “but not scary."

“I would have treated this in the same way I normally do,” she said, “but I kept hearing all the scary stories … but there was nothing I experienced that was scary. Yes I had pain and fever and I felt lousy, but none of it made me feel like I was going to die.”

Immediately she began treating herself in the simple ways recommended by the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. Her focus was on nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, fresh air, rest and trusting that God would heal her as she worked with Him to recover.

She greatly increased her daily water intake, her goal being a gallon per day. Every day she would lay out in the sun 30-60 minutes, or outside as long as possible. She exercised as soon as she had energy, and when she didn’t have the strength to walk, she did hydrotherapy to get her blood flowing. She was already vegan, but to this plant-based nutrition, she added large doses of oral vitamin C while also juicing and drinking smoothies. She also took zinc, vitamin D, copaiba, NAC and quercetin bromelain.

“I was doing things I thought would build my immune system,” she said.

Her husband Mike, 52, who also tested positive for COVID-19, is a physical therapy assistant and vegetarian, and they speculate he caught COVID-19 from Tammi, as he had been home from work and tending to her illness.

His illness began about five days after hers, and he wasn’t sick long and had few symptoms. A one-day fever was the worst of it, but a couple days after that, he had some loss of smell and taste. He never had shortness of breath, but some mild fatigue for the next week. He always maintained vigorous exercise, as he was convinced that would help him heal.

Tammi on the other hand, got every symptom listed, such as fever, chills, headaches, joint pains, body aches, loss of smell, fatigue and shortness of breath.

“During my fever days, I was doing hot and cold showers three times a day,” she said. “I was laying in the sun, drinking large volumes of water, taking my supplements three times a day. I can’t imagine how much longer I would have had my severe symptoms had I not been boosting my immune system.”

She requested her doctor give her a Z-Pak and Hydroxychloroquine to alleviate the shortness of breath, but was told the state of California wouldn’t allow that as a treatment option. Therefore, the extent of his medical help was to take Tylenol and rest.

After three days of fever, she started feeling well for a few days, but then relapsed into another fever for 24 hours. She explained the first three days of fever were the worst, and overall the first week was the hardest when she had all the symptoms at once.

Day 15

By day 15 she still had some fatigue and shortness of breath, which are commonly the symptoms lasting the longest, but overall felt much better, and by day 20, she was essentially symptom-free other than some lingering fatigue.

Tammi’s father is a respiratory therapist, and he explained COVID-19’s shortness of breath isn’t what most people think. You can breath just fine, but the reason you’re short of breath is because the virus muddies the oxygen exchange between your lungs and blood, so you feel fatigued.

Day 22

Today is day 22, and she was able to walk one and a quarter miles without stopping. She’s still taking supplements and will be for the next month as her body continues to repair.

“Knowing that our immune system is what fights the infection …. I think I fared much better than the average person because of what I was doing,” she said. “I did the hot and cold showers and my fever would drop, which is significant when you’re talking about non-medicinal treatments.”

She doesn’t want to compare herself to those who are dying from COVID-19, because they generally have underlying conditions. Yes, she said, there are groups of people who need to be cautious, but for the average person, they’re going to feel like they had the flu.

“I have maintained a lifestyle that wouldn’t predispose me to die from it,” she said, “but I believe what I was doing made my symptoms milder and shorter.”

Living a lifestyle conducive to excellent immune health is key to wellness, but also trusting God and having a positive attitude helps reduce stress and aid recovery.

“Attitude goes along with faith,” said Tammi.

“If you have the attitude of ‘woe is me,’ it probably will feel like you’re going to die. At the beginning I was a little fearful, but I had to turn off the TV and say, “‘OK Lord, I know what I need to do to get better, so I’m going to trust ….You can label yourself a Christian, but it has to be part of the way you act and live.”’

“Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:9-10).