A Melbourne woman recovering from her second cold in three weeks has confirmed she no longer believes in coincidence, and has begun to suspect the current spike in circulating viruses has, on some level, made this personal.
"I know that's not how viruses work," she said, blowing her nose with the practiced resignation of someone doing this for the fourteenth time that hour. "I understand the biology. I just also think it's found me specifically."
Health authorities have attributed the recent uptick to a fairly ordinary seasonal pattern — cooler weather, more time spent indoors, a general increase in circulating respiratory viruses at this time of year. She remains unconvinced, citing what she describes as suspiciously precise timing.
Her Google Fit step streak, which had just reached seven consecutive days after several false starts, ended without ceremony the same afternoon symptoms set in. A planned load of laundry has gone unfolded for two days. A phone call to a friend, delayed twice already, has now been delayed a third time, "indefinitely."
"Everyone else seems fine," she said. "I've asked around. Nobody else in my office has had it. I've had it twice, right as the streak hit seven days. That's not a pattern, that's a vendetta."
A friend's suggestion that this might simply be "how immune systems work sometimes" was, she said, "not what I asked for."
Asked whether she had considered that she may simply have below-average luck this particular month, she paused.
"I've considered it," she said. "I've rejected it. I think it's more likely the virus has looked at my calendar."
At time of publication, she remained on the couch, tissues within arm's reach, still fully convinced that something, somewhere, had made a decision about her specifically.