I have this to say about testing positive for COVID-19: You can finally stop worrying about catching COVID-19. 

For two and a half years I walked around with varying levels of anxiety over the notion that one day the test strip would come back positive. It began with sheer terror and slowly ebbed as vaccines came along and with them increasing levels of protection. 

Still, knowing that at least one person I love is gone because of this vicious disease, along with the loved ones of countless others, has kept the threat of COVID-19 omnipresent, like a dark cloud in your peripheral vision. 

And then it happened. 

After two and a half years, three vaccines, countless masks, and dozens of negative tests, the virus worked its way into my immune system and took hold. 

I am one of the fortunate for whom COVID was fairly mild. As an asthmatic who often lands in urgent care in need of help to ward off the effects of even the regular cold, I have had good reason to worry. 

I've also had science on my side all this way, helping to make my worries lessen over time. 

After losing my sense of smell, spiking fevers, and battling an unpleasant cough, I have come out the other side knowing that it could have been so much worse. 

I owe science a thank you. 

I owe my thanks to countless scientists who worked to create the vaccines that have built up immunities in my body, to the Public Health employees who ensured the vaccines were procured for country residents and set up clinics to provide access, and to the volunteers at the Public Health clinics who took their time to provide me with several shots in the arm.

Vaccines work. 

They kept me from getting COVID for two and a half years of this pandemic. 

And when it did happen, they armed my body with enough antibodies to be able to put up a true fight. 

There's no true sense of how many Americans have had COVID without knowing it — there's growing evidence that millions (literally) of us have probably had the virus without knowing it at some point along the way. There's growing evidence too that there are certain genetic and immune system traits that have allowed many of us to hold off longer and/or experience more mild versions of the virus than others. 

We have science to thank for this evidence, and one day we'll surely have science to thank for the discoveries that will come from further investigation into all of this evidence. 

I thank goodness for the scientists already working to use what they've learned in this pandemic to hopefully make us safer when the next inevitable virus rears its ugly head. 

Because I no longer have to worry about what happens the first time I catch COVID-19. 

And scientists are already worrying about that next thing for us.