Peter McGinn was isolating at home when the White House announced that a second confirmed case of the Omicron variant had been detected in the United States.
Details revealed how a 30-year-old male had travelled from Minnesota to New York City to attend Anime NYC 2021, a three-day event celebrating all things anime and comics.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also told a room full of journalists in the White House that the individual was fully vaccinated. What she didn't reveal was the name of the man.
That's when Peter McGinn stepped in.
"It was very surreal. I didn’t think I would ever hear the White House talking about me specifically, even though they weren’t naming me. It was just an absolute whirlwind. I saw celebrities on Twitter talking about me. I wanted to put a face on the person," Mr McGinn told Prime Time.
"I thought to reduce some of the misinformation I was seeing online, I wanted to express my thoughts on having Omicron."
It was back in mid-November when Mr McGinn flew from Minnesota to New York for the anime conference. Held in the Javits Center from 18-20 November, the organisers had a strict policy: all attendees must show proof of vaccination and wear a face mask inside the venue.
"The ceilings were really high. I felt safe. 99.9% of people were following the guidelines that were set in terms of masking and doing their best to social distance when possible," Mr McGinn said.
After spending the weekend in Manhattan with friends, he returned to Minnesota where he learned that one member of his party had tested positive. As a close contact he decided to get himself tested despite feeling well.
"To my surprise, I tested positive and, a few days later, I got a follow-up phone call from the Director of the Minnesota Department of Health stating that I had the variant. I was in an utter state of shock."
Mr McGinn is not sure how he picked up the virus, as his party were all fully vaccinated and he never removed his mask during the flight, in the taxi, or at the anime convention.
However, he is not convinced he contracted the variant during the comics conference, since he attended other venues in Manhattan across the weekend where mask wearing was not mandated.
Following his positive test, Mr McGinn spent 10 days at home in quarantine in Minnesota, where his symptoms were mild.
"I only felt symptoms for a day. I had light fatigue - I had a runny nose and I had a little bit of a cough, so nothing too bad. The next day I was still on vacation from work so I slept 14 hours, woke up and I felt 100% and I’ve been 100% for almost two weeks now," he said.
He attributes his mild sickness to having had the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April and then the Moderna booster in early November. With his quarantine now over, Mr McGinn has returned to work and is already back exercising. He wants to use his story as a resource for others who fear what the Omicron variant is capable of.
Some 4,000 miles away in London, Carleen Macdermid has tested positive for the same variant, a signal of how fast and how far Omicron has spread in a matter of weeks.
She is currently on the eighth day of her 10-day isolation period.
Ms Macdermid has had two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, plus a recent booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
But, shortly after her booster shot in late November, she began to feel unwell.
"It wasn’t until [30 November] that I started to feel really sick. I felt hot, I felt a bit nauseous. I was very sick for about a day and a half to two days," she said.
Ms Macdermid also has an underlying condition.
"I have very bad arthritis and I have it all the way through my body. So I was in absolutely enormous pain."
But, within a short period, she was feeling considerably better.
"I was noticeably better after 36-40 hours, things were easier and, every single day, they’ve been noticeably easier again. I haven’t had a fever for days."
When the pandemic began, Ms Macdermid offered herself to be part of the vaccine trials at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London.
Since then, she has continued to engage with the hospital research team and offered to provide samples this time round when she tested positive. They told her that it was likely she has the Omicron variant and, several days later, the NHS confirmed this.
Currently, she is isolating on the third floor of a property she shares with a flatmate, who has so far tested negative. Ms Macdermid is confined to the bedroom. For respite, she opens a window that bears down on a street in Herne Hill, a district in south London where she’s based.
"I am doing absolutely nothing in the communal areas of our home. I’ve got a quiet little street outside. Down on the corner, during the day, they’ve started selling Christmas trees," she said.
"I have to admit it does feel like they are mocking me a little bit to be starting the celebrations without me but I do have to remind myself that it is only ten days - I can absolutely cope."
So how did she become one of the first people in the UK to be confirmed as an Omicron case?
"I wish I could give you an answer. I work in a school, so there are a lot of people there. But the job that I have is in a small office, so I don’t come into contact with a ton of people."
Ms Macdermid uses public transport regularly in London and points to the lack of mask wearing as a potential source of infection.
"I do take a bus about 40 minutes each way in peak hour so there’s a very good chance there. And, some days, 80% of us are wearing masks and, some days, I’m the only person wearing a mask."
With her quarantine due to end this coming Saturday, Ms Macdermid feels overall her symptoms have largely disappeared.
She’s now looking forward to Christmas. She should be all set after three vaccine doses and whatever potential immunity she acquires once her recovery from Omicron is complete.
