Makeup artist Natasha Moor is aware that if she hadn’t posted a video on March 23, 2020, on her official Instagram account (@natasha.moor), the world, certainly her avid 58.5 thousand followers, would have never known that she had tested positive for COVID-19 last month.
“I knew there was gossip about me floating around Whatsapp – and I have never cared about what people think of me,” she says with a polite but firm voice over the phone, where this interview was conducted over a period of three weeks over several intermittent conversations.
“What I wanted to do was speak my truth in complete honesty. My business motto has always been intended to help women feel empowered. My tag line "In a world full of ordinary, be Moor" was intended as very tongue-in-chic, but now, I've got to be the spokes-model for it."
In Hong Kong, Moor is somewhere in the middle of unenviable roster of 862* people who have tested positive since the first reported case in January 22, 2020. When told that her professional services are going to take a big hit with her public declaration, she has no issues addressing the potential of foregone losses.
“I do not care for small-minded people who think I’m some kind of untouchable monster because I tested positive for the Corona. I know I have a voice – and I need to use it. What I hated was the gossip – who I met, who might have it because of me. I know I have a platform, so here’s my truth.”
As a professional makeup artist, Moor has a booming, tactile business, which involves her touching the faces of thousands of women, often brides and their entourage, as she transforms visages from the girl next door to glamazons (her before and after clips have their own fan-following). She counts on an interpersonal relationship with women of all ages dotted all around the globe, as word-of-mouth and social media is the driving force of landing work, a business where she can artfully change a face with her exquisite brushwork, skill set and her eponymous products.
“Every single industry in Hong Kong is taking a hit this year, I know I am not alone. What I wanted to do was to use my platform in whichever way to be positive, not just test positive during a very scary time in my life.”
Jet-setting Moor’s passport is filled to the brim with stamps as she has been travelling since she launched her business eight years ago, being part of innumerable events, shoots, celebrity makeup, anniversaries and weddings, she speaks at length about the beauty business, part of her profits go to charities empowering women and she trains and teaches aspiring MUAs around the globe. This year alone, in the past three months she has hopscotched over 15 countries. Apart from doing personal makeup, she has her own line of cosmetics sold under Sephora - Natasha Moor Cosmetics - and she has team members in hot spots around the globe.
“I’ve been travelling so much for so long that I don’t get jet lag. But when I landed from my last trip from London on March 18, I was physically exhausted. I did not have a temperature or any major symptoms. I got home, I showered and I went to sleep. I woke up the next day at 5:00 p.m, that’s when I knew something was wrong,” she says recalling the steps that led her to an isolation ward. “I don’t sleep that much and I don’t get severe jet-lag as I’m always on the go. My gut instinct said, something is wrong, I didn’t understand why I was feeling so weak. I told everyone to stay away from me and I went to get myself checked up on March 20th.”
The only person she did meet after landing in town was her father – who tested negative for the virus but as a precautionary measure was kept in isolation for 14 days in quarantine in Shatin, as per government orders.
Though she lives in Kowloon, she simply googled for the nearest hospital which had the shortest waiting time. That counted Queen Elizabeth Hospital out as the lines were notoriously long. She found Caritas Medical Centre in Cheung Sha Wan which had great online reviews for speed and efficiency.
“I'm so grateful I was in Hong Kong, at least I got the news in 12 hours here. They gave me the results so quickly – in other countries in Europe, unless you’re in a severe state they don’t even take you in and are sent home. Tests take over two weeks and by then you could have spread it to hundreds of people if you were asymptomatic like me.”
Moor showed none of the major symptoms most often associated with Corona; she didn’t have a high fever or dry continuous cough, she didn’t have nasal congestion nor did she have diarrhea. “I mean, I wasn't dying. I didn't have a crazy fever. By all superficial measures I was fine – only I knew something was not right.”
When she self-checked into Caritas, they saw her extensive travel record and detected a mild temperature. Her blood tests were clear and her X-ray was fine, albeit a mild chest infection was detected.
“They took me to a private room immediately after they saw something in my chest. The tests were really bad – they shove this tube up your nose and that hurts like hell. They said I can’t leave the hospital until I had my results – thank God I had my phone, charger and iPad with me. I stayed overnight, but I wasn't too nervous as the doctor initially said I had no major symptoms and the blood-work was fine. After the second tests, I was told I was “preliminary positive” - and when that happened, I went... Oh my God.”
More blood tests followed as about eight blood samples were collected. She was kept in isolation in a private room by herself and rounds of medication followed as confirmation arrived in a manila envelope that she was patient 313 having tested positive for COVID-19 in the thick of a global pandemic that has the world on pause.
A battery of pills and injections taken morning, noon and night have followed as she’s been in hospital now for three weeks.
“The most surprising thing for me has been, the doctor doesn't come see you. Not even once. The doctor hasn't seen my face in person since the day I walked in - I don't know if he's seen me through the camera that's in the room constantly monitoring me. The doctor only called me to tell me what’s happening - and though he’s been kind and informative and explaining the medication to me, initially I was at a loss – it was really scary as I don’t know what the hell these meds mean, what I’m signing. And then, to be told, hey, by the way, this might not work!”
Moor has been given Lopinavir/ritonaravir - taken orally and ribavirin and interferon B-1b (via subcutaneous injection). In the medical document that she signed, it states on record that no antiviral agents have demonstrated a clearly proven clinical effect from randomized clinical trials (RCT) in the treatment of COVID -19. But according to the limited evidence (including in vitro studies, animal models, case studies as well as expert opinion from Hong Kong and China) from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the following agents can be considered.
“Even the doctors around the globe don’t know if it’ll work permanently. The point put across to me was, nothing is proven, its new to us doctors too and we can’t promise you that you'll fully recover - but this is what has been working for other people. There's a lot of side effects and are you OK with this?” she was asked as she read ‘Sign here’! “Well, what else am I supposed to do in this state? So obviously I signed. By then, my fever was climbing up – it was 39°C".
In this state of confusion, Moor found clarity in her ward having had nothing but time to think about what is happening and how it happened. “I’m quite intuitive as a person and I think I got it from Heathrow airport. When I was flying back to Hong Kong, the headlines were all about the virus in UK. Heathrow was packed with people as everyone was trying to leave before lock-downs in their respective countries. The security wasn't even checking people properly as everyone was so scared. I definitely think I got it in Heathrow – its this huge mass of agitated people trying to come and go, I don’t remember seeing proper temperature checks there, unlike in Hong Kong airport.”
But then again, when Moor landed, she didn’t have a fever and she, like innumerable others will never know when, how and where she unintentionally picked up the infectious, potentially fatal disease.
The fever and nausea came with the medication and after she was kept in isolation, as she’s had to deal with all the side effects over the course of her trial, “Depression, anxiety and insomnia, which I think all of them come in and out in phases – so I’m forcing myself to be super positive about this.”
Despite the good cheer in her Instagram posts, there are moments when she’s plagued by more dire thoughts.
“There are points when I do think, Oh my god, I’m going to die – not because of how I feel but just knowing that there is no known cure. Anywhere. In isolation, you just think the worst so I have to battle my own thoughts – no I’ll be fine. I force myself to keep negative thoughts at bay. I have an amazing circle of friends and family on Facetime sending me love and trying to keep me in a positive state of mind.”
A few days shy of her 30th birthday, Moor is constantly on social media and is disappointed by the lackadaisical approach of her generation to the gravity of the matter. “People are not taking this seriously enough; I see them posting videos of dancing. partying, going to the beach – boat parties! People should be self-quarantining, not having roof parties. If not for themselves, for those most vulnerable to the disease, the aged and the infirm – who go from fever to intensive care in a matter of hours.”
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus set the record straight at a press conference last week. “I have a message for young people: You are not invincible, this virus could put you in hospital for weeks or even kill you. Even if you don’t get sick the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.”
The average age of those who have died from Covid-19 in Italy has hovered around 78 years. But younger patients do still get seriously sick, with 20 per cent of hospitalisations in the US aged between 20 and 44, with that same cohort making up 12 per cent of intensive care admissions, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of American cases between February 12 and March 16.
Over the period of our chats online and at odd hours, when Moor is fully conscious and not reeling in nausea, several changes have occurred in her ward. The first week, she was alone in her room, truly isolated except for the brief contact with the trained nurses in her care. Then, she found herself sharing a room with another patient with COVID-19. Two days thereafter, there were four in her room. By our last chat there are six, mirroring the rapid expansion and spread the world has been recording in shock and awe. She’s had to share the room and bathroom with patients and she’s been told she can’t take two showers as she is prone to, morning and night.
“I’m not sure I understand how, as I’m getting better, bringing in more patients with varying degrees and stages of their viral infection is going to benefit any of us?” she says perplexed with unanswered questions from her medical team.
“I still consider myself lucky as I’ve mostly received lots of love and encouragement from my community. One of the patients here is a young girl, and I feel really bad for her. I am inundated with messages, e-mails and calls from people around the world. I don’t think she’s getting any support from the outside... She’s so young...”
Her mother brought in clothes for her and left them at reception and staff brought it up for her – but she hasn’t seen her in person in over two months. In hospital, she's cognitive of the tension thick in the air, “I know the fear, I understand the fear. I can see the nurses are working overtime and long painful hours. They don’t want to get infected, there is no cure – and that fear can be overwhelming."
The fear and anxiety that most nurses and doctors usually keep abated but can’t recently is not surprising. Across the planet, at the Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan all the paramedics are worried as they see intubated, critically ill young doctors, they worry if they’ll be next. New York City hospital has been described as “a petri dish” where more than 200 workers have fallen sick. Two nurses died last week.* The virus has been democratically attacking people of all shapes and sizes, ages, casts and creed. Statistically, senior citizens with underlying conditions are most at risk. In Hong Kong's 7.39 million population, 6,888 reported cases so far has seen four deaths, 862 confirmed in hospital and only 186 discharged.* In Italy there's 12 percent fatality rate. But as we go to print, every morning, fate and numbers change in drastic measures. Every statistic mentioned in this feature will have inevitably changed by the time its published.
In the age of too much information and awareness, Moor also made it a point to get ahead of the game, not wanting unverified gossip be the driving narrative of her story. “I started being more worried about what people think of me than actually getting better - which is ridiculous. When you are more concerned about other people’s opinion versus self-care, you’ve really lost your mind. I heard there was some whatsapp message being forwarded around - going viral as they say ironically – and I had to post my second video to say, hey I did not infect another person, this malicious gossip can ruin another person’s business, if you want the truth, message me directly, I have nothing but time to answer all your questions.”
Moor has now been in hospital for - as of March 20th - over four weeks today – waiting to be discharged only after her final tests prove negative. Her fever has dissipated, her throat is clear and her voice is strong.
“I’ve faced and overcome many challenges in my life,” she says without skipping a beat. “This will be another one.”
As told to P. Ramakrishnan, for SCMP
An abridged version of this feature ran in print on Friday April 18, 2020
* All numbers correct at the time of writing. I know they have changed dramatically since the feature was originally written.
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