Misty Orpin
The COVID lady has greater appreciation for the coronavirus after surviving her own bout with the disease.
Misty Orpin founded and operated arkansascovid.com, which became the go-to website for news and statistics about the pandemic. She gained more than 11,000 followers before passing the reins over to the journalism school at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in September.
A month after that, Orpin tested positive for the virus. She has since recovered after quarantining in her home for a couple of weeks, no small task since she and her husband, Leo, have 14- and 3-year-old boys at home.
“It has given me a better perspective that you can do everything right and follow all of the guidelines and still get it,” said Orpin, who is the events and marketing manager at her husband’s Black Apple cidery in Springdale. “My family, we were incredibly careful about what we did and where we went. We took a small trip and followed all the guidelines and yet on that small day trip I still got it.”
Orpin said her main symptoms were fatigue and brain fog, and there are days she feels like she has a concussion even weeks later. Orpin said she understands how people need to get out of the house, but even an innocent trip to Branson, Missouri, isn’t foolproof.
“When I took the kids to Silver Dollar City, they needed that day out; we were all so stir-crazy,” Orpin said. “The pumpkins were awesome, though. It was a great pumpkin display.”
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