On top of everything that was listed above, I believe you should have added some sort of an additional illness to the protagonist, like a chronic respiratory disease, heart problems or obesity, probably even made him an elderly male, that would have made the most sense, considering his fear of actually dying from the virus. The majority of people who are supposed to be concerned about actually perishing from it, not just experiencing its minor effects, are those with already existing severe ailments, and the fact that 78% of people who were in need of hospitalization or died from the virus were obese or overweight proves it...