COLUMBUS, Ohio– An Ohio man who escaped Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus, is now back in Columbus with family and friends, grateful to be home and healthy.

John McGory is relieved to hopefully never have to wear a medical mask again, but the mental journey is far from over. 

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"You get a sense of being alone in dealing with the mental anguish that comes along with dealing with the coronavirus," he describes.

After weeks of only seeing people wearing masks and gloves, covered in fear that McGory could be a coronavirus carrier, he finally sees friendlier faces. 

McGory has spent the last few days with family and friends from Cleveland and Columbus, playing grandad again and getting to be there for the christening of his newest grandson, Arthur. 

"My son Ethan and his wife Lindsay felt safe enough to let me hold the baby," he tells Spectrum News 1's, Lindsay Oliver.

But McGory says despite surviving quarantine both in Wuhan and in California, some people are still wary of being around him. "I don't blame anyone for being cautious."

His friend, Thad, is not worried as he's allowed McGory to stay with him while he looks for a place to live. He was teaching English in Wuhan for the past six years but was already planning to move back to Westerville right before the coronavirus broke. 

"There's also the concept of survivor guilt, you know, I still have American friends living in Wuhan and Chinese friends living in Wuhan," he says. "I'm worried about them, and some of the messages I get from them are kind of disturbing."

And now he can't help but worry about the rise in cases happening across the U.S.

"It's so catchy that I don't see how they're going to stop it," he says. "I saw how quickly it spread in Wuhan, and it went from 44 cases to 4,000 cases in a week to 40,000 cases, and so, obviously, it spreads quickly. And that's what one of the doctors said in quarantine, once it gets a foothold in the community, then it's really really difficult to stop."

For now, he waits and watches with the rest of us, writing down his international run from a virus that could soon be knocking on his doorstep once again.