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Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of October 31
This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!
One of my team members had what he thought was a cold starting last Monday. Turns out it was COVID, and though he was symptomatic all through last week, he didn’t test positive until Thursday.
On Tuesday, after being in contact with him on Monday, I got incredibly bad fatigue. I was very tired throughout the day, and ended up going to bed pretty early (maybe 6:30-7:00 PM?). I remember that the idea of merely brushing my teeth before bed seemed absolutely exhausting. I almost didn’t do it — I was that tired. I didn’t test positive though, and by the next morning I felt fine. I’ve tested regularly since and every one has been negative. Also no other symptoms have developed.
When I got in this morning, I talked to another one of our team members who was in contact with the guy who got COVID on Wednesday. She shared that, on Friday, she was abnormally exhausted and ended up going to bed early. She, like me, thought it was COVID but ended up feeling fine the next day and has also never tested positive. (Also, when she shared this with me, I hadn’t yet told her about my fatigue on Tuesday, so I don’t think this was a priming situation.)
Is there any reliable information out there about fatigue relative to COVID exposure? My pet theory is that both she and I had fatigue because our immune systems were fighting off our COVID exposures (the fatigue felt similar to how I felt after receiving my vaccines/boosters). Effectively: we both were exposed to the virus from our positive colleague but didn’t develop COVID because our bodies fought it off before it could take root.
This is, however, merely a hunch with no actual scientific or even anecdotal backing. I haven’t heard/seen anyone else talking about this sort of thing elsewhere, but, admittedly, I also haven’t been following COVID news or discussions in a while now. Anyone have any pointers to more information or know of similar experiences?
I had a somewhat similar experience back in June, was in a car with two people who later tested positive for a day. I started to feel feverish / tired (not to the extent you did here) on Saturday, thought for sure I was gonna get COVID. Woke up on Sunday and felt good enough to go for a 5 mile hike (deep in the woods where I knew I wouldn’t see a soul). No symptoms after that, never tested positive. Sure felt like my immune system fighting off the infection, as I had had COVID only a few months earlier in March.
Don't know if this is helpful, but our livestock vet explained to me once that if I had a cow that was a persistent carrier of BVD (a bovine virus), even if all the other cattle were vaccinated for it, it would bring down herd health because my vaccinated cattle's immune system would be constantly battling the virus even though they wouldn't get it. This in turn could make them grow slower and be more susceptible to other illnesses.