As a teacher, I’ve been in the same room for prolonged periods of time with confirmed positive cases on the regular. I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve sent to the nurse with symptoms. Somehow,...
As a teacher, I’ve been in the same room for prolonged periods of time with confirmed positive cases on the regular. I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve sent to the nurse with symptoms.
Somehow, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve managed to avoid it. For much of the past two school years I’ve voluntarily gotten weekly PCR tests, and my husband and I still rapid test before every social outing we do (which we’re still somewhat choosy about). Not a single one, PCR or rapid, has ever tested positive. At this point I’ve done so many that I feel that, if I’m not due for COVID, I’m at least due for a false positive?
I’ve definitely had thoughts similar to those in the article. Do I have some immune system quirk that makes me less susceptible? Is my regular exposure actually helping me create immunity by providing my immune system with low doses it can fight off on the regular? Did I actually already have it and I just don’t know? There was a period in late 2020 where I lost taste and smell, but it only lasted 24 hours and I didn’t test positive on two PCR tests days apart — nor did any other symptoms arise. Was that COVID? Who knows.
At this point, my husband and I have accepted that we will eventually get it — there’s pretty much no way around that inevitability, we feel. We’re just hoping that we get mild cases.
It’s definitely helped me understand some of the roots of conspiratorial thinking. On account of my luck in dodging it, I’ll admit to having moments of “what if it isn’t actually a concern?” and “what if the virus isn’t what I think it is?” This isn’t to defend that sort of thinking in the slightest (COVID is unequivocally real and remains a concern), but I can see first-hand the emotional and experiental roots that provide meaningful doubt a place to hang its hat. These were mostly just intrusive thoughts for me, but I see how, if they’re given fertile soil in which to take root, they can grow to something more.
I feel like it’s similar to the sort of thinking that happens at a slot machine, when someone feels they’re having a either a lucky streak or bum luck. It’s more pareidolia than anything else — someone finding meaning in a brief pattern among a gigantic background of statistical noise. Nevertheless, I understand how it can feel real to that individual and, worse, how conspiratorial thinking will latch into that feeling as a land grab, claiming all territory with only that small anchor as an entry point.
I've dodged it the whole time but I've also barely gone outside my house. The only time I had any real risk was the brief period I was in university and they reopened in person before I went back...
I've dodged it the whole time but I've also barely gone outside my house. The only time I had any real risk was the brief period I was in university and they reopened in person before I went back home because all my classes were online anyway, and even then they had pretty good covid policies.
I'm still very strict with masks and stuff when I do go out, even though everyone gave up a long time ago.
My boyfriend, despite also working in a customer facing grocery job like myself, is one of the never-COVID ones. I don't know how he's managed to do it the whole time. I myself only made it to...
My boyfriend, despite also working in a customer facing grocery job like myself, is one of the never-COVID ones. I don't know how he's managed to do it the whole time. I myself only made it to April of this year, and that was almost certainly when I got it after public transit in my area stopped requiring them and I caught a bus without one since I hadn't planned on taking transit that day. Between being transit-reliant until May of this year and a grocery store employee, I'm honestly surprised I never caught it sooner, given that I gave up on masking at work about a month after they dropped the requirement for staff to do so (which was a few months before I caught it).
Even my parents, one of whom is an immunocompromised long-term care facility employee and the other who has been on near-full WFH, caught it about a week before I did, and they had gone to the extent of not having eaten at a restaurant in two years, as well as my mom having not gone inside to stores this entire time. Luckily even her case was pretty mild and they both made a swift recovery, but it's just odd that said boyfriend, who is in an environment where it's easy to catch it (and has basically stopped masking as well), is the last of the dodgers left that I know personally.
I tend to say that I haven't had COVID as far as I'm aware. I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption that I haven't; the only indoor places I've been in the last 2.5 years are medical offices...
I tend to say that I haven't had COVID as far as I'm aware. I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption that I haven't; the only indoor places I've been in the last 2.5 years are medical offices (aside from my home and my parents' home). I think that with my chronic illnesses I'd probably know if I'd gotten it (high risk for long term complications and all that), but who knows - maybe one of my many flares when I felt a bit feverish was actually COVID.
I do think a lot of people have probably had it asymptomatically without knowing.
When I got COVID I was super disappointed because I finally got knocked out of the club. I had just flown forna work trip and dodged it, and think it was because I went to IKEA without a face mask...
When I got COVID I was super disappointed because I finally got knocked out of the club. I had just flown forna work trip and dodged it, and think it was because I went to IKEA without a face mask once a week after. My mom got it on the same timeline, and the brother that lives with us, despite his consistent best efforts, got a minor three-day case that fucked up a trip he had planned (he waited the full 10 days before getting on a train for 30hrs)
I like their take between their pride ad dodging it and acceptance that it will likely happen regardless. That was sorta my mindset, but I felt like I lost the game when it finally hit.
Bit of a long one here.. In short, me, my wife and son living together have not caught Covid.. Other members of the family have, and more than once.. Anyway, I had a really serious bout of...
Bit of a long one here..
In short, me, my wife and son living together have not caught Covid.. Other members of the family have, and more than once..
Anyway, I had a really serious bout of pneumonia in my late 20’s, really knocked me for six.. Since then, I always seem to get a cold, minor chest infection and sometimes an ear infection in the run up to each Christmas. I tend to be fine over the Christmas period and feel really good. Then about the 2nd week of Jan, it comes back for 2 to 3 weeks then disappears, regular as clockwork for many years. When Covid came 1st time, nothing! No cold, no infection, despite regular testing for Covid for the job, nothing. In Dec 21, and Jan22 the cold came back.. That’s it really.. I guess I am just waiting for it to all die down, then I’ll get it.. a bit like someone getting the Spanish flu in in 1962!!!
My immediate family are in this group. As far as we know none of the five of us have had COVID yet. I don't have any theories as to why. I go to work in an office three times a week. Our kids play...
My immediate family are in this group. As far as we know none of the five of us have had COVID yet. I don't have any theories as to why. I go to work in an office three times a week. Our kids play with other kids and have gone to camps all summer. In fact, our daughter went to a camp two weeks ago where it seems everyone else that attended tested positive. I'd have to imagine that at least one of us has had at least an asymptomatic case by this point in the pandemic.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have no proof, but I am 70-80% sure I got Covid before anyone even thought it was here (in Europe). Late Jan or early Feb of 2020, in Hungary, my girlfriend got...
At the other end of the spectrum, I have no proof, but I am 70-80% sure I got Covid before anyone even thought it was here (in Europe). Late Jan or early Feb of 2020, in Hungary, my girlfriend got sick, bad flu-like thing, lasted over a week. I got it from her, just as sick, lasted a week for me, too. We even have a picture of her, working in a store, wearing a mask (long before anyone even thought about masks) that had "It's not Corona" hand-written on it as a joke (except, ironically, it probably was).
Could have just been a bad flu, but I don't get sick much, and even when I do, I tend to have milder symptoms, and get over it faster than most. For me to be seriously flu-sick for more than 3 days is extremely unusual. So I'm calling it Covid.
In the months after, as the world awareness/panic ramped up, They kept pushing back the Covid "arrival" date in the EU. In the spring/summer of 2020, They kept telling us that it didn't arrive in the EU until March, and many countries in the EU until even later.
Looking back at the history of it now, it's kind of fascinating to me ... per Wikipedia, first EU case in France was 1/24/2020, and by 3/17/2020 every EU country had reported at least one case and at least one confirmed death.
But that's not accurate. I mean, it probably is now ... but it completely misses the uncertainty and ever-changing day-to-day reports as it unfolded. For most of a year, I closely followed the news on it, watched as They kept pushing back the arrival dates by a day here, a week there, over and over again.
In the first half of 2020, it seemed preposterous to me that we could have caught it a solid month before it even arrived. But now, looking at the latest arrival dates in EU, it seems very feasible, and the current history of the pandemic seems to miss that, how the timeline has been changing so much.
So far, no COVID that we know of. Spouse and I are both over 50, with various conditions that could raise risk of a serious case, so we're both fully vaccinated with two boosters. We're still...
So far, no COVID that we know of. Spouse and I are both over 50, with various conditions that could raise risk of a serious case, so we're both fully vaccinated with two boosters. We're still masking for shopping trips, medical visits, etc.
But I'm in the office a few days a week unmasked, we've gone to restaurants, I've had air travel to New York City... and we're still dodging it. To the best of our knowledge. It's entirely possible that what I thought was bad allergies for a day or two was a case, but I've never had a fever (aside from the crushing vaccination reactions...) or enough characteristic symptoms to pull out the test kit.
Me and my mom made it two years without getting it. My sister made it about 18 months. The person who got it the quickest in my family was my cousin who got it in the first half of 2021 (after he...
Me and my mom made it two years without getting it. My sister made it about 18 months.
The person who got it the quickest in my family was my cousin who got it in the first half of 2021 (after he had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine he boarded a flight to a meeting). Which I would say is a pretty good track record we all basically shut ourselves in for all of 2020.
My wife brought it home from a work trip last week. I'm still getting over it. On the one hand I'm suprised it took this long to get. On the other hand it's pretty annoying I didn't do anything...
My wife brought it home from a work trip last week. I'm still getting over it. On the one hand I'm suprised it took this long to get. On the other hand it's pretty annoying I didn't do anything interesting to get it. As a plus the horrible fucking arthritis pain the vaccines gave me aren't a part of this, so that's nice.
F*ck, I hear you. I've had ghastly reactions to the vaccines: 2 - 3 days of fever over 101°F, major arthritis flare for a week, COVID arm with rash and swollen glands for 2 - 3 weeks. I've assumed...
F*ck, I hear you. I've had ghastly reactions to the vaccines: 2 - 3 days of fever over 101°F, major arthritis flare for a week, COVID arm with rash and swollen glands for 2 - 3 weeks. I've assumed that meant I'd get something similar or worse with a genuine COVID infection.
Ooh I had fever and the worst joint pain I've had because of the fever with covid I lived on Tylenol for 5 days, but it actually killed the pain. Thank goodness you got off easy. I had chills one...
Ooh
I had fever and the worst joint pain I've had because of the fever with covid I lived on Tylenol for 5 days, but it actually killed the pain. Thank goodness you got off easy.
As a teacher, I’ve been in the same room for prolonged periods of time with confirmed positive cases on the regular. I can’t tell you how many kids I’ve sent to the nurse with symptoms.
Somehow, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve managed to avoid it. For much of the past two school years I’ve voluntarily gotten weekly PCR tests, and my husband and I still rapid test before every social outing we do (which we’re still somewhat choosy about). Not a single one, PCR or rapid, has ever tested positive. At this point I’ve done so many that I feel that, if I’m not due for COVID, I’m at least due for a false positive?
I’ve definitely had thoughts similar to those in the article. Do I have some immune system quirk that makes me less susceptible? Is my regular exposure actually helping me create immunity by providing my immune system with low doses it can fight off on the regular? Did I actually already have it and I just don’t know? There was a period in late 2020 where I lost taste and smell, but it only lasted 24 hours and I didn’t test positive on two PCR tests days apart — nor did any other symptoms arise. Was that COVID? Who knows.
At this point, my husband and I have accepted that we will eventually get it — there’s pretty much no way around that inevitability, we feel. We’re just hoping that we get mild cases.
It’s definitely helped me understand some of the roots of conspiratorial thinking. On account of my luck in dodging it, I’ll admit to having moments of “what if it isn’t actually a concern?” and “what if the virus isn’t what I think it is?” This isn’t to defend that sort of thinking in the slightest (COVID is unequivocally real and remains a concern), but I can see first-hand the emotional and experiental roots that provide meaningful doubt a place to hang its hat. These were mostly just intrusive thoughts for me, but I see how, if they’re given fertile soil in which to take root, they can grow to something more.
I feel like it’s similar to the sort of thinking that happens at a slot machine, when someone feels they’re having a either a lucky streak or bum luck. It’s more pareidolia than anything else — someone finding meaning in a brief pattern among a gigantic background of statistical noise. Nevertheless, I understand how it can feel real to that individual and, worse, how conspiratorial thinking will latch into that feeling as a land grab, claiming all territory with only that small anchor as an entry point.
I've dodged it the whole time but I've also barely gone outside my house. The only time I had any real risk was the brief period I was in university and they reopened in person before I went back home because all my classes were online anyway, and even then they had pretty good covid policies.
I'm still very strict with masks and stuff when I do go out, even though everyone gave up a long time ago.
My boyfriend, despite also working in a customer facing grocery job like myself, is one of the never-COVID ones. I don't know how he's managed to do it the whole time. I myself only made it to April of this year, and that was almost certainly when I got it after public transit in my area stopped requiring them and I caught a bus without one since I hadn't planned on taking transit that day. Between being transit-reliant until May of this year and a grocery store employee, I'm honestly surprised I never caught it sooner, given that I gave up on masking at work about a month after they dropped the requirement for staff to do so (which was a few months before I caught it).
Even my parents, one of whom is an immunocompromised long-term care facility employee and the other who has been on near-full WFH, caught it about a week before I did, and they had gone to the extent of not having eaten at a restaurant in two years, as well as my mom having not gone inside to stores this entire time. Luckily even her case was pretty mild and they both made a swift recovery, but it's just odd that said boyfriend, who is in an environment where it's easy to catch it (and has basically stopped masking as well), is the last of the dodgers left that I know personally.
I tend to say that I haven't had COVID as far as I'm aware. I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption that I haven't; the only indoor places I've been in the last 2.5 years are medical offices (aside from my home and my parents' home). I think that with my chronic illnesses I'd probably know if I'd gotten it (high risk for long term complications and all that), but who knows - maybe one of my many flares when I felt a bit feverish was actually COVID.
I do think a lot of people have probably had it asymptomatically without knowing.
When I got COVID I was super disappointed because I finally got knocked out of the club. I had just flown forna work trip and dodged it, and think it was because I went to IKEA without a face mask once a week after. My mom got it on the same timeline, and the brother that lives with us, despite his consistent best efforts, got a minor three-day case that fucked up a trip he had planned (he waited the full 10 days before getting on a train for 30hrs)
I like their take between their pride ad dodging it and acceptance that it will likely happen regardless. That was sorta my mindset, but I felt like I lost the game when it finally hit.
Bit of a long one here..
In short, me, my wife and son living together have not caught Covid.. Other members of the family have, and more than once..
Anyway, I had a really serious bout of pneumonia in my late 20’s, really knocked me for six.. Since then, I always seem to get a cold, minor chest infection and sometimes an ear infection in the run up to each Christmas. I tend to be fine over the Christmas period and feel really good. Then about the 2nd week of Jan, it comes back for 2 to 3 weeks then disappears, regular as clockwork for many years. When Covid came 1st time, nothing! No cold, no infection, despite regular testing for Covid for the job, nothing. In Dec 21, and Jan22 the cold came back.. That’s it really.. I guess I am just waiting for it to all die down, then I’ll get it.. a bit like someone getting the Spanish flu in in 1962!!!
Man, I feel this so hard.
My immediate family are in this group. As far as we know none of the five of us have had COVID yet. I don't have any theories as to why. I go to work in an office three times a week. Our kids play with other kids and have gone to camps all summer. In fact, our daughter went to a camp two weeks ago where it seems everyone else that attended tested positive. I'd have to imagine that at least one of us has had at least an asymptomatic case by this point in the pandemic.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have no proof, but I am 70-80% sure I got Covid before anyone even thought it was here (in Europe). Late Jan or early Feb of 2020, in Hungary, my girlfriend got sick, bad flu-like thing, lasted over a week. I got it from her, just as sick, lasted a week for me, too. We even have a picture of her, working in a store, wearing a mask (long before anyone even thought about masks) that had "It's not Corona" hand-written on it as a joke (except, ironically, it probably was).
Could have just been a bad flu, but I don't get sick much, and even when I do, I tend to have milder symptoms, and get over it faster than most. For me to be seriously flu-sick for more than 3 days is extremely unusual. So I'm calling it Covid.
In the months after, as the world awareness/panic ramped up, They kept pushing back the Covid "arrival" date in the EU. In the spring/summer of 2020, They kept telling us that it didn't arrive in the EU until March, and many countries in the EU until even later.
Looking back at the history of it now, it's kind of fascinating to me ... per Wikipedia, first EU case in France was 1/24/2020, and by 3/17/2020 every EU country had reported at least one case and at least one confirmed death.
But that's not accurate. I mean, it probably is now ... but it completely misses the uncertainty and ever-changing day-to-day reports as it unfolded. For most of a year, I closely followed the news on it, watched as They kept pushing back the arrival dates by a day here, a week there, over and over again.
In the first half of 2020, it seemed preposterous to me that we could have caught it a solid month before it even arrived. But now, looking at the latest arrival dates in EU, it seems very feasible, and the current history of the pandemic seems to miss that, how the timeline has been changing so much.
So far, no COVID that we know of. Spouse and I are both over 50, with various conditions that could raise risk of a serious case, so we're both fully vaccinated with two boosters. We're still masking for shopping trips, medical visits, etc.
But I'm in the office a few days a week unmasked, we've gone to restaurants, I've had air travel to New York City... and we're still dodging it. To the best of our knowledge. It's entirely possible that what I thought was bad allergies for a day or two was a case, but I've never had a fever (aside from the crushing vaccination reactions...) or enough characteristic symptoms to pull out the test kit.
Kinda glad I’ve already caught the hot new summer variant. Now at least summer vacation plans can’t get ruined spontaneously.
I thought there was a high reinfection chances with BA.5. Some folks are getting it again after 2 weeks.
Well, maybe back to wearing masks again then :(
Me and my mom made it two years without getting it. My sister made it about 18 months.
The person who got it the quickest in my family was my cousin who got it in the first half of 2021 (after he had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine he boarded a flight to a meeting). Which I would say is a pretty good track record we all basically shut ourselves in for all of 2020.
My wife brought it home from a work trip last week. I'm still getting over it. On the one hand I'm suprised it took this long to get. On the other hand it's pretty annoying I didn't do anything interesting to get it. As a plus the horrible fucking arthritis pain the vaccines gave me aren't a part of this, so that's nice.
F*ck, I hear you. I've had ghastly reactions to the vaccines: 2 - 3 days of fever over 101°F, major arthritis flare for a week, COVID arm with rash and swollen glands for 2 - 3 weeks. I've assumed that meant I'd get something similar or worse with a genuine COVID infection.
Ooh
I had fever and the worst joint pain I've had because of the fever with covid I lived on Tylenol for 5 days, but it actually killed the pain. Thank goodness you got off easy.
I had chills one night from my Moderna booster.
Still COVID-free as are my parents. My siblings have all had it, and I do see them regularly...