Why do I almost never catch colds anymore?
Something I'm wondering about: since COVID, I just don't seem to get colds anymore.
Before COVID, I recall that I very regularly had some kind of minor cold – it felt like it was about 50% of the time, realistically let's say maybe 20%? But of course that's just my recollection.
I then caught the original strain of COVID in March 2020, and suffered fairly badly from it for 3 weeks – definitely the worst illness of my life, though I was very lucky not to need to go into hospital. Since then I've had 3 doses of the COVID vaccine, and had COVID at least twice more, both times very mildly.
Since then though, I've noticed that I almost never have any sort of cold any more. I think my partner and I had some kind of brief minor flu back in September, but I've not had anything since, and I remember thinking that it had been a long time since I'd had anything like that.
For reference, I don't wear a mask nowadays, or otherwise do anything much different to my life before COVID.
Does anyone have any thoughts on why this might be?
Uneducated theories on my part:
- Somehow having COVID made me less likely to catch colds
- Somehow having the COVID vaccine made me less likely to catch colds
- During COVID I got used to holding my breath around people coughing, and that's surprisingly effective towards not catching colds
- I'm now mostly around people less likely to pass on colds for some reason
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, especially those who have some actual knowledge about this topic!
Interesting observation! I feel like I too get way fewer colds than I did before covid, but in my case it's probably because I also drink 99+% less than I did before covid. Maybe something like that is a factor for you too - do you live a more healthy lifestyle now?
I also get fewer illnesses than before covid. In fact, I think I've only been sick 3 times - recently with a fairly major something (10 days of 102F fever), once with something my husband brought home after being on a work trip, and once with covid (earliest, August 2020, extremely mild and never tested positive). My husband has gotten sicker much more often than me. I rarely catch what he has. May or may not be correlated, but he gets vaccinated less (he forgets to make an appointment). I'm in public much more often, but also more isolated when I'm in public (big open office, very socially distanced except for one coworker). So I don't know. Maybe people who are sick are staying home and/or masking more in my environs, and it makes a difference?