I worked retail through the worst parts of the pandemic, there is no chance I didn’t get it, but I never had symptoms.
The more that time goes by the more that I feel like I’m in this camp. Never got it, and never officially tested positive for it despite taking several over the years but there is just no way I didn’t get it. Even my roommate/family members did, and I didn’t? But yeah. Never had a single symptom.
I’ve only tested positive for it once, and that illness wasn’t even in the top 5 worst colds that year. I’ve had numerous shitty colds since, any one of them could have been Rona again, but I ether wasn’t infectious at the time I tested or it was after the point I stopped testing every sniffle.
There’s a chanceI have it right now,but I don’t know if I can be bothered to grab a test whenit will be done in a couple of days.I’d take an updated booster if they offered me one, but my government is only offering them to over 50s.
I’m of the opinion* that once the majority has spike protein specific antibodies, occasional exposure to small viral loads (incidental contact) is probably a good thing for refreshing an immunity that might otherwise wane and allow a serious case to take root.
*I’m not an immunologist obviously, but I’ve previously read up on the clinical justification the NHS uses to recommend against widespread chicken pox vaccination
Alright I’m not certain there’s not a genetic variable here but I have not found it very hard to avoid. I wear a mask indoors and eat outdoors and don’t really do anything else.
But like, I travel a lot not for business which I theorize is riskier than business travel. That’s a lot of airports, and even with an optimistic 70% lounge rate it’s probably not great for avoiding illness (plus I managed to get flu somehow). I do eat indoors for special places but I guess those typically have less than 20 seats so the risk is reduced. Still.
My immediate family all got it and were extremely symptomatic so I doubt it’s genetic though. Plus I don’t think I’m related to my SO and by using an N95/KN (I prefer N for comfort on the ears) we’ve managed to avoid it despite frequent travel and separate social lives. I know masks are very uncommon now but honestly, didn’t really change my life that much. I’m pretty sure they work too, the second time I was in Tokyo this year masks were a minority thing and you couldn’t get onto a bus or train without people coughing. I resigned myself to Covid but somehow still didn’t get it.
Anyway now that I’ve gone on this incoherent ramble I’m definitely gonna be sick next week. Probably deserved.
I haven’t ever had COVID (that I’m aware of, and I tested regularly for the first two years of the pandemic), because I never stopped following the science and taking precautions.
I recognize that I was and am able to consistently take those precautions only because of a lot of privilege.
Is there a vaccine that helps you win the lottery?
I’m one of them! It has been in the house three separate times and I’ve managed to make out without a single positive test. I don’t even bother with masks outside the house
Me too and i even live alone!
You might have, but it could have been asymptomatic.
I work in the medical field and was providing COVID testing and vaccines for a majority of the pandemic. During this time, all of my coworkers and two of my roommates have caught COVID at least once.
I still have never had it. Genuinely think I’m immune.
I would have said the same. 3 and a half years working retail during the pandemic and last week was the week it knocked me on my ass. Be careful.
Same! I work in healthcare and had to test nearly daily (using the antigene tests) and didn’t catch COVID until last week. If I didn’t work in healthcare I probably wouldn’t even know I had it, since the symptoms were rather mild. I only tested, because I had to work with people on chemotherapy and didn’t wanna risk them. At this point, I think there’s lots of people who catch the virus and don’t even know about it since we mostly stopped testing.
I got it for the first time at the beginning of September. I was so pissed, my 2.5 year streak of avoiding it gone. It was pretty brutal too, the fever and muscle soreness was no joke.
What did you do to avoid it for three years?
I dunno, wore a mask in public during the worst of it and used hand sanitizer regularly? I think it helped more that I’m a homebody with no friends.
All it took was a wedding for me to finally catch it last week. Sons of bitches
DUDE SAME
Never caught it, or never tested positive… or even bothered to be tested. I’m pretty sure I just had one of the mild cases, because I’ve had ‘generic respiratory illness’ with sniffles and congestion a few times since COVID-19 became a concern. I’m betting there is a large group of people who fit into my category.
I was never officially diagnosed, but I had something that looked a lot like COVID in late February 2020. Glad I got that out of the way before lockdown started.
same. Kid and I had the same symptoms, our doctors had no clue what it was. It went away in a few days. I was at an international conference late January and was sick a little over a week after that, so it lines up pretty well. I was WFH for two years before it was cool, and am pretty much a hermit otherwise, so we’re all pretty sure it was COVID.
I’m fairly sure I also fall into that category, but I’ll probably never know for certain
Me, I’ve not had covid and its been in the house 3 times. I also have 100% attendance at work
At this point it’s highly unlikely that there remains a human in an urban center that has not caught covid once. Maybe they didn’t have symptoms, maybe they didn’t notice, but they’ve had covid.
That or they’re a hermit.
Not a hermit, just mask everywhere, don’t go to big things, and ask my friends what they’ve been doing recently if I want to take off my mask around them.
I live in one of the largest US cities, attend concerts, use public transit, and fly internationally. No covid in this house, and we go through a box of RATs a week. Not immunocompromised, we just don’t want covid.
The secret: we wear respirators everywhere and use nasal spray before & after risky situations.
My wife and I just mask up and not n95’s. She wears gloves to but I just wash my hands often. No covid, no regular flue, no cold, no food poisoning. We have not had anything behind headaches and allergies in the last 3 or 4 years. And for those who are going to ask how we know its allergies. Well its because allergy medicine clears it right up and its usually something that would set off allergies.
surface transmission seems to be extremely rare so I wouldn’t worry about gloves.
Thats why I don’t wear them but my wife is a bit more cautious and she should be given her medical issues. Her biggest threat is likely me. That being said in the long run we have been more impressed with how the precautions have kept all the other stuff as well as covid away. I keep worrying restaurants will stop using the light plastic gloves but luckily they seem to be keeping them. I would not be surprised if they looked at the data and saw a marked reduction in online complaints about eating there and then getting sick and decided it was worth the cost. That being said wearing the mask, to me, is nor more and maybe a little less annoying than wearing a hat. But gloves, especially disposable type, does not pass the value vs nuissance factor for me. Granted I live in the north so half the year I am wearing some kind of glove outside. I still hand sanitize and wash though.
Breathing and eating unmasked at a restaurant is a much bigger risk for covid than anything to do with hands. Covid is airborne.
Yeah and I don’t do it often or unnecessarily but I don’t really close myself off all that much. I just use a mask when in an enclosed public space or outside space with inadequate distancing when I don’t otherwise need to utilize my pie hole. So im not zero risk by any means but from my anecdotal data of the last 3 or 4 years its amazing how much it helps. Im wondering how long I can go without getting sick.
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No one in my family got it, and my kids are in public school, while I work in a restaurant. Precautions plus luck, I guess. That or we’re genetic freaks.
I never got it, and I’ve been tested a few times due to coming into contact with people who did and always tested negative.
Negative test, especially negative rapid-test do not mean you don’t have covid. And positive tests don’t necessarily mean you’re visibility sick/contagious.
I’m basically a hermit.
Hermits unite! Metaphorically… Stay away from me
I like where you stand on this
Hermit reporting for duty, sir!
There are plenty of immunocompromised folks who have continued to be vigilant and likely haven’t caught it.
But generally, yeah. If you are in a city and haven’t been taking precautions you had it, you were just asymptomatic.
I agree for the immunocompromised, but I’d say they just isolated.
you had it, you were just asymptomatic.
A distinction without a difference, in my mind. I’ll take it
Yeah people are confusing subclinical disease with not ever having it. Outside of total extreme isolation you had it at some point. You didn’t know you had it. You were in denial about having it. But you had it.
Tests are not 100 percent sensitive. Or many people just chose not to test themselves. But if you were interacting with the general population in the past 3 years you have had covid.
But also is cross-immunisation. So…one could have had something other than Covid-19 and still be immune to it. Then there are also the genetic outliers that are just naturally immune to the attack-vector of the virus.
I have always been an outlier i don’t get shit, never even had a headache or a broken bone. I think I might be the reluctant messiah
This is just multiple ways of saying what I said. Outside of some extreme outliers every person has come in contact with the virus. But that doesn’t always translate to extreme illness or even mild illness. As you said some people are naturally resistant or have other means of a defense that doesn’t lead to a significant illness after exposure.
So really the more accurate thing to say is that you never got sick from your covid exposure. Again you have to divide this further into those who genuinely have never had cold like symptoms since 2023 and those who are just in denial about it. I’ve come across a few people who proudly claim they’ve never had it but have shown up to work coughing and hacking. Lol sure you haven’t.
Whats extreme isolation to you? The person at the grocery store still wearing a mask and cleaning with hand sanitizer at the car?
I don’t think my entire family that spans from toddler to elderly would all be asymptomatic and show false negatives on RATs, but I guess it’s possible.
I think that depends on what you mean by “having it”. Does having any amount of the covid-19 virus flowing through your body automatically mean you have it? Because the amount of the virus you have been exposed to is an important factor in whether or not you are impacted by it. Also if you aren’t impacted at all, but had what basically amounts to a microdose of the virus did you have covid?
It would be good to know what the medical definition is for this. I don’t actually know personally.
I see this assertion all the time and while there is a fair bit of underreporting this line is just plain wrong but said with 100% conviction every time.
Estimates using late 2022 data assumes about 25% of Americans 16 or older have not caught COVID. 50+% believe they have not caught COVID, so unless I’m missing something drastic then if you are like me and lived as a hermit for 3+ years, followed all the reasonable precautions, and never had symptoms there is more like a ~50% chance you caught it and were asymptomatic.
It’s only an estimate. It’s closer to only 20 percent not producing antibodies. Some percentage of that is people having immuno compromise and not developing humeral immunity even though they’ve likely been exposed. Then there’s testing failure. None of these tests are 100 percent sensitive.
I do believe though like what. Ten to fifteen percent of people have isolated for three years and not gotten it. I’d buy that for sure. And there are a lot of places where you just don’t encounter people often. People that naturally were distanced from others just sort of…kept doing what they were doing.
I had it once and it was after a family gathering and every member of my family had it, except my mom. She didn’t have it till now and barely reacted to the vaccine. She seems to be immune or something
I kind of hope I am just immune at this point. I’ll probably get it randomly in a few years when I least expect it.
That’s where updated vaccinations come in handy.
I wouldn’t have gotten it if not for a libertarian roommate who didn’t believe it existed. They tested positive, said it was a false positive, took no precautions whatsoever at home, and then went back to work at their nursing home a day later.
meanwhile i got vaccinated 4 times and still caught it twice - is there a prize for that end of the spectrum?
Your prize is still being alive!
What a rip off!
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That’s me!
Me too!
High five! (from a safe distance)
Me too. Though I’m wondering if I ever caught it and just ended up being asymptomatic. I can’t say that I’ve been particularly careful and pretty much everyone in my social circle had it at some point.
I thought about that to but I usually got sick with something every year before 2020 and I have not been sick since either late 2018 or early 2019. Its been so long I can’t remember. The masking is working for everything else so likely I don’t think my wife or I have caught covid ever.
