How many kids are at the school? Is it really small? All though there was a mask policy in class and common areas at my D’s school- in the dorms kids were together unmaked, no ventilation. Our biggest problems were after breaks when the kids came back from home and brought it with them.
I believe the antibody test differentiates between antibodies to the vaccine vs. infection.
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Most antibody tests check for spike protein antibodies, which would be found after either vaccination or infection. However, there are tests for nucleocapsid antibodies, which would be found only after infection or vaccination with inactivated whole virus vaccines. Inactivated whole virus vaccines are not used in the US, so testing for nucleocapsid antibodies in the US generally indicates infection only (exceptions would be people who got vaccinated with inactivated whole virus vaccines in other countries).
Additionally, a positive result for either kind of antibody test before someone was vaccinated indicates prior infection.
More news: Growing hospitalization rates.
“In Massachusetts, cases are slowly but persistently rising along with the test positivity rate, but what’s really concerning is that the hospitalization rates are also going up. I and many other people had expected that as treatments become more available and as vaccinations become more widespread, we would see a decoupling of case counts and hospitalizations, and we have to a large extent, but it hasn’t been the complete decoupling we had hoped for.”
Oh, and a friend of ShawWife’s came over yesterday bringing her roommate who wanted to meet me (very minor celebrity status I guess). Today, ShawWife was talking to a friend of said friend and friend’s friend told ShawWife that a) she had Covid; and b) she had spent time recently the the friend. Said friend had not told us she had proximity to a person with Covid. When a really unhappy ShawWife called here she said “I was 10 ft away and the windows were open.” Not good. We’ll test.
I guess I’m puzzled. I assume you are both vaccinated, and you had limited exposure with a positive person and aren’t feeling sick, yet you feel you need to test. If it were me, I’d just cross my fingers that I didn’t start feeling sick. If I did feel sick I would test, but otherwise I wouldn’t. Now, I would be more concerned about close prolonged exposure with an infected person, but it doesn’t sound like you had that.
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If I understand correctly:
- X (friend) and Y (roommate of X) came to visit.
- Z (friend of X) had COVID-19 and recently spent time with X.
Is this correct?
Shawbridge, I’ve been a COVID contact tracer, and we wouldn’t consider a situation such as you described as an exposure or recommend testing unless you had symptoms.
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Great. We suspect that the friend’s explanation underplays the actual exposure. But, happy to hear that this is not concerning to a contact tracer. ShawWife has has respiratory issues and we have been very careful.
I think it was this thread that I posted my mom had been playing majong with friends. She hosted on Saturday, started having cold symptoms on Tuesday afternoon, felt well enough on Wednesday to attend another gathering (she thought she was having allergies). On Thursday night I pressed her to get a PCR test done because we were getting together today. She got tested on Friday and it came back positive this morning.
She was a bit nervous at first about what she should do and how to treat it. I told her that she was already feeling better, so there was nothing to do. I told her to let her friends know and stay in for another week.
My mom was boosted few weeks ago. I think it helped.
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Oh my, glad she’s doing OK!
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So glad she’s feeling better already. Glad you pressed for the test so you didn’t all get infected. Quick question to you and/or the group. I’m assuming your mom is an older person (of course I don’t know your age! But guessing your mom is likely to be 70-85 years old??). So even though she didn’t feel bad and may have been improving, do you think it’s a bad idea to encourage an older person to seek a therapeutic treatment? Are you concerned about side effects? I don’t normally like unnecessary medication, but with the therapeutics being most helpful the earlier you take them, and seemingly not helpful after 5 days from onset, I feel like there is a tick-tock regarding getting a therapeutic going, so I probably would have been inclined to push my mom to get treatment. Clearly it sounds like you made the right choice since she’s doing better, and no one likes unnecessary medicines. Was that a difficult decision? Maybe it was crystal clear she barely had a sniffle. What would most people advise in this situation? I wish there wasn’t the time pressure such that “wait and see” would be a more logical choice. Just finding this confusing.
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I think that’s a really good point
It is a good point. I would always want to get Paxlovid if I could get it. I had Covid a few weeks ago. I am a cancer survivor so I felt that I needed Paxlovid as soon as I tested positive. You’re right, you have to be right on it. It’s not easy to get. I called my PCP who quickly called it into my usual pharmacy. That pharmacy didn’t have it. It took three tries at three pharmacies to get the prescription. My husband tested positive a couple of days after I did. Since he tested positive on a Saturday he knew it would be hard to get the ball rolling. He does not really have any underlying conditions and he got through it easily. I really wish it was easier to get Paxlovid.
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My mom is 85. She called her doctor on 2 days after she started feeling some symptoms. The doctor advised her to stay home and assumed it was Covid. My mom didn’t have a fever and didn’t feel horrible. The doctor advised her that there was no need to take any antiviral medications. Just some Tylenol and cough medicines.
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Time to augment the story and @Mom0f3, as suspected, it is indeed worse than I understood.
As @ucbalumnus usefully summarized:
- X (friend) and Y (roommate of X) came to visit.
- Z (friend of X) had COVID-19 and recently spent time with X.
Yesterday, we learned that the roommate Y has a very bad case ofCovid and had to be taken to the hospital.
But, here’s what we didn’t know. Z’s husband had Covid. So, Z moved into X’s apartment to be away from husband and stayed in X’s bedroom (X was biking in Europe). But, Z did not inform X’s roommate Y about her husband’s Covid. When asked why she didn’t, she said, “I didn’t need to. I wasn’t spending time with her” but Z shared the same bathroom, kitchen and common space as Y for several days.
So, Y came over to meet me and we talked for about half an hour, but only outside and with some distance. X came inside the house several times. Thus far, X does not have Covid.
ShawWife and I tested last night (BinaxNow) and are negative.
@Mom0f3, does that change your assessment?
Sorry to hear that Y is in the hospital.
But geez, given all that and I suspect them knowing your concern about Covid, they should have not come. But that’s water under the bridge.
Any more, you can do absolutely everything correctly and still be exposed. Since the variants are so contagious. But glad to hear you and your wife are testing negative so far.
No idea about contact tracing but it’s certainly unnerving after how careful you’ve been.
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Wow, I’d be absolutely livid. Friendships would end over it. I hope Y makes it through, though of course, even if they do, there are likely to be longer term consequences unfortunately. Those odds go up with hospitalizations.
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I’m still livid about my aunt and uncle staying with my dad every weekend when they weren’t vaccinated and took no precautions. Then Aunt got COVID!! I know I need to forgive them, but I’m having a hard time with it. I don’t understand the cluelessness/selfishness.
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So it looks like the transmission was ZH → Z → Y (ZH = Z’s husband).
Seems like ZH got COVID-19. then Z fled, but was probably already infected while ZH was presymptomatically contagious, and brought the virus to Y while temporarily living in X’s place with Y.
But it seems like X and Y visited you before Y knew they had COVID-19 (though Y could have been presymtomatically contagious at the time). Correct?
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So Z’s real reason for fleeing was because her H had covid. What was the reason she told X she fled and had to stay in X and Y’s apartment?