@CTTC, good question. I don’t know what she said or if she actually explained at all to Y. Z and X own units in a building that was developed by X’s then husband. X and Z have owned a business together for probably 40 years and went to grad school together (I think) and are joined at the hip. So, there is probably a lot of stuff they do for each other. But I don’t know.
That is correct. Y was likely infected and pre-symptomatic but did not know it.
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Tested again this morning and we are both negative. Hopefully we are in the clear.
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My brother, who has refused to get vaccinated, finally caught COVID. He doesn’t have a doctor so he went first to urgent care, then to the hospital, but he was not considered severe enough to admit so he recuperated at home. Afterwards, he was unable to work for 3-4 weeks. He said he’d be fine at home but would experience dizziness and anxiety when he tried to leave to run errands or go to work. Very atypical for him. It sounds like he successfully made it to work yesterday. I am grateful. It sounds like it hasn’t been great but it could have been so much worse.
My sister also caught it but she is vaccinated and is asymptomatic.
Closer to home: for the first time ever, our daughter’s high school sent home notice that there is a COVID cluster at the school. I hope it’s not our turn.
Pay attention to testing and quarantine requirements and the chance of unexpected delays when traveling internationally.
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My Mom is 88 and recently had covid. We pushed to get her treatment even though she wasn’t that sick. BUT, it’s hard to tell with my Mom. She will say she feels “fine” until she’s very ill. My brother-in-law died of covid and my father (91 years old, who caught it from brother-in-law) died a couple of months after testing positive. Dad was not technically considered a covid death because he did recover from the infection, but his health declined very rapidly after getting covid. In fact, I’m not sure he came home after being hospitalized with covid.
What my family learned the hard way is that because the therapeutics need to be given within a certain time frame, if you are at high risk, push to get them right after testing positive. My brother-in-law thought he was recovering, until he crashed, and by then it was too late for treatment.
My guy tells me this happens fairly frequently. I wish they would consider them Covid deaths when Covid correlates strongly to the health issues they got afterward (usually via blood clots).
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My continuing concern:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/25/long-covid-vaccines-slight-protection/
That seems to refer to Long COVID after breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection | Nature Medicine .
Looks like risk of at least one kind of long COVID symptom was only about 15% lower in breakthrough infections (BTIs) than in unvaccinated infections (unlike in some other studies that found a much greater reduction in long COVID in BTIs versus unvaccinated infections). However, the risk reduction was substantially greater for coagulation / hematologic and pulmonary long COVID symptoms. This study was based on VA medical records (of US military veterans).
I was wondering how many folks recently saw an ESPN SportCenter feature called The Long Haul. The person in the feature was the first serious case of Covid in Minnesota (3rd person to test positive) in Early March 2020. He was a Ironman Triathlete (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26 mile run) before he caught Covid and was basically on his death bed before coming out of a coma and eventually getting out of the hospital after 1 month who proclaimed that he was going to compete in an Ironman Triathlon again. His story included Long Covid symptoms and several setbacks, but he ended up completing an Ironman Triathlon about 14 1/2 months after almost dying of Covid. His example of perseverance in the face of significant challenges is one that reminds me what is possible within the human spirit.
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While I didn’t see this feature, I remember reading about either him (or someone like him) who very gradually starting to improve, pushing himself physically, and had completing the Ironman again as his goal. (Or maybe it was running a marathon…again, it might not have been this man.)
What an amazing feat! But while as much as this is to be admired, I’m concerned that people (not here; just in general) will have the attitude that many people can overcome their long covid if they would just try harder. We already know that more women than men get long covid, so I I am concerned that women with long covid will be treated dismissively. Kind of like how people think obese individuals could lose weight if they had more willpower and just tried harder.
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I agree with your sentiment. Since every case of Long Covid can be completely different, each case has to be assessed in relation to that individual. But I do believe that a certain type of “personality” can make a world of difference while dealing with the challenges of Long Covid or any long term illness.
The data for Long Covid has not completely made sense to me (Why do I know so few who report having Long Covid/Post Covid symptoms [Under 2% of my village infected] in comparison to the data that says 10%-30% of Covid infections end up with Long Covid). I have always attributed some of that difference to the “vaccine effect” which is not captured in a lot of Long Covid studies. Most of the studies that I have seen look at medical records data when looking for Long Covid symptoms which all have those larger rates of Long Covid, but the CDC had this statement that was recently added its website.
"The estimates for how many people experience post-COVID conditions can be quite different depending on who was included in the study, as well as how and when the study collected information. Estimates of the proportion of people who had COVID-19 that go on to experience post-COVID conditions can vary:
- 13.3% at one month or longer after infection
- 2.5% at three months or longer, based on self-reporting
- More than 30% at 6 months among patients who were hospitalized"
Maybe we are under-reporting our symptoms for Long Covid when we are asked questions in surveys (maybe due to mild symptoms), but maybe medical records are getting more detailed information and identifying a large percentage of those with Long Covid symptoms? Some early data out of Great Britain (2.25%-2.94% Long Covid sufferers at different age groups, 3 months after initial infection) had similar percentages, so I keep wondering what are the real numbers when it comes to Long Covid.
Exactly. I’m well aware that anecdote is not data but I know probably 50 people who have had COVID including my 90 year old mom and many of her friends. Most of these were in the post -vax stage and I know no one I would consider having what would be “worrisome” long Covid which would mean, to me, symptoms for more than a month that interfere with your life. I do have a friend who had COVID pre vax and when she went to the dr this year the dr asked how her long COVID was doing. And she was like “what, I did not have long Covid. And the dr said “ well you had symptoms 4 months later.” And she realized the dr meant her morning coughing ( lasting maybe 2 minutes) that had persisted for several months then eventually resolved but which was not a hindrance or life effecting in any way. I think better definitions are needed in reporting. Also I’m confused by studies which show a good percentage of physical problems when stories I read about those seeking help for long Covid often focus on a big frustration for the patients is that tests don’t reveal any physical problem at all which leads drs to doubt them.
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My anecdotes include knowing about 6 or 7 who got COVID-19 before vaccines, 2 of whom had long COVID that was physically limiting or required medical attention for months after, but apparently not permanent (though one seems to have permanently altered taste and smell).
I also know some who got post-vaccine infections, but have not heard of any long COVID (presumably either nothing noticed or only minor that they did not consider worth mentioning).
However, it is also possible that some findings of increased medical problems (e.g. from the VA medical records studies) after COVID-19 could be “stealth long COVID” in that (for example) the development of type 2 diabetes (or existing type 2 diabetes getting worse) may not be seen as a COVID-19 after-effect in an individual case, but has been found to have increased incidence after having COVID-19.
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And a “certain type of ‘personality’” will take every opportunity to ignore and/or twist the data to try and minimize the negative consequences of the pandemic. No one in particular in mind, but we’ve seen this since the beginning of Covid so it is no surprise it is happening with Long Covid, too.
It is interesting to me that even posting a link directly to the CDC Long Covid page might be considered “ignoring or twisting” the data. The opposite of ignoring/twisting data is asking why we have such divergent data sets and eagerly awaiting some updated parameters (Lots of Long Covid data that I have seen has used mostly unvaccinated people as data points) . Long Covid is real. No one has disputed that statement as far as I know on this thread. The real questions are how wide spread is Long Covid and what are the unseen long term after-effects of Covid and the true current answer is that the scientific community is still trying to figure those 2 questions out.
I have been watching the highlights to the GSW/Dallas NBA playoff game where almost no one at the game in San Francisco is wearing a mask despite having increasing Covid infection numbers nationally week after week since mid-April. I do think that if most people truly believed that up to 30% of Covid infections led to a Long Covid condition that caused a long-term detrimental lifestyle change, we would not have 20,000 all vaccinated but mostly unmasked people packed into an indoor basketball stadium.
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But of course my comment was not directed at you “even posting a link directly to the CDC.” As I made clear, my post was not directed specifically at you or any other poster. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you provided a link and a quote from the CDC. 
Maybe it works for you, but I’m not all that comfortable basing my conclusions about the actual dangers of long covid on my observation of the behaviors of fans at a sporting event. For one thing, crowds attending such events are a self-selecting group; those with concerns aren’t going to be there among so many who aren’t concerned. For another, even among those there, this pandemic has repeatedly taught us that many aren’t all that adept at fully contemplating the potential long-term consequences of their actions. We could just as easily look at the large quantities of beer and junk food consumed at events . . . surely it wouldn’t make much sense to conclude that this represented healthy eating.
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I think it is great that you are being hyper vigilant and you may be able to avoid Covid forever. But an Epidemiological study has estimated that 3/4’s of all US children have already gotten a Covid infection. And the one aspect of each Covid wave that has grown without fail has been that the virus is getting more and more contagious despite having a life saving vaccine available and a growing list of therapeutic treatments. So my family mitigates the risks where we can and continue to live full uninterrupted lives (like most Americans at this point). But even if you are able to avoid Covid indefinitely, most of your friends, family, neighbors, and especially the kids in your life are unlikely to have the same results.
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