I have not had COVID that I know of, although I live fairly normally (eat inside at friends’ houses, don’t mask unless required) and have had several close exposures, including one that I am waiting out now (so give me another day or two before I can say for sure I haven’t had it). I did not get it when my child had it, although we spent significant time together right before she had it and no particular precautions while she had it. We are both vaccinated, and both boosted, but only one booster. I almost never get sick though, never have, so maybe I do have some immunity. Of course, having written this, I assume I have jinxed myself. I will say that several others I know who hadn’t gotten it to date have had it in the past couple months, so I do think it’s lying in wait for most of us eventually.
I have not had Covid-19 to my knowledge and have not even been sick since the pandemic began (currently knocking on wood). My son tested positive during his Christmas break (In bed for 2 days and a cough for 1 week), but my wife and daughter have not knowingly had Covid-19 either. My wife has been teaching in-person masked since August 2020 while I work from home. We eat out and go places often and generally do not mask, but we carry masks and would mask in dense indoor settings. We are all vaccinated and boosted (wife and I are under 50 still).
Have not had Covid.
2 shot series, no boosters.
Living very normally. Not currently taking any precautions.
I haven’t had COVID. 2 initial vaccines 1 booster so far. Was sick in April with sore throat, body aches, slight fever. Tested 3 times in a week plus a PCR. All negative. Son and DH had it after me. All tested all negative.
I haven’t nor has H or D or D’s family. Or my sister or my aunt. We all live very carefuly. Masking inside, not eating inside, avoiding crowded situations, etc. Like many here.
Here’s my question: Most people in the country have had it. I understand why the super-cautious like me are in the minority, but you all who live like it doesn’t exist, you must know that most people have, so to what do you attribute your minority status? Just luck? Or some other reasoning. Just curious.
Personally I think it’s mostly luck coupled with a relatively strong immune system. That and regular hand-washing. With soap. It actually is quite effective, even if most transmission is respiratory.
I haven’t.
I’m a 100% single parent with asthma so we’ve been very careful in my household. We always wear a mask when indoors (KN95s), and eat outdoors. We get together with people outdoors, or have doors and windows open and air moving if masks are off (and that’s with people who are also wear masks when indoors in public). We don’t wear masks outdoors, but also don’t do stuff in crowds (that’s just not my thing anyway, though!).
S23’s high school was in person all last year, and they had all exterior doors and windows open throughout the year, plus fans, and eating outdoors. (When the state went masks optional in the spring, there was a burst of Covid infections that just kept going through the last 2.5 months of school in those that stopped wearing masks, but none with the kids who wore KN or N95s.) And we also wear the 3M Aura N95 masks whenever we fly.
Both of us vaxed and boosted.
I think it is a combination of luck, immunity, being asymptomatic, or having very minor symptoms while never testing positive. I think that not having small kids helps too as almost everyone that I know with small children have had family Covid outbreaks (except those who can keep kids home or afford a nanny).
Knock on wood, so far so good for both me and my husband. We have tested A LOT (since home tests became available I test at least every 10 days or so before visiting my mom, and in the first year I was a covid-tester and tested before every shift, so I believe I really never had it and have never had a whiff of a symptom).
At various times, especially during 2020, I was very cautious. Once I got my first vaccine in January 2021, I began doing basically everything (eating frequently in restaurants, attending large weddings beginning June 2021, and we resumed large dinner parties etc around April 2021 once more of our friends became vaccinated). We got to movies and the theater and basically everything now and have been doing so for over a year now. We did dial things back a little for about a month when Omicron first appeared. We have had 2 boosters, and vaccination has been my number one precaution. We also believe in the benefits of testing (although discouraged as it seems to be possibly decreasing in accuracy over time) not so much to prevent us from catching it but to prevent us from passing it on, plus in the earlier days we did use group testing before Thanksgiving, Christmas, and dinner parties, etc. I also invested in powerful HEPA air purifiers which I always use when having people over my house, but obviously I can’t control air quality at other locations. I have always worn a mask when required, but barely ever when not required, so really have barely worn one since March when the university I teach at stopped requiring them. I’d still wear one on a plane but I’m not flying soon. I do not want to catch covid (or any sickness really) and I’m grateful to have avoided it so far, but I’m no longer more afraid of catching covid than I am of other sicknesses. I used to be fairly obsessed with covid, and now I rarely think of it—mostly when I see others wearing masks which is not frequent anymore even in my blue state.
To what do I attribute this? I guess I’d say 4 vaccination shots mostly, plus early caution, and then some element of luck I guess! Also general good health/immunity although most of my friends who have caught it would also be quite healthy and likely have strong immune systems, too. Certainly I have MANY friends and relatives (including my kids while they were away at school this spring) who have had it. And I sure hope I’m not jinxing myself by writing about it! 
I don’t know why we haven’t had it. Maybe we have and it was asymptomatic. I have only tested a handful of times. Once when it was required for a conference, once when I knew I had been heavily exposed (coworker that I spent most of the day sitting next to and conferring with during a meeting tested positive the next day), and a couple times when I got cold symptoms. All the tests I have done have been negative but I’m not obsessive about testing so I could have missed something. Maybe it’s just luck. Maybe the shots are doing their job. I’m surprised by how many people here say they are still masking inside. I very rarely see anyone in a mask anymore.
H and I did get Covid after our train trip - we actually think he caught it from a coughing man sitting near him on the very last train we were on. Fortunately, FIL didn’t get it. He wasn’t sitting as close to the man and we left his place shortly after returning.
I got it from H. All 3 of us are double boostered. H was coughing and miserable for 3-4 days with some lingering effects that are gone now. I felt really tired for a day and a half, and my lymph nodes in my neck and underarms hurt like crazy for a couple of days - then I was fine.
Our medical lad finally caught it too. He’s spent Covid years in the hospital, at times working as close as you can get to positive people - intubating and all - and where does he likely catch it? On a trip he and his brother took to Niagara Falls.
When my kids have had it, they’ve had it worse than I did, so I think there’s a genetic component, and with our family, the “bad” aspect of that seems to come from H’s line. We’re really glad FIL didn’t get it.
If they come out with an Omicron specific booster in the fall, we’re all still going to get it. Can’t hurt, might help.
Otherwise, we’ve been living without worry for quite some time, still masking if asked to do so, but that’s it.
Seems apropos at the moment….
Were they taking airplanes, staying in indoor hotels, eating in indoor restaurants, etc.? Of course, in the hospital, he was probably fully covered in PPE.
I have heard of lots of people I know getting COVID-19 recently. Some seem to be connected to traveling to big events, but only to where some activity involved partying in indoor restaurants and the like, as well as air travel and indoor hotels. Heard nothing of COVID-19 spread associated with a large outdoor event where most people drove their private cars to and from, camped outdoors instead of staying in hotels (and most hotels there opened directly to the outside), and did their partying outdoors.
Obviously, there is luck involved, but some activities do seem to change the odds.
They drove there, joined the throngs of people (super crowded he said) at the rails and riding the Maid of the Mist, ate lunch somewhere (probably outside), then drove home. A couple of days later he started with mild symptoms and took a home test. Positive. He says he expects he got it at the rails (overlooking the falls) or on the boat because it was quite crowded.
His experience was very similar to H with being knocked out for a couple of days (fever, tired, cough, body aches), then getting over it. I was only tired with the lymph nodes being very painful - no joint pains or other things. None of my group has had that happen except me.
His brother has had it twice now, including back in May this year. Brother’s wife didn’t knowingly catch it either time my guy had it - we still don’t know why. They live together. Her genetics must be helping her out I would think. Medical lad’s GF had it earlier this year (forgot which month, but recent, having caught it from her mother who caught it from church). She didn’t get it this time.
We dodged the covid bullet until this past month.
We think based on timing the one dinner we had inside with a friend of my husband’s from his work. Husband had just retired and really wanted to see this friend.
Husband tested negative for quite a while before testing positive and was outside the time limit to receive paxlovid. He is still feeling tightness in his chest almost a month later. He refuses to see anyone until he is asymptomatic. At this point, it feels like it might be awhile 
We were traveling when my husband tested positive. Based on the timing, I didn’t get covid until we spent 13 hours in the car together 
My timing was better than my husband’s and I was able to get paxlovid. I am feeling great.
We’ve been very careful but our luck ran out. We are vaccinated and double boosted. After this ordeal, we will be even more careful and definitely will look for another booster in the fall.
We had avoided it until last month. I believe I caught it from my D24, who likely had it for a second time in the days before I fell sick (tested negative on at-home test once or twice, but we never had her pcr-tested).
I’m not planning to get a second booster, even an omicron-specific one at this point. Once they switch to a flu vaccine model (once a year), I’ll get that.
There are multiple causes of hair loss. I’ve struggled with episodes of this on and off for years. I’ve been lucky that I have a lot of hair, so plenty of reserve. But it can be extremely upsetting. The last round of it I had left visible areas of thinning.
It’s mostly grown back now, but I can certainly feel your pain. I’ve not had Covid either.
As opposed to the claims of “I just have a strong immune system,” I think we are going to find that there is some possibly as of yet unknown internal factor in certain individuals that has protected them from Covid, at least thus far. Not a general healthy state, but some specific factor that differentiates them from others with healthy immune systems who nevertheless get Covid.
We’ve seen the same thing with influenza-people who don’t get the vaccine, have exposures (even multiple times) that don’t get it, but who might get a common cold or other infectious disease.
I have never understood why I have never had strep throat. My Ds had it many MANY times. I have kissed them, drank or eaten after them so many times right before we learned they were infected, and I have never in my life had Strep throat. Don’t know why…
Something similar is likely going on here, as the article posted above alludes to.
Yes, I think the idea that a strong immune system protects you is incorrect. Otherwise, a lot fewer people would have contracted COVID.
My husband and I haven’t gotten it even though we’ve been exposed. I don’t think it’s due to a strong immune system because I catch all sorts of stuff frequently.
i got in early January, but i was sitting indoors at a dinner next to a postive person. What shocks me is that with all the travel I have been doing, and going to large events, I have not gotten it again. Last booster was Nov.
Now my 82 mom has not gotten it yet that she knows of, and she has been living her life. Got back from Europe last month. Wears masks when required, but otherwise has been eating at restaurants, traveling, etc etc. Her last booster was in May. Even early on, she was back at the nail/hair salon and restaurants. She has other health issues , and got bronchitis last fall for an ordinary cold(constantly tested negative for covid)