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A page related to this subject: Coronavirus & COVID-19 Overview: Symptoms, Risks, Prevention, Treatment & More
Page mentions both unnoticed infections (i.e. that many who have not noticed having COVID-19 actually had asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic infections) and the possibility of a few people who manage to avoid getting infected at all.
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So I had COVID-19 not too long ago.
- Note: working remotely during this time period, so no typical indoor workplace potential exposures during this time period.
- About four months prior: most recent vaccination (Moderna booster against ancestral virus), third total (previous two were J&J).
- Day -4: small outdoor event, no one else had COVID-19 before or after. Also, masked 5 minute visits to grocery store and restaurant for take-out.
- Day -3: Masked 15 minute visit to grocery store.
- Day -2: large non-crowded outdoor event, did not hear of any big-time COVID-19 spread. Was mostly near people I know, none of whom had COVID-19 before or after. Also, masked 5 minute visit to restaurant for take-out.
- Day -1: small indoor event, no one else had COVID-19 before or after.
- Day 0-1: minor unexplained (at the time) nausea.
- Day 1: small outdoor event, no one else had COVID-19 before or after. Also, masked 5 minute visit to restaurant for take-out. Minor cold symptoms late evening.
- Day 2-5: minor cold symptoms.
- Day 3: Tested before a small outdoor event, positive, did not go. (All tests were rapid antigen tests from a stockpile delivered by the USPS.)
- Day 6-12: no more symptoms. Still tested positive (though the T line was faint on day 12). Did not go where being close to others would be unavoidable (grocery store, etc.).
- Day 13: Tested negative.
The observations:
- Without any obvious high risk incidents (e.g. eating in an indoor restaurant), it looks like even lower risk activities (non-crowded outdoor activities, going indoors masked) still do not avoid the risk of getting COVID-19, at least with current more contagious variants. Seems like only outdoor activities with conscious effort to maintain a large distance at all times would avoid that risk.
- However, perhaps the lower risk activities meant a lower dose of virus, resulting in a milder case than if a higher dose of virus was encountered.
- No one in the small events had COVID-19 before or after, as far as they knew, but it is possible that they had a stealth (asymptomatic) infection that was contagious. Or someone had minor symptoms that did not raise enough suspicion of COVID-19 to bother testing. (Pretty sure all were vaccinated, though I do not know booster status.)
- The cold symptoms were minor enough that it is possible that many people would not have bothered to test for COVID-19. Obviously, not everyone who gets COVID-19 has this very minor level of symptoms.
- The CDCās 5 and 10 day rules are not reliable if you want to avoid being a potential spreader.
- Obviously fell a month short of getting to the Omicron BA.5 booster without being infected. Now will wait for a few months, since getting the booster very soon after infection is probably pointless.
- But the infection was probably like an Omicron BA.5 booster (since most infections at the time were Omicron BA.5), so I am probably temporarily in the ranks of those who are least likely to get or spread COVID-19 (i.e. hybrid immunity from vaccination + recent infection by probably the current variant).
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Few people in our area wear a mask unless itās required, such as at our PCPās office. Even there, a couple of nurses pull theirs down like chin straps whenever the doctor isnāt nearby. Most other medical providers do not mask.
I hope the local hospital still requires masks since D wants her dad to stay with her for two nights so SiL can sleep at home and take care of GD when GD2 is delivered. We offered to keep GD overnight instead, which weāve done before, but D said no.
H has far more contact with people than I do, which is still very little, and as far as we know neither of us has contracted Covid-19. We had our third booster in April, and were hoping this new vaccine would come out sooner.
Yesterday, H got the new vaccine. Only Moderna was available, while all of our previous shots were Pfizer. He has slept 24 out of the last 27 hours and just went back to bed. He got the quadrivalent flu shot at the same time, so both arms ache but not as much as after the previous shots. He had chills briefly last night, in contrast to the other times when they lasted about 12 hours. Heās pretty happy that heās had an easier time.
Health care facilities around here generally require wearing masks.
However, most other places do not, and most people do not wear masks in grocery stores, etcā¦ But some do, so it is not unusual to see people wearing masks, especially indoors. There are a few restaurants and such where most or all people working there wear masks, but this is not the case for most restaurants and such. Lots of people do eat in indoor restaurants these days.
On the other hand, I do sometimes see people walking outdoors in places away from anyone else, not going to or from an indoors or crowded place, wearing masks.
The kinds of masks being worn variesā¦ since N95 / KN95 / KF94 masks are now readily available, it would make sense that people concerned enough to wear masks when not required would choose those masks for better filtration. But many people wearing masks use masks with less filtration.
Vaccination rate in the area is high, and it is likely that a large percentage have had recent infections with an Omicron variant. So it is likely that a large percentage is relatively āsafeā from getting or spreading COVID-19 due to hybrid immunity from both vaccination and recent infection with the current variant (though they may be less āsafeā if a significantly different variant appears) and not having a medical condition that greatly increases vulnerability even after hybrid immunity. But there is no way to tell whether a random person you encounter somewhere is one of these āsafeā people, nor can that random person know whether you are. Obviously, there are still people who are not āsafeā, given the continued spread of the virus which is finding new hosts.
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Mixing MRNA vaccine/boosters is likely the correct decision to maximize immunity. There are multiple studies showing a benefit in real-world effectiveness in people who have received both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and/or boosters. This is one of the primary papers discussing why (even though both vaccines are MRNA, they elicit slightly different immune responses).
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abm2311
I received my Moderna booster Sunday, had some myalgia yesterday and was relatively tired. Arm still sore today, but all in all not a bad response. My shots are PPPMM.
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I got my Moderna booster yesterday at 2. I have very mild reactions. I have a bit of a sore arm. My shots are MMMPM.
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Re: Difference between rebound case vs reinfection?
My D (21 years old) got COVID 3 weeks ago (first time) and had stronger than expected symptoms for a week (fever, bad sore throat, body ache). She missed the full week of classes. (Sheās vaccinated MMM, booster was in April. She was super careful the last 3 years, but as a senior I think she became a bit lax.)
Last week she was feeling better and went to classes (with mask). She also went to a party this past weekend; I was a bit disappointed that she did. She said she wore a mask, but I think she was not 100%)
She called last night that her symptoms are all back and canāt get out of bed. She was feeling fine during the day, but as the day progressed, her symptoms came back. I am definitely concerned. Initially I quietly hoped that sheāll be one of those typical young person who will have mild symptoms and life will go on. Now my worst fears that sheāll have long covid is making me anxious.
Is it possible to know if she has rebound symptoms or if this is a reinfection? Does it matter at this point?
I am super sorry to hear this. Itās terrible when your kids are sick away at school. Has she tested positive again? It could be in her weakened state, she caught strep and/or the flu. A co-workerās adult kid just was diagnosed with flu yesterday. Itās out there (and surprised me).
Edit to say, when my 24 y.o. S got covid in April, he got both covid and strep at the same time! So, many things are possibleā¦
@cag60093 it could be the flu. My younger son hit the bullseye last year, when two weeks into his freshman year he tested positive for both Covid and flu B. A few weeks later in early October, he came down with bronchitis. Because that wasnāt enough, when he came home for Thanksgiving, he tested positive for Flu A!
I think b/c he had been careful his last 18 months of high school with mostly hybrid school and always wearing a mask, he just hadnāt been exposed to so many germs. Once he got to college in the fall, where masks were only required initially in the classroom and not in dorms, he was being exposed to everything. Fortunately he was healthy second semester, but he had a rough fall!
If she feels well enough to get out of bed and get a flu test, they might prescribe Tamiflu for her which should shorten her symptoms (my son was given Tamiflu the first time he had the flu but it made him vomit, which is a side effect). I hope your D feels better soon.
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Did she have test results over the time period indicating COVID+, then COVID-, then COVID+?
As others mention, there are other things going around, like flu.
If you are looking for vaccine diversity, then you probably wanted to have at least one dose of J&J in the mix. However, J&J is basically forgotten in the US, and is not available with BA.5. Novavax is also not available with BA.5. So the choices going forward for boosters with BA.5 are only mRNA vaccines, with relatively slight differences between the two.
Thanks for your reply and understanding of the situation. I didnāt think about strep or flu so Iāll ask her to make an appointment at the health center.
Thanks for sharing your sonās experience. Yes, I texted her to get tested for flu and strep. I do think her immune system is in a weaken state after COVID so sheās a magnate for all other viruses or flu.
She only had several antigen COVID tests that first week of COVID. She couldnāt even get out of bed to get the PCR testing done by school. When she got better, she didnāt want to get a PCR test because she figured it will be positive for a while.
Last night, she said she couldnāt get out of bed again because she felt terrible. It is definitely possible she may have caught another virus while her body is still recuperating from COVID. This morning, she said she is feeling slightly better but did not commit to scheduling any testing appointments. She can be infuriating.
Our youngest son, at the same university, just texted that he has a really bad sore throat. (He had COVID in April.). I also recommended that he get a PCR test and schedule an appointment for strep and flu, just to rule things out. He simply said ok.
Itās completely possible that my Dās and Sās symptoms are due to a virus going around the university since itās typical for this time of the year. Itās tough when I now think everything is COVID. Ugh.
Another thing to have on her/your radar is mononucleosis, common in college freshman. This warrants a visit to health services both for mono & flu screening. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.
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Last year my son had a really bad sore throat. Negative for covid and strep, but positive for mono. He was exhausted for weeks. Plus no drinking alcohol and no lifting or contact sports for 6 weeks. It was rough.
PCR tests can give false positives for a while after recovery. However, feeling better is not a reliable guide to being non-contagious. She should have been doing antigen testing until testing negative before doing anything where she may expose others.
She does not have an antigen test available to check if the current sickness is COVID-19?
YLE has a new page about 400 deaths per day in the US from COVID-19.
No surprise that unvaccinated people have a much higher death rateā¦ YLE does note that we may now be comparing infection-only immunity (among unvaccinated people) to hybrid immunity (among vaccinated people who also had COVID-19) in many cases.
The page includes this image on risk of dying if you get COVID-19, based on age and vaccination, based on data from Canada:
For most age groups, 3+ doses appears to reduce the risk to 1/8 or 1/9 compared to <2 doses. However, 2 doses appears to reduce risk to about 1/2 compared to <2 doses. So the third dose does make a big difference (but fourth dose makes only a small difference).
But also note that age has a huge effect. People age 70-79 with 3+ doses have slightly higher risk of dying if they get COVID-19 than unvaccinated people age 50-59, and people age 80-89 with 3+ doses are only a little lower risk than unvaccinated people age 70-79.
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These vaccines are amazing.
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