My husband and I have not gotten covid. We are very disciplined about wearing masks in indoor public spaces and testing before we get together with people. Reason: I think long covid and and medical events egged on by having had covid (e.g., heart attack, stroke, enlarged heart, diabetes), are risks way greater than anyone talks about.
What’s been your experience?
I am in the throes of recovering from my first, hopefully, last bout of covid.
I am fully vaxxed, most recently the bi-valent in September. My husband, also fully vaxxed, is just finishing his third bout of covid since last April.
Husband, daughter and I have never gotten Covid, that we know of. We are fully vaxxed and boosted, we always wear masks in public indoor settings, and we do not eat indoors in restaurants.
We also have not caught any colds in the past 3 years, nor flu (vaccinated for that also).
I hate getting a cold-- the cough always lingers miserably-- and that alone is a reason for me to continue wearing masks indoors in public, even if Covid ceases to be a problem.
Neither H, D (in LA and HNL), S & fiancée (in DC, NYC & HNL) nor I have gotten covid. We wear good fitting kf94 masks pretty regularly indoors and in any place where people are close to one another. 83 year old mom has remained covid free as well, despite exposure to lots of different aides and living in her ccrc.
We try to only eat indoors when restaurants are uncrowded. We haven’t traveled but S, fiancée and D have.
I just recovered from my 1st brief cold since 2019. Most of my siblings & their spouses have gotten covid. None have complained of lingering symptoms. Our PT believes she had early covid, before there were tests & vaxes. Her coworker had covid at least 3 times in very few months and both of them have long covid and are pretty miserable. Most recently, the PT is being tested for MS.
I’ve really enjoyed being infection free for the longest time in over 20 years! I plan to continue masking as I really like being infection free!
We use Enovid since I bought it in early November. Me and my entire extended family are all fully vaxed, including the toddlers.
Having had COVID-19 twice after gaining hybrid immunity seems like a cause for concern about his immune system not developing good immune response to the virus.
Some COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic. Is anyone here who has not had a known COVID-19 infection considering getting a nucleocapsid antibody test to check?
(The virus’ nucleocapsid is not included in vaccines used in the US, so having antibodies to the nucleocapsid after having vaccines only in the US indicates prior infection.)
DH and I have never had any COVID symptoms. We don’t wear masks unless requested to. We go to church, movies, restaurants, etc. We’ve flown to Florida and Texas multiple times. No plans to get tested to see if we’ve ever had COVID. We also haven’t had a cold in years.
My DH has not had Covid symptoms. We typically don’t wear masks much anymore, unless required in healthcare settings. We were once quite vigilant. DS and I had Covid over the summer for the first time (we are vaxxed and boosted) and my symptoms lingered a bit,
We travel quite a bit and eat indoors In restaurants, go to concerts, etc. My D22 has had Covid twice. I think my DH just isn’t going to get it.
I haven’t had it yet, and one of my kids (who has health conditions) hasn’t had it (despite using NYC subways). We wear well-fitting KN95 masks, don’t eat indoors, but kid has started to travel by train (Masked) and visits me fresh from the train. We both use home tests and kid tested before seeing me.
Other two kids have had COVID, about 12 days each with no apparent lingering symptoms. MY mother had it at 94 and there was some objective damage to her lungs, not sure about other organs. I do know several people who still have problems from COVID, mainly respiratory, one cognitive.
My careful kid and I are loosening up slowly. It is hard to meet people while masked and we are each in a new environment. I recently took an art class unmasked.
I unmasked at the reception for my mother’s funeral service, with about 150 people present, because I had not seen many of them for 50 years and it was hard enough to recognize each other! I chose that risk. Luckily did not get COVID though I heard some attendees had it soon after. The night before our extended family met for dinner at my brother’s house and I requested that everyone test before hand.
I don’t feel anxious anymore about it. I am just being prudent. I like avoiding colds as well. I don’t mind masks and they help with allergies and with cold air. Even if COVID should disappear entirely (unlikely) I might still wear a mask.
Oh- and I use Xclear as a nasal rinse if exposed to a lot of people.
We are a house of five - a mom, dad, and three kids. Fully vaccinated and boosted. We only wear masks where it is mandatory and have been doing this since the beginning of last summer (in NC masks seem to only be mandatory in hospitals, and even some seem hospitals seem to have let go of this). Only dad has had Covid and he works in a hospital setting. We test at the first symptoms of anything that could be anything since he works with patients and testing after exposure is a must so I am pretty certain that my kids and I have never had symptomatic Covid. I am so grateful that my work is from home and I am an introvert so don’t go out too much so I am lucky enough to say that I have not even had a cold, cough, soar throat, or anything in the last 3 years. My kids do get cold symptoms here and there as they go to school and are more social than myself and have tested several times with even the slightest symptoms and have also never been positive. My husband was like us until New Years, when he tested positive. I think we are just very lucky.
I tested positive this week for the first time. H got covid for the first time just 4 days after getting the bivalent booster in September. While I would categorize our covid-approach as fairly cautious post-vaxx (at least more cautious than anyone else in our orbit), we have lightened up quite a bit since the last booster, and I knew my time as one of the remaining no-vids would probably end some time this year. We were in Puerto Rico last week so I probably got it while traveling, but we did both wear KN95’s in taxi, airport and plane. Most of our time on the island was spent outside and in open air restaurants. More likely scenario is that I got it in church on Sunday, that timing makes more sense and I was not wearing a mask.
I am on day 6 and my symptoms have been very mild - like a 3-day summer cold. So far H has not gotten sick.
H and I have never had covid. We are fully vaxed and boosted. I hate masks and have never worn them unless required. In my state they are still required in medical settings but other than that I can’t remember the last time I put one on.
As far as I’m aware, my husband, my son, his wife and I have all avoided COVID. The kids work from home, and are fairly careful when they go out. We are retired, but do some work, and we have all flown (with masks on planes and in airports when around crowds) eaten in restaurants, gone shopping in fairly close quarters, etc. Of course, we could have all had it and just don’t know it.
H and I have not had Covid that we are aware of. Don’t think either of us has had a legit cold in 3 years - knock on wood.
We were good mask wearers and I continue to mask in public at work, in a health care setting. I don’t hesitate to put on a mask when out though probably haven’t done much of that since the holidays when I was being extra cautious not to get sick.
I don’t attribute it to being superheroes. I just think a reasonable mix of caution when it was needed, naturally having limited our social and in-person experiences and maybe just having whatever immunity that seems to help those who haven’t had it.
But I’ll never say never!!! I don’t consider it a badge of honor. It just hasn’t been put on my plate yet.
I’ve only had it once (before vaccines), one of my kids has been vaccinated twice and never had it, she works from home but also goes out a lot. My other vaccinated kids and H have gotten it 2 - 4 times. I drove with my sister 2 hours with the windows up when she tested positive to Covid (after being with her and 2 other positive family members in a vacation house for a week) and I was fine.
We were excellent mask wearers, but we got Covid in late summer. We were fully vaxxed and boosted, and it was pretty mild for us - although I was in bed for days. We have slowly relaxed since the holidays, although we do tend to put masks on in grocery stores - and we haven’t returned to things like crowded concerts. If we don’t “really” want to attend an event, we no longer feel bad saying no.
When we had Covid, we got it from D & GD (who were very careful, but apparently got it at an outdoor community pool). SIL also got it. His parents, who are older than we are & babysat GD the day before she got a fever, never got it. SIL’s brother is a doctor & lives with his parents … none of them have had it to date. A friend of ours has been in a car for hours with people who realized they had Covid during the trip - twice - and he didn’t get it either time.
We are a family of six. The youngest is nearing 18yo. None of us have tested positive for Covid. We’ve had a few scares (exposures including a daughter who shared a hotel room with someone who tested positive the day they left the wedding.) We are all fully vaxxed and boosted. We also are pretty good with masking–some of us only in public indoor places and some are religious about it. My husband is in his late sixties and my parents are in their eighties so we’ve always been worried about long term effects.
Technically my H and I have not had Covid but…we are near certain we had it just before the pandemic officially started. We were both sick for three weeks and lost our sense of smell. H went to urgent care and he tested negative for all the usual suspects and was told it was “some kind of coronavirus”! We were at a conference with his work and nearly everyone got sick, and some were hospitalized. By the time they were talking about antibody testing, we were too far out from being sick so we’ll never truly know.
We are all fully vaxxed and haven’t gotten sick since, with any variant. We mask up on flights or crowded indoor events but have been traveling and eating out for a while now. We’ve had some close contact exposures and subsequently tested daily, but didn’t catch it.
D, also fully vaxxed, caught covid at school last year but it was super mild and she just had the sniffles. She was not with us when we got sick initially.
My experience was similar to momo2’s husband. Both my husband and I got covid at our first venture into a large crowd in July, but I have had it 3 times since, while he stays negative on the home test. My doctor just repeats the CDC advice about isolation and masking. Can anything be done to address the concern about failing to develop a good immune response?
The love of my life and I have not gotten Covid - we are both vaxxed (my love has all the boosters, I had one booster) - we both continue to mask in public, and have avoided (to the best of our ability) large indoor crowded events (concerts, etc.) - I have traveled 4x since Feb 2020, my love has not. My love has been back to work in a building for well over a year. I still WFH.