3+ years into this pandemic, and I have not gotten Covid yet, as far as I know. I’m of course fully vaccinated but also a diligent masker in any place where I might interact with people outside my household. My son hasn’t gotten Covid either, and he masks as I do, including daily at his public high school. We are in California, and the majority of kids in his school still mask daily, for which I’m grateful. My daughter is in boarding high school OOS and follows whatever the school tells her to do.
The primary motivation for my choices is that I’m a widow (my husband died a few years ago at age 47) and live with the responsibility that if anything happens to me, my kids are orphans. I am also health conscious in other ways (e.g. vegan, daily exerciser). I’m of course petrified of long Covid as well.
I expect that I will be following my current masking practices for the rest of my life. This is my approach to the “you do you” model!
Thank you! I have no idea why my user name became what it is now – it used to be something like DonnaL, but it’s been a long time since I signed in, and obviously something changed in the interim.
I wondered that too. But welcome back regardless, and thank you for posting here.
I haven’t had COVID…yet…that I know of. I did have a very long and annoying cold in January and February 2020 that just lingered and lingered. Who knows?
I’m really just waiting until my number comes up. It will eventually. I’m hoping for a mild enough case as I’m fully vaxed.
Everyone else in my family has had COVID, and all had mild cases. I didn’t catch it when my husband had it.
We had it for the first time three weeks ago. Husband returned from a business trip, warned that his coworker had projectile vomited and that he thought she might have Norovirus. By the next day, she’d tested positive for Covid. He tested positive the following morning and I followed suit that afternoon.
Our cases were so different! My symptoms were very mild. I was super super tired, and a little congested for 3-4 days. No fever, cough, or trouble sleeping. I was negative by day 5.
My husband’s case was more conventional. Chills, fever, a bad cough - basically miserable for 8-10 days. And the cough lingered.
We were both fully vaxed and boosted. The only real difference is that he was more exposed than I was - and he got his booster maybe 5-6 weeks before I did. Glad we are both ok and looking forward to next year’s booster,
I am able to have my team go in the office once a week instead of 2 as required by my firm. I decided to have people in on Thursday because I figured if anyone should party hearty on weekends then they would if they are sick by Thursday. It has worked so far…if anyone should get sick we usually know by Tue or Wed. I let people stay home if there is a slightest sniffle, so they are generally pretty upfront.
I wear a mask when I am indoor, especially when taking public transportation, but I am going to a Springsteen concert in a week and I also spoke at a conference recently without a mask.
I went on an European tour not wearing a mask most of the time and no one got sick.
I do self quarantine for few days after I have been in high risk environments (trip, conference, concert). I figured that just because I am willing to take on calculated risk it doesn’t mean I should impose it on other people.
Wow. Amazing. Is it required to mask at the HS? That’s a really good awareness on the part of the students if they are doing it voluntarily. It removes so much of the concern. I am absolutely devastated for the teens – and younger! – who have long covid. A dear friend of ours is a pediatrician who has several patients with long covid. It’s chilling. He and his wife mask indoors in public places always.
I thought about that, but since the beginning of the pandemic we’ve been through a variety of acceptable masks of varying material construction. Cloth, surgical, KN95 etc. I’ve had the nasal problems since the cloth masks. My allergies were at their worst the second pandemic summer (2021). I have also had to work with small particulate matter in the lab that needs special masks that we get fitted with by health and safety. No issues with them, but then I don’t wear them for more than three hours at a time (we’re not allowed to). But who knows. I did a bunch of allergy testing fall of 2021 and they didn’t find anything conclusive. It doesn’t help that most people with allergies find relief from masking and here I am experiencing the exact opposite. It is what it is.
Before Covid there were lots of studies that seemed to show that kids who were exposed to more germs (kids who grew up on a farm or had multiple pets) were healthier (less allergies, asthma). My kids went to daycare and got every bug that went around, but rarely got sick, or missed a day of school K-12.
I think of course there are known and unknown risks due to Covid and long Covid. But what nags at me is I wonder if there are also unknown risks to not being exposed to every day germs.
A common theory is that long COVID is due to not completely clearing the virus after recovery.
That theory seems to be bolstered by this recent study finding the viral spike proteins in people with long COVID months after recovery, but not in people who had COVID-19 without long COVID.
My husband has type O blood. There has been conjecture that people with type O or Rh negative blood seem to have at least some protection from the virus. I wonder from time to time if that is why he hasn’t come down with it (that we know of).I haven’t kept up with the current chain of thought on that, however.
@Nrdsb4 I have heard that too, and that someone with type A blood has higher risk. My husband has type O blood and I have type A. He has had Covid but I have not, as far as I know. Obviously, that’s only one data point, but seems to be opposite of what I’ve heard.
I have read that, too. Our son and I are both O-, DH is O+, and none of us have had Covid that we know of. It would be interesting to know if there truly is a link.
I am A positive and have had Covid twice in January 2022 and January 2023 (fully vacinated and boosted). Both times I recovered quickly and had no long term issues. I am 63 with no underlying medical conditions. When I had Covid 2 months ago my only symptoms were a headache and low grade fever and nausea/vomiting. I tested positive one day and already felt better by the next day although I did not test negative for 10 days. I am also just one data point.
Both spouse and I are type O and neither of us have had Covid. However, our son had it a few months ago and I’m fairly certain one of our daughters caught it in the first wave before it was identified (all of her symptoms at the time fit).