An 8th student just emailed and said she was positive. That’s the whole class plus teacher! That sure conveys the contagiousness of this thing.
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I wonder how many of the others will just go ahead with their Thanksgiving plans, also.
Was anyone in the class masked? What was the room like (size, ventilation)?
No masks. I still mask everywhere and figured I would take a chance for the two classes before Thanksgiving since I was vaccinated 
My only concession in three years!
Anyway the teacher set up stations, one with tissue paper and glue, one with stamps and ink and so on. Probably 5 stations, some on small tables so people huddled together at each. And we all used the same tools, including scissors, brushes, rollers and so on. Perfect for spreading any germs. Room is good sized but stations were not that far apart, just enough to give us room.
The gentleman who tested positive that day must have had symptoms-? The teacher clearly doesn’t have any concerns even though her entire class has tested positive.
People say things like “oh it’s just like flu now.” Well, if I tested positive for flu, I would tell anyone I had been with. But the difference is that with COVID we can still infect others a couple of days before symptoms and to my knowledge that is not true with flu or colds. That’s why I thought people might want to test.
Now that I am off Paxlovid and heart is improving, I have to say that, 5 weeks after the vaccine, I have not been too sick. Fever 102 first night, headache second day, sore throat, very slight cough every few hours. It is stormy here. I am going to get gas and go for a drive!
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Glad to hear you’re feeling better. Maybe the person who had it at Art class was early on and asymptomatic.
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Yes but they tested later that day so symptoms probably started later. Noone blames anyone or anything. Just proof of how contagious this is!
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Still, that suggests that your immune response to vaccine was weaker than expected, and/or the virus that caused this outbreak was different from or had mutated away from XBB.1.5 that the recent vaccines target.
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My symptoms are very mild. Maybe I overstated. I get fevers with vaccines at the same level. However it does seem likely that some mutations have occurred!
Where it stands:
This August, a new Omicron strain called EG.5 (or “Eris”) became the dominant strain in the U.S.
Then at the end of the summer, HV.1 emerged and now accounts for the highest proportion of cases with about 30% of all COVID infections in the U.S., per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Experts are also now monitoring another new strain called BA.2.86 (or “Pirola”), which was designated by WHO as a “variant of interest” Tuesday.
I’m so glad you’re feeling better. I have a friend who also had issues with Paxlovid.
I had Covid in October and just had a stuffy nose. I haven’t had a vaccination since the first booster. I would not have known I was sick except that the above-mentioned friend and I had had dinner together. She got quite sick and a month plus later is still coughing.
This illness is so mysterious, I hope that someday we will have much better information as to why some people seem to get so ill and some don’t.
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The current newest and greatest vaccine covers XBB.1.5.
The Updated COVID Vaccines Are Here: 10 Things to Know > News > Yale Medicine.
@dietz yes, as @ucbalumnus wrote above, the current vaccine covers XBB…1.5. @ucbalumnus speculated that if I had symptoms, that proves the virus has mutated. So I posted the “where it stands” on mutations though that could already be dated.
I had no expectation that my COVID would be this mild. My problem was Paxlovid. It it had not been a weekend, and I had had access to a provider who knows me, it would not have been prescribed in the first place.
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Scroll down to the bottom of CDC COVID Data Tracker to see a lineage tree that shows how EG.5 and HV.1 (current common viruses) relate to XBB.1.5 (the current vaccine target) and other variants.
Basically:
XBB → XBB.1.5
XBB → XBB.1.9.2 → EG.5 → HV.1
I guess your definition of “mild” is different from my definition of “mild”. For me, infection symptoms were only slightly noticeable (and “fever” was only 99F) and did not interfere with any activity (though I did avoid anything that meant getting close to people or sharing indoor space in order to avoid spreading).
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They branch off at XBB. I gather the vaccine for XBB.1.5 still has some effectiveness for current strains. Of course I have no idea what is prevalent in MA. The map has only midwestern (2) and western (1) areas.
We’ll see if I have rebound after 4 doses of Paxlovid.
@oldmom4896 congrats! 
We hosted Thanksgiving for one side of the family on Sunday and had plans to take the other side to a restaurant today. DH woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat and congestion and blamed it on doing yard work all day Saturday with his allergies flaring. I tested him for Covid and it was negative.
Sore throat went away in a day. Last night, Dh began with the prolific vomiting and diarrhea. I worried it might be an intestinal blockage from all his cancer surgeries (has had several hospitalizations for this problem). But he said this felt different. At his insistence, I went without him to the restaurant with my side of the family, while our nephew stayed home with him to monitor. When I got home I decided to test him again for Covid. Strongly positive.
This is his first bout with Covid after all this time. He had refused to get the last booster. I got it, and so far I feel fine.
DH has the most sensitive stomach of anyone I’ve ever known. It JUST FIGURES that his main symptoms of covid are the GI ones.
He has exposed many people to this if we look back to Sunday when he woke with that sore throat. Ugh…
I am rebounding after my 4 doses of Paxlovid ended Monday morning. Started to feel sick again yesterday afternoon so it took 3 /12 days. Test was mildly positive yesterday ( I did that out of curiosity). Settling in lungs.
CDC would say I can come out of quarantine (6th day today) with mask. But I don’t agree. I have run out of food and will try to do curbside pickup but it’s tough when I feel this sick.
@Nrdsb4 hope your husband and anyone else he has been in contact with, have mild cases!
editing to add fever is rising so I am still in quarantine anyway!!
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So 4 days after my two days of Paxlovid I was really sick with fever 100+ (normal for me is 97.50. )
I looked at the chart on the CDC site posted before by @ucbalumnus. CDC COVID Data Tracker: Summary of Variant Surveillance Scroll down for the chart.
I am still sick and don’t want this again in the near future! There is no way to know what strain I have, or what strain my kid might bring up from NYC. I thought I would be more relaxed after finally having COVID but it’s been worse than expected 5 weeks after vaccine. Not sure how much protection we have from variants off the XBB.1.5 branch or, in my case, a strain different from what I have.
I might drive down and pick my kid up in NYC. Before having COVID I was fine with her taking the train, masked! At least over the summer and early fall.
ps strange smells and tastes seem to be part of this for me, not absence
My sis has rebound covid, after testing + right after coming back from NZ trip so had to have lonely Thanksgiving. Our next door neighbor also has covid. It’s still going around and none of us know which variants.
Little testing, little adherence to even the loose CDC protocols for isolation/masking, people doing a lot of traveling (congested airports, crowded planes)…I wonder how many people will regret all the holiday travel and get-togethers in the next week. And then repeat it all again in December.
The U.S. has decided that covid is just a part of life now. Seems like most of the U.S. doesn’t even believe in covid vaccinations anymore, as so few have gotten the new monovalent vaccine. I wonder the future ramifications to society of this attitude? Permanent disability to many, cognitive fog, more health problems, more sickness? People will get reinfected over and over. Our heyday for health in this country is over. We are a weaker, sicker society now.
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Every time we do something slightly risky (gather with family, eat at a restaurant, remove my mask on the plane to have a drink) I feel like I’ve won the lottery when we don’t get sick. The way this thing spreads is so odd. Compmom’s whole art class got it from one session. I know three households where it hasn’t spread with minimal to no isolation. I think I read somewhere that 20% of infected people are responsible for 80% of the spread. Or something like that.
I do take some comfort from the study that showed a significant decline in long covid related to how many vaccines (1-3) on had had. At 3 there was a 75% reduction. I’m hoping that at 7 vaccines its even more than that!
But yeah, I too worry about the long term ramifications of this virus lurking in folks hearts, brains, and other tissues.
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