Somewhere between 5% to 15% of the population has never gotten a COVID infection
intercst
3 Likes
I am one of the few people I know (DH, also) who didn’t get Covid. But I put a lot of effort into this since DH and I are both over age 65 and we both have chronic lung disease.
I continue to shop early in the morning when the stores are almost empty. I continue to exercise with Zoom classes, avoiding the gym. I continue to wear a mask in crowded indoor conditions.
Also, DH and I have each had 5 vaccinations (including boosters). I plan to get Covid, flu and RSV vaccinations this fall. But I will continue my other precautions.
Wendy
7 Likes
Judging by symptoms (or, rather, lack of) and periodic -ve tests, husband and I appear to be Covid dodgers also. Although fully vaxxed, we haven’t been as restrictive in our movements as you … dh has continued working at the Covid Factory, for example, although always masked to some degree … we are probably more cautious than a good many/most.
I suspect it’s as much good fortune as anything else for us so I won’t be feeling too complacent for a good while. Still have a supply of masks in my car/bag…along with a sealed baggie of non-latex gloves for non-Covid infection control purposes. Cautious but not phobic.
1 Like
I’ve been COVID-free, too, despite a 20+ year history of taking a powerful immunosuppressant drug for a kidney aliment (lupus nephritis). Apparently my immune system is trying to destroy my kidneys in much the same fashion as when the immune system rejects a transplanted organ. (So far, so good. My measure of kidney function eGFR is in the 90’s – what you’d expect for a healthy person in their 20’s.)
My doctors tell me I’m much more likely to be inflected if exposed to COVID, but less likely to die from it. Apparently the immunosuppressents would lessen the effect of the end stage of a COVID infection (i.e., the cytokine cascade) when your immune system goes into overdrive and starts attacking both infected and healthy tissue. Most patients don’t survive that.
intercst
2 Likes
Me too, no Covid. Tested several times for out-patient medical procedures done in hospital–all tested negative. Two for cataracts (mid and late 2022) and once for BPH (early 2022). Nothing since that I can tell.
Same5678901234567890
DW and me as well. DW was tested weekly during the 2 years that COVID was rampant and never tested positive. We’re pretty close, so I can safely assume that I never had it either. I’ve only been tested twice, both negative. DW nor I have been sick with COVID symptoms. We were masking and pretty cautious during the thick of it, but we have relaxed our safety protocol to using germ killer when shaking hands with lots of people or out shopping, etc. No masking for us at least the past 6 - 12 months.
Oh - we both have had all of the shots and boosters and expect to get the next version out in the Fall.
'38Packard
Given all the responses, it seems like wealth and financial independence provides considerable protection against COVID.
That would make an interesting chart (COVID Dodgers vs annual income or net worth)
intercst
4 Likes
Me also a never covid. My doctor points out the combination of my masking and avoidance of certain types of locales and people, but also suspects that my odd HIV survivor Estonian descent immune system is playing a role. Dear husband did get it somehow, and so we isolated from each other for 10 days with me leaving his food at top of stairs in front of his sick bay garret door.
david fb
2 Likes
I was COVID free until last month when the wife picked it up on a business trip. Do not recommend.
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Wealth/retirement likely has a high correlation to the ability to self isolate and take other mitigation steps that those less wealthy (like those required to work) simply cannot do.
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We were also lulled into a false sense of security. No covid for us in our progressive little milieu where most folks do the right thing. Wife went traveling and bought it home. No friends, family or school mates had it but a guy was coughing in an antique mall she visited. Can’t help but feel angry that some people are selfish and won’t stay home when sick.
1 Like
At the same time…
People with the infection can infect others before they develop symptoms, even if they experience no symptoms at all.
DB2
I’m in the 5-15 percent as well. I have a family member who contracted “Covid classic” in October 2020 and got dehydrated enough for an ER visit then a follow-up overnight stay two days later but was nowhere near needing a vent… but within a month developed long-haul COVID issues (uncontrolled heart rate, brain fog, exhaustion, etc.) that have not abated 1% in severity since.
Work exposure was relatively small since most employees were placed on a 50% in / 50% out schedule on a two-week rotating basis while me and my fellow managers hung out on a floor with virtually no people and all mostly stuck to our offices. A totally pointless trip to work from April 2020 until about early 2022 when they attempted to up the in-office ration to 3 days in / two days out each week.
I’m now retired so my exposure is mainly limited to retail situations. I’ve remained current on all Covid vaccine updates from inception and plan to continue. I seriously question what is wrong with our research processes and priorities given that there seems no effort to collect DNA samples from us luck-for-now ones to see if anything correlates in our DNA that’s providing a higher barrier against infection and the exaggerated immune system response. Of course, I’m not sure why I expect that when there also seems to be no national focus and funding on thoroughly researching those WITH long-haul to figure out possible ways to solve those very real conditions and defuse a potential time bomb for people as they get older.
WTH
2 Likes
I am one of those as well, and I have a few theories as to why we are seeing such a high percentage of regulars here saying “Me too!”
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The median age of this board is pretty high. We’ve had surveys before, and we’re mostly oldies but goodies. That likely means kids are out of the house, eliminating one of the most lucrative pathways for infection, as the little tykes interact with dozens and dozens of other kids daily at school, then come home with whatever they’ve acquired.
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The median age of this board is pretty high, so there are also a lot of retired folks here, which means the daily grind of being exposed to co-workers (and therefore their kids) is quite low. Fewer exposures, fewer infections.
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The median income of this board is pretty high, so we have better health care to start with, better nutrition, and (probably) less stress which can weaken the immune system.
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The board is probably comprised mostly of people who don’t fall for the latest conspiracy theory, scam medicine, or do other nonsensical things which can cause one to be more susceptible. I surmise that the board, as a whole, is far more vaccinated than the general public.
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I don’t know about religiosity, but I suspect “church going” is lower than average, and at any rate most churches-with-a-clue did social distancing and/or tele-church during the height of the pandemic, so one other avenue of infection ameliorated.
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And, in the “some of us are smart” category, we can shop on a Tuesday afternoon, not a Saturday morning, or go to a movie matinee instead of a Friday night date night, or even eat at a restaurant at 4:30 or 5:00 instead of during the most crowded hours.
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And finally, I bet very few of us kiss bats, so there you go.
7 Likes
Also, #8 Masking: I would also guess that many on this board actually believe in the efficacy of masking, if not as a protection for oneself, as a prophylactic for prevention of infection in others. I never thought that a (good, N95 / KN95) mask would necessarily prevent me much from acquiring COVID, but I do think that it has the ability to prevent the wearer from infecting others by containing sputum and aerosolized microbes more than without one.
Pete
4 Likes
I will also say that, officially, I have not had COVID but, I think I might have. Even my Doctor said, it’s a possibility. Last January I came down with what can only described as “a weird cold.” Three days before onset was tested in a hospital. Negative. Ok maybe too early. Three days later I am freezing to death cannot stop shaking and experiencing total body muscle aches like I had fallen off the back of a truck doing 50 mph. No coughing. No sneezing. Only slightly runny nose. Two days into it I thought “why not use one of those COVID tests?!” two tests over 2 days, both negative. The first 2 days of it were the worst The next two better. Another 2 and it was like nothing happened.
A few months later I was reading an article about covid symptoms and many of the non-critical accounts sounded exactly like mine. Especially Tom Hanks’ . So think back over the last 2 or 3 years to see if you recall an illness you maybe blew off as just a weird cold of acute onset, unusual severity, but suspiciously short on general symptoms.
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I am a little younger than many of you. I was out in the trenches with a lot of people. The guard people had came down with Omicron. People wanted their freedom fully back.
I barely got sick when I had it. It is not much of a story. The common cold would have been worse. The flu much worse. Not much of a story in any of those either.
I was vaccinated and boosted to the max. Currently I am not boosted to the max. I will be boosted again covid and flu in October.
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Who here has blood type “O”? I’ve heard “O” people seem to show a higher natural level of resistance to covid. Don’t know how many others have heard that. I read at least two articles on it (way back, no url now) and my friend who had covid and was very sick and is not type “O” said his doctor gave him that bit of information.