I have been exposed to COVID.
My wife tested positive. I test negative.
My college reunion had all the elements of a super-spreader event, done among people worried about super-spreader events.
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| Anonymous classmate, at an indoor reception |
The people most worried about getting COVID didn't attend it. They guessed correctly that there was no possible way for us to meet, eat, drink, and talk in a way that was fully "safe." They knew there would be crowds of people, all of them exhaling every few seconds. Masks went on and off. Indoors, people wore masks--often K-95 masks--when we weren't eating. There was lots of food and drink--eight meals in two and a half days. In crowded places people speak up, which projects air. There is lots of hugging and handshaking.
The weather was warm and dry so some of the visiting took place in breezy tents, but some of it was inside in big groups. We met in capacious cathedral-type meeting halls with 100-foot ceilings, but it was still a crowd. We agreed--scout's honor--to test ourselves every day, and I presume people did, but a negative COVID test doesn't mean someone doesn't have COVID and is not infectious.
COVID is everywhere and anywhere. Being vaccinated and boosted is very good--but imperfect--protection against getting seriously ill, but not against getting and spreading COVID. My wife is vaccinated twice and boosted twice. She has symptoms, primarily a sore throat and tiredness, which started Sunday morning, seven days after the start of the start of our cross-country trip. She noticed the symptoms, tested, and the test showed "positive."
Who knows where she got infected? Maybe she was infected before we left. Maybe she got it standing in line at the Medford airport. The line for the Delta flight was painfully slow and people were crowded next to each other. The airport terminal ceilings are high and there is a lot of volume in the building, but few people other than my wife and me wore masks. The airport terminal crowd was like the worst and most crowded of situations at the reunion--except that at the reunion people wore masks. There were similar unmasked scrums when we changed planes in Seattle, and again in Boston when we picked up luggage--and then coming home on Wednesday. We wore masks in the plane. Few others did.
Debra could have been infected anywhere, anytime. Debra, with symptoms and a positive test, knows her status better than I do. She knows she has it. She has a timetable.
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5 comments:
Hope all will be well with you and your family.
This is a prime example of the conundrum at this stage of the pandemic. It has become an assessment of risk against resuming normal activities. Being vaccinated doesn't completely protect one, so every activity has to be evaluated. I had to fly for a family event last August, and I'm not afraid to say it was very stressful, even though I had been vaccinated by then, including for some days after I returned.
I'm still avoiding crowds, wearing masks in public and slathering on the Purell. I'd personally like to see masking continued, but I'm in the minority at this point.
After being vaccinated and boosted, I got COVID-19. I got a bad cough and the pandemic was still in progress, so my wife and I both went to the drive-through and got tested. I was positive and she was negative. I also got a low-grade fever but was only really sick for about one day. We decided there was no way to isolate from each other, plus we didn't want to, so we just didn't go out for a while.
Shortly after getting our second booster, my wife got a bad cough and tested positive while I remained negative. She felt under the weather a little longer than I had, but never even got a fever.
What this tells me is that the virus is probably with us to stay and there's much we still don't know about it. I hope that it's as benign for you as it was for us.
I have to think that some people are susceptible to Covid, and some are not. It's the luck of the draw.
I'm 69 years old, and I've never had any Covid shots or Covid boosters. I'm a rebel. I've never contracted Covid. I shop twice weekly at Sherm's Food 4 Less, and I never wear a mask there. I also shop at other stores like Lowe's, and never wear a mask there. I've never gotten sick.
20 years ago, I used to get an annual flu shot, and then I'd catch the flu. I stopped getting flu shots about 15 years ago, and haven't had the flu since. I think there's a correlation. "Get a flu shot....get the flu".
I'm active and healthy, and in good shape for my age. I'm not alone. There are others like me. I think that if you're in good shape, and you are active, and you have the right genes, then Covid is a nothingburger.
Good luck, Peter. I hope you and your wife come out of it fine.
Covid can be serious. My friend’s 30-something incredibly healthy and fit construction contractor son got Covid, and since then has had atrial fibrillation so seriously that he needed to be cardioverted twice.
Not everyone comes through it fine. You’re rolling very serious dice with this virus.
Yep. My wife (68), daughter (26) and I (72) were all at the same College reunion, and sure enough, all three of us got Covid. We believe the elders got it at a wedding rehearsal dinner two days prior; the daughter also earlier at a work event in L.A. Alternatively, I may have gotten it from the guy I sat next to for five hours on the plane from California; he coughed the entire flight. All symptoms were mild, like a cold, and we're out of it now. Lucky us for the vaccines. We may behave differently now.
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