Health
Related: About this forumCovid reinfections are becoming more common.....
"A repeat encounter with Covid used to be a rarity. But now that Omicron has changed the game, expect reinfections to be the new normal"
"If youre unfortunate enough to have had an intimate encounter with the dreaded Sars-CoV-2 virus, Im afraid your dalliance with it might not have been your last. Get ready for round two (and three, and maybe fourmaybe ad infinitum). Welcome to the Great Reinfection.
Two years and some change in, that novelty has largely evaporated. A perfect storm of waning immunity, loosened restrictions, and an extremely transmissible variant making the rounds has meant reinfections are the new normal for many. But even setting aside these factors, it makes sense that there are now more reinfections than ever. At this stage of the pandemic, repeat infections would always have been more common than before, owing to the sheer number of people whove had Covid-19. You cant get reinfected unless youve already been infected in the first place."
"If you were infected with an earlier variant, Omicron is like that variety wearing a wig and makeupmaking it largely unrecognizable to our bodies immune defenses and harder to stave off."
https://www.wired.com/story/welcome-to-the-great-reinfection/
Lucky Luciano
(11,456 posts)Been lucky in general with not even contracting a sniffle since 2013.
Still reasonably careful, but definitely not excessive about it. Ill wear a mask for when I briefly go indoors with strangers, but mask free in the office 3 days a week. Most others are much looser than I am with masks though - ie they never wear them (downtown Chicago). We do have 25 foot ceilings which helps I guess. I also walk to work, so commuting with strangers is not an issue.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(26,773 posts)Vaccinated, one booster.
I'm extraordinarily healthy to begin with. Last got flu sometime in the 1970s and I don't bother with the flu vaccine. Heresy, I know. I'm 73 years old, and have gotten maybe two colds in the last ten years. I have gotten the two shot shingrix vaccine. I'm not a complete idiot.
I will say that during this entire Covid thing I've been completely dumbstruck by the huge variations in who gets it, who doesn't, who gets it a second or third time, how sick someone gets, who gets long Covid. I think the essential lesson is that individual immune systems are highly variable, and this is making that incredibly clear.
I might also suggest this. Various research has shown that people who get enough sleep tend to be far more resistant to disease than those deprived of sleep. I honestly wonder if Covid isn't making that even more clear, but I don't know. I will say that all of my life I have tried very hard to get enough sleep, and much of the time succeeded. In recent years, now that I am retired, I do get plenty of sleep. Lucky me. Perhaps it's part of why I haven't gotten Covid, although living alone, not working, not going a lot of places would definitely factor in here.
keithbvadu2
(40,322 posts)appalachiablue
(42,984 posts)(5 mins). Immunology professor on why data shows more COVID infections among boosted Americans. CBS, June 1, '22.
Recent data from the CDC shows boosted Americans are catching COVID-19 higher rates than those who have not been boosted - although the boosters help protect against hospitalizations and deaths.
Professor John Moore from Weill Cornell Medical College joined CBS News' Anne-Marie Green and Errol Barnett to explain what's behind these numbers.
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- People are vaxxed and boosted but letting up on masking, etc., getting 'mild infections' from Omicron variants that are able to breakthrough antibody protections.
BigmanPigman
(52,340 posts)I do not go out without one and no one is allowed into my apt without one either. I have a stack of them by more door at all times. I think that they are supposed to protect a wearer 85% as opposed to cloth masks.
appalachiablue
(42,984 posts)by the door is a great idea. Thanks, I'm implementing that one asap. Stay well friend!!
BigmanPigman
(52,340 posts)If I find myself going into a store and forget my mask I make a U-turn and go right back to my car. I wish they'd fit into my pocketbook without getting crushed.
appalachiablue
(42,984 posts)into a store w/o a mask once or twice but realized it and headed back to the car for one. No more of that!