Pfizer vaxxed and 4 boosters including the most recent bivalent.
Not the most convenient of timing as there are VIPs visiting next week and at least one office day is very strongly recommended. If you’re reading this, you can probably feel this twist on your arm as well. I do work remotely, although the RTO rumor mill has been loud the past few months. Way too many Elon fanboys in C-Suite.
I had thought this was just a chest cold/cough, unpleasant symptoms but I figured it was just a weekend in bed as symptoms started hitting hard Thursday night and all day Friday.
Stupid me didn’t even think of Covid until I was texting a friend and he asked me if I’d taken a Covid test. I do have quite a few recent Covid tests so went for it. I know the intensity of the red lines don’t mean anything but two tests came back with bright blood red lines.
So, back to isolation for a few days. I’m sure I’ll get some, ‘How convenient this happened right before this week’ comments from work. No one at work has quite gone anti vaccine, but there’s definitely a lot of vaccine skeptics.
I live by myself and have no real need to go anywhere for the next few days.
Yeah, I can only think of one person I know who hasn’t had Covid at least once (despite the fact I only know science-literate people who all get every vaccination and booster that’s recommended). Here’s hoping you avoid severe illness - with your vax history, that seems likely. (I should add that even though everyone I know has had Covid, the only one who it really knocked out has comorbidities. The rest of us escaped with 0-3 days of feeling awful.)
I’ve had it once. No big deal for me. My wife has never had it. She worked part time out in public through the worst of it. Like most folks in our area, we take exactly zero COVID precautions now, though certainly did back in the heyday. Other than being fully vaccinated and boosted of course.
I know a good number, including my unvaxxed parents. Three of the four in my household had it, but one (vaxxed) has managed to avoid it so far. My brother’s family (vaxxed) is all unscathed, including his wife, who is an ICU nurse. Overall, I’d say about 20% of the people I know have managed to avoid it so far. And these are not hermits or overly cautious people.
the evidence is clear; it reduces the risk and severity of morbidity and mortality amongst the most vulnerable.
i avoided covid despiye working the front lines until 12/2022 when the mrs. and i both came down with it. i was eligible for the drug, the mrs. wasn’t, she had a harder time with covid than i (anecdote, not data).
I’m sorry to hear that, dale, especially given the inconvenient work timing.
I, too, had not ever gotten COVID, until two weeks ago. I’ve been vaccinated five times, including the bivalent booster last fall. But, a guy had shown up to our D&D game three weeks ago, saying, “I don’t feel great, but I’ve tested negative for COVID twice” – of course, the next day, he emailed us all, saying, “So, now, I did test positive.”
I went to urgent care, and got a Paxlovid prescription, as soon as I tested positive; I’m convinced that it did help me from getting seriously ill, as I wound up with only a very mild cough and chest congestion, never ran a fever, and mostly just felt tired for a week. OTOH, my wife picked it up from me (she started feeling symptoms about 36 hours after I did), refused to go to the doctor or get Paxlovid, and she’s still feeling symptoms after two weeks.
It’s hard to be mostly dead, though it happened in the Princess Bride.
I have managed to avoid covid to date (at least, never tested positive for it and haven’t had any of the typical symptoms). Of course I’m fully vaccinated, but perhaps I have just been lucky.
I’m interested to read anecdotes of people who took paxlovid and it just worked. All my friends who took it had rebound and ended up taking weeks to recover.
I haven’t had covid, yet, but have started visiting people without masks, so i suspect it’s just a matter of time.
I’ve never tested positive, although I’m quite certain I had a very mild case of COVID in late 2019.
Dale, take care of yourself and make a speedy recovery.
p.s. I’m currently reading the book “Moonshot”, about the development of the Pfizer vaccine. Let’s just say that book’s author certainly thinks highly of himself.
I think this, too-- although not a mild case. I had The Sore Throat from Hell as the most salient symptom. This on top of fever, headache, body aches. It lasted about three weeks. I lost my voice, first time ever. I’ve had a sore throat plenty of times but never anything like that.
But I’ve read that COVID wasn’t out and about in the American population that early so it couldn’t have been COVID.
@puzzlegal People I know who took Paxlovid also said they thought it made their case worse-- and they also suffered rebounds. But who knows how much worse it would have been if they hadn’t taken it?
I’m now wondering if there is reporting bias. Maybe my friends who had longish covid after taking paxlovid were more likely to gripe about it than the people who were sick for 3-7 days and then got better. It occurs to me that a lot of my friends are old enough to have been offered paxlovid, and only a few have mentioned taking it.
Paxlovid was developed and trialed before Omicron came on the scene, correct? Have to look that up. Perhaps it worked better against the 2020-21 strains (up to Delta, say).
For anyone doing research on Lagevrio – that’s the trade name of molnupiravir, a common Paxlovid alternative.
Regarding Paxlovid rebound – statistics and studies seem to indicate that, yes, reporting bias has certainly informed conventional wisdom:
And, if you’re worried about “rebound COVID,” which occurs in about 10% of COVID patients who seemingly clear the virus only to have symptoms come roaring back a week or two later, both doctors cited research showing that you are just as likely to get a recurrence of symptoms, whether you take one of these antivirals or not.
