Read other posts by the user. He’s argued several times that natural immunity is vastly superior to vaccines.
Just heard that one of my step-brothers is retiring sometime soon for the second time. He has been enjoying a lucrative second career after retiring from his government gig. But long-COVID has knocked him on his ass 
.
He got a breakthrough infection last October and he has just not been able to shake the constant fatigue, going on a year now. Numerous tests did have the unexpected side-benefit of turning up an unrelated genetic disease he had unbeknownst to anyone. But even though he mostly works from home doing something he enjoys, he just doesn’t have the consistent energy and focus to deal with surprise problems at the job. He’s not even sure he can make it until the end of the year, long enough to properly train a successor.
In general, my worst symptoms were in the first 4ish days. Only had a fever on day 2 of symptoms (likely infected on a Saturday, symptoms on the Monday, fever on the Wednesday), and that was also the main period during which I felt run down. Loss of taste / smell was from day 3-5 of symptoms, fully restored by day 6.
The coughing, now… that started getting worse by the 9th day of symptoms, to the point where I started on prednisone. My husband’s coughing started getting massively disruptive during a similar time frame - no asthma, but his coughing was WORSE than mine. He called the doctor, and was prescribed benzonatate (a non-opiate cough suppressant that does nothing for me) and Singulair - and the coughing improved enough within a day that as he napped, I stood there and watched to make sure he was still breathing!
After years of dodging (I was a very good dodgeball player in my youth 
) The damn thing got me, tested myself before going to work, as I was feeling congested. Test came positive. Did go back to my home, coughing now, but thanks to having all vaccines and regular boosters, I think that allowed me to keep my sense of smell and being ambulatory. Had a different test, and it too came up positive.
So far there is congestion in the head and nose with some coughing, this must be the second day of symptoms. Hopefully I will continue to report soon.
Does chicken soup help too? 
My parents (Father 96, Mother 90) tested positive last week, and yesterday was the first day they tested negative. They both were tired and a bit out of it, but managed to keep the household up and running. The home aides should be able to come back to the house tomorrow to help out. Both are fully vaxed and boosted.
This seems like a good place to post this article from The Atlantic.
…
As the pandemic drags on, data have emerged to clarify the dangers posed by COVID across the weeks, months, and years that follow an infection. Taken together, their implications are surprising. Some people’s lives are devastated by long COVID; they’re trapped with perplexing symptoms that seem to persist indefinitely. For the majority of vaccinated people, however, the worst complications will not surface in the early phase of disease, when you’re first feeling feverish and stuffy, nor can the gravest risks be said to be “long term.” Rather, they emerge during the middle phase of post-infection, a stretch that lasts for about 12 weeks after you get sick. This period of time is so menacing, in fact, that it really ought to have its own, familiar name: medium COVID.
…Just how much of a threat is medium COVID? The answer has been obscured, to some extent, by sloppy definitions. A lot of studies blend different, dire outcomes into a single giant bucket called “long COVID.” Illnesses arising in as few as four weeks, along with those that show up many months later, have been considered one and the same. The CDC, for instance, suggested in a study out last spring that one in five adults who get the virus will go on to suffer any of 26 medical complications, starting at least one month after infection, and extending up to one year. All of these are called “post-COVID conditions, or long COVID.”
…But the risks described above might well be most significant in just the first few weeks post-infection, and fade away as time goes on.
…
My bold.
I think I’ve reached the limit of what I’m permitted to quote. But those of you who have had COVID will probably be interested in the whole article.
To summarize:
Most studies conflate long and medium covid.
Medium-term problems, in the month or 3 after covid, are a lot more common than long-lasting symptoms. A lot of those medium-term problems are serious. They include life-threatening increases in the risk of stroke and heart attacks, crippling fatigue, crippling pain, and crippling brain fog. They also include loss of sense of smell, weakness, and muscle aches.
Medium covid is really common. Maybe 20% of people who catch covid have problems that don’t resolve quickly.
There are also people who are crippled for life, or at least, for a really long time, but that seems to be a much rarer problem. And that’s consistent with what we know about other viruses that cause chronic fatigue syndrome, etc.
Also, thanks for posting. That’s a really interesting article.
Thanks for the good summary. 
Yep - completely shut down for me. My nasal congestion was never all that bad - I could breathe through my nose. But repeated sniffs of a scented candle I have on my desk (mostly covered up, as I don’t want to go “nose blind” to it) did a decent job of documenting the gradual (but fast) loss of smell, and the rather startling recovery after a couple of days. All in all, it was a bizarre but not terribly worrisome experience.
4 weeks out, I still have a bit of a lingering cough, but fairly rare. Every now and then one’ll catch me by surprise. But it’s not unusual, this far out from a “cold”, so it’s not worrisome.
My voice is still hoarser than normal, especially if I talk for more than a few minutes - found that out today when I had a longish conference call.
I was not able to use my CPAP for several weeks during and after the acute phase; I could breathe, but the coughing was enough that I just could not tolerate the nose-hose. I finally hacked the controls and lowered the settings, temporarily, which made it easier to tolerate. I’ll reset that soon.
Husband and son are largely back to normal - the occasional cough.
Add me to the list of Dopers who have caught Covid. Picked it up in Vegas, where the wife and I spent a few days. Returned to Hawaii Tuesday, started feeling symptoms Wednesday, tested positive yesterday. It’s like a really bad cold. Coughing, sneezing, congestion. Tired and listless. The wife had it early this year and is testing negative now. We’re both wearing masks at home (our place is too small to avoid contact), and she’s sleeping on the couch for a few nights, letting me have the bed to myself. It was my first trip off the island, never mind out of state, since before the pandemic.
We’re both fully vaccinated. Just received our fifth dose last month. I expect it will be okay.
I’m definitely on the mend but have lost my sense of smell, which is a bummer. Hope it comes back. My sense of taste appears to be intact.
Pity you can’t get Durian easily in Hawaii. Now’s the time to give it a try!
I have seen durian in Honolulu’s Chinatown from time to time. But I still would give it a pass. I did not care for the taste or the smell when I tried it.
I’m down with what I hope is a bad cold. could be the Covid coming back, ut there is no way of telling since I’ll still test positive for Covid for a few months.
I tested positive for Covid Saturday before last. I past the high temp part (I hope), but am still heavily congested, short of breath and weak. This morning I got a message from work asking why I am not back yet because I stopped being contagious after five days. They don’t seem to understand that Covid actually makes people sick, especially people that are over 65, like myself.
Sorry, @Czarcasm . That really sucks.
My family is dealing with (presumed) round 2 of Covid. We had it first in October 2021. My spouse got very sick (but not hospitalized) despite being vaccinated. I got pretty sick, but not as bad. One kiddo had bad cold symptoms, and one kiddo was asymptomatic but tested positive.
This time, same kiddo that was sick before has mild cold symptoms, and a single test came up negative. My spouse has concerning lung symptoms, and tested negative after 2 days of symptoms, then positive on day 4. I have body aches and a mild fever, and tested negative on day 2 of symptoms. Will test kiddo and me again today or tomorrow.
This is the first time we’ve done serial testing, and it definitely showed why it’s necessary. The positive test for my spouse, the line showed up after mere seconds, and was very dark. A very strong positive. And she had definitely been symptomatic for days when she had the negative test.
Luckily, the kids are still on break, so they may not miss any school.
I’m bummed because I’ve already been dealing with a hip problem and a mental health issue, and feeling achy and super fatigued doesn’t help either of those.
Oh, and we’re all vaccinated and boosted as allowed/recommended, except I have not had the multivalent booster yet.
First diagnosed on 12/19, went on Paxlovid within 12 hours after first symptoms. Most of my symptoms disappeared within a day or two, but they were never particularly severe… but the fatigue and the heart racing at the least exertion have largely continued. I have taken a lot of involuntary multi-hour naps. I am out of PTO and got approved for short-term disability until tomorrow, and we shall see if I need more than that. I tested negative the evening of day 5, but then positive a few days later, and am still positive as of last night.
Today I was feeling a bit more energetic and ventured out of the bedroom where I have been isolating to throw in a load of laundry, collect some clothing for donation, and scrub the stove. But apparently that effort wore me out enough that I needed another short, involuntary nap. I guess we’ll see if I can manage some remote work tomorrow, but I wish that, well, anyone could tell me whether continuing to be 100% sedentary is actually going to speed up my recovery.