Since so many people in this thread are stating that they never caught COVID, I’d like to add a complementary poll.
- I’ve never had COVID
- I’ve had COVID once
- I’ve had COVID more than once
0 voters
Despite having 1100 of my patients test positive for covid, and despite being in the midst of a bunch of them while they were sick, I’ve never tested positive.
I even got tested for covid antibodies prior to getting vaccinated, and was negative. I got tested weekly for the virus for about 18 months, all negative.
I put down “never” as the answer to the exact question put in the thread header.
But I experienced covid-like symptoms a few months ago. I went to the doctor’s office after getting confirmation that they had covid tests there. They didn’t. But when I told the doctor that I’d lost my senses of taste and smell, he diagnosed me with covid despite the absence of a positive test.
In any event, I definitely tasted my meal from Arby’s right after the doctor’s appointment.
Data point: I’m double-vaxxed and single-boosted.
Right - same here. But as I mentioned in the other thread I think there is a better than even chance I did get Covid early on. But the mild and mixed symptoms kept me from being tested during a period when tests were being rationed. So the only thing I can say definitively is that I have never tested positive for it.
I absolutely had Covid in early January. I had relatively mild symptoms, tested positive on the up the nose doctor’s test and on the home test. I was vaxxed and single boosted at the time. I have had way worse colds than the Covid was.
Oddly, the unvaccinated woman I was sleeping with at the time didn’t catch it. She was in my house and sharing a bed when I was the most contagious.
To be more precise, I changed the title to testing positive after I hit submit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to change the poll itself. So, you were right to just go by the thread title.
Actually, @ekedolphin, if you were diagnosed, you probably could have said you had it. But now I can’t change the thread title again. Duh.
the OP title asks about testing positive for Covid, the poll asks about having Covid.
At the end of last year, between Christmas and New Year’s, my two sons and wife got sick and all 3 tested positive for Covid. I eventually got mild cold symptoms (I was vaxxed) and completely lost my sense of smell for a week or two. Since I worked from home, could easily self-quarantine, and was pretty sure I had it, I did not bother getting myself tested.
So 0 times testing positive, 1 time having Covid (I’m 99% positive).
Dammit! Now I can’t change the thread title. If you’ve been professionally diagnosed with COVID, but never tested, I would take that as a positive.
I have tested positive one time, when I was feeling sick after returning from traveling. I may have had COVID other times with other variants, and not known about it, so did not test. I am fully vaxxed and boosted.
I stayed isolated for over 2 years (I’m retired.)
Then friends asked me to guide them on a trip to Kew Gardens.
Sadly on return all three of use tested positive for Covid (by then we’d all had two vaccinations and a booster.)
Just negative tests since.
Never had symptoms otr tested positive, but I have some stamina/cardiovascular issues that suggest long COVID.
I’m also double-vaxxed and single-boosted. I’ve never tested positive for Covid. If by some chance I had it and didn’t know, as worse it was indistinguishable from hay fever because last time I so much as had a cold was 14 months before the US issued stay-at-home orders over Covid.
I have a question for you other never folks: do you also feel the need for a more than average amount of personal space?
When they were recommending staying 6’ from everyone, that was only an issue around coworkers/friends/family because I always stay at least that far from strangers. I’m seldom in coughed on distance from people and figure that’s a lot of why from early adulthood until 2020 I’ve rarely had a cold more often than once every 18 months, and have only ever had the flu once despite the shots’ deplorably low effectiveness many years. Since someone will likely want to discuss if it factors in to never getting it too, I’ve rarely worn a mask since the cases fell dramatically locally in early spring, and didn’t for five or six months the year before either until they spiked around Thanksgiving.
Covid made you lose your taste for everything except Arby’s? That is the most evil virus ever.
I’ve never had Covid, so far as I know. I’ve tested several times when I wasn’t feeling well, but always negative.
Not really, though we aren’t ones for crowded pubs and spaces generally there is no real avoidance of them on our part.
Having said that, We have been visiting London for short trips as regularly as restrictions allow over the last two and half years and not taking any special precautions (that aren’t mandated) or avoiding busy places.
There is no doubt I’ve been exposed to the virus, I may well just be one of the fortunate ones who is simply not susceptible to it.
We’ve avoided busy spaces and don’t eat inside at restaurants. We stay masked inside other than at home.
Tested positive: 0.
It’s possible I’ve had it once. Earlier this summer, right about the time cases were going up in my county and just before my employer reinstituted a mask mandate I had a nasty fever that kept me home for 3 days. The notoriously unreliable home tests I took reported negative, but who knows? Never lost my sense of taste or smell, so it may have been just a run-of-the-mill cold.
Fully vaxxed and boosted.
I used to always wear a mask indoors. I can count the number of times I’ve eaten indoors at a restaurant in the past two years. In the past, I only did after cases subsided from a wave and I only started doing it after I was vaccinated. This time, I made the mistake of eating in a restaurant at the peak of the BA.5 wave. The good thing was my second booster was pretty fresh (only two months old) so I didn’t really get sick.
That’s something that I hadn’t considered. I’ve only eaten in a restaurant, as opposed to getting take away, a handful of times since the pandemic began. I think I’m going to suggest we get our food to go tomorrow too
Absolutely a smart thing to do. Before vaccines, we always ate outside at restaurants. Once we were vaccinated, we ate a couple of times indoors, but only between pandemic waves and only during off hours (like 4 pm on a weekday). This time we went to a sushi place on a Friday night which got pretty crowded. Three days later, my daughter started getting symptoms.
For some context, I’m a community college professor who has a large teaching load of many plague rats. I traveled in May, June, and the beginning of July, including on a train. So how did I avoid covid during all those times while catching it on a simple night out in a restaurant? I think it’s a combination of mask-wearing and filtration/ventilation.
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My college improved their ventilation systems in all their buildings. Plus, I always wore a good mask while teaching. I taught hybrid online/in-person, but I still taught a total of 100 students spread throughout twelve hours a week in labs (where it’s hard to social distance).
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Airplane travel is pretty safe if you wear a good mask. The only times where you might be in danger are at the gates waiting to get on the plane. Once on the plane, they usually keep the ventilation system on, even before takeoff, which exchanges with the outside air. But, again, just wear a good mask.
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Same is true with trains. Total exchange with outside air every five minutes or so. Plus, we got a roomette. That means much less people sharing space with you in the car and you can close the door to your roomette.
So maybe my luck just ran out, but I think there is something to being smart about choosing outdoor activities over indoor and wearing a good mask when indoors (or only do maskless indoor activities between pandemic waves and go during off hours to avoid crowds).
I have only been tested twice, my wife and I took a test after receiving some in the mail and the other was prior to a CT scan. Both came back negative. I have never had any symptoms either. My wife thinks every minor health issue she suffers is a symptom of Covid and she tests herself. All have come back negative.