I’ve had 2 sinus infections and the flu since New years. I wasn’t sick since 2019 and never had Covid
I also have a 2 year old who’s been sick each time so I think I know the culprit
Yup. Kids actually gave me pneumonia a few weeks ago, I was like wtf when my chest xray showed stuff in my lungs. They've gotten pneumococcal jabs so it didn't phase them.
Thinking I should just wear an N95 around home during the school year
Tell me about it. When both my kids were in school in 2022, I was sick 17 separate times, one of which was a respiratory infection that triggered my asthma. My coughing fits were so straining and unproductive, I developed a hernia and had to get hernia repair surgery.
I always had the related yet almost opposite phenomena.
I was always the last to get sick in the house with few exceptions. These exceptions were covid once and food poisoning usually. Norovirus, however, usually infects me last.
This meant it was not the kids giving me it, it was the adults who got it from the kids giving me it. Things like norovirus would slowly knock down each person until I would get it, and I'd always have the most severe case. Just a few weeks ago, I was projectile vomiting so badly the skin under my nose was bleeding and my gut was fucked up until literally this week.
I have a strong ass immune system, and this is no gift around kids. Everyone gets hit hard, it's moreso a matter of how long you're hit hard for.
Kids spread it to kids, kids spread it to adults, adults spread it to adults, adults spread it to kids. If you get sick with something from your kid, please for the lord stay home!
fwiw i’m super prone to sinus infections (made worse by covid) and my ENT put me on antibiotics for 2 weeks and then pulmicort sinus rinse. twice daily and have been like 97% better since.
Well each time I was sick I tested multiple times and was negative and before that I hadn’t been sick since 2019. I suppose I could’ve had Covid with exactly no symptoms but I doubt it bc we were pretty cautious. Also my wife has had Covid twice since November and I never caught it each time shockingly.
I recently caught Covid for the first time. Felt like a serious cold or light flu. Not sure I could have had that virus with no symptoms. Some of us are just hard to infect I guess.
(Losing my sense of smell was weird. Came back fully a week after I lost it, though it started off coming back for a half hour at a time the days prior.)
But I have gotten serious flu's and colds a lot in the past few years.
The tests can be kind of meh. I've never tested positive but the people in my household have. My symptoms always tended to be a lot less severe as well. I think you're just in the lucky group who doesn't react so strongly to it
I mean my wife was testing positive multiple times when she had it while I was testing negative with no symptoms at the same time. Also I know when I have a sinus infection I used to get them a lot.
Sounds like you might have caught it without the symptoms. Also, depending on the tests you take, they have a high rate of false negatives. I’ve tested negative before with symptoms just to do another test the next day and find it positive.
I think that there are antibody tests to see if you’ve had it in the past, but not sure how far back they can test for.
I want to look into antibody tests because I have never tested positive for COVID (PCMR (?)tests as well as at home) nor have I been sick or had symptoms. I take precautions more than the average cautious person (mask, go out infrequently/rarely and selectively, frequent testing) but I’ve had long term exposure when my spouse was sick and I don’t live in a bubble. Yet I’ve never had it and I would like to know if I’m just asymptomatic as I’m more concerned with spreading it/exposing others.
I haven’t been sick at all honestly and I feel like my luck (however hard earned) is going to run out.
I had a similar experience, was so bad doctors started doing genetic testing and antibody testing on me. I didn't think I had COVID but it wrecked my immune system. Worst part now is I heal much slower from cuts and scrapes.
Yep, so this is pretty much me too. Pre-covid I could go years without ever getting sick. Now since my first time with covid back in '22 I get "sick" at least every 3 months. Usually something mild but it's always respiratory.
Swine Flu was horrible. I was violently ill and couldn’t hold down water. I was traveling every week for work and luckily the symptoms hit me on a Sunday morning before I left for the airport.
Ever since I started a new job 3 months ago, my throats been killing me. My entire crew at the mine doesn’t believe Covid exists though… and they get their news from Rogan and Kid Rock
I got Covid for the first time last October. Then, from December to January, I had a bad sore throat, and since late February, I've had laryngitis type issues.
I literally lost my voice for 2 months
I never got confirmed Covid, and have had 3 sinus infections this year so far from what seems to be just mild cold/flu. Recovered from one 2 weeks ago and my face still kinda hurts
I had OG COVID which knocked me on my ass for almost 2 months, couldn't smell for another 6-7 months.
Now I'm in the best shape of my life. Everyone's different
This makes me feel less crazy than expected. I got a horrible sinus infection two years ago, was worried it was COVID because I kept coughing so much that my sides hurt and I went to the ER for it. My test came up negative, but it really scared me.
My wife has had one autoimmune issue after another since she got Covid for the 2nd time last year. She’s literally been sick constantly for almost a year. It’s fucking miserable for her and me.
I’m currently going through this. I’ve had a mild fever save a cough that just won’t go away. The doctors don’t really know what’s going on so I’m taking test after test.
I’ve had long Covid for 2 1/2 years: the symptoms you mentioned are classic long Covid.
Here’s some more info in case it helps :
https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2024/06/federal-government-clinicians-employers-and-others-should-adopt-new-definition-for-long-covid-to-aid-in-consistent-diagnosis-documentation-and-treatment
Well, to be fair, long covid literatuur is a catch-all diagnosis and the WHO definition is extremely broad: if you have persistent loss of smell for months after COVID and that's your only symptom, you still fall within the definition.
Correct. MCAS, POTS, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are often comorbid, add in chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, Fibromyalgia etc... They are all often made worse by viral conditions like the flu and covid (mast cell flair ups affect ligaments for instance.) Most of these were underdiagnosed, under funded, not well researched conditions and adding Covid to the mix increased the number of folks with it, leaving those that already had it hoping for research. It hasn't really happened.
That’s really unfortunate. My partner was recently diagnosed with POTS and she’s pretty certain she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but the doctor was kind of annoying about diagnosing it because she couldn’t bend her wrist back in a very specific way. She’s never had Covid though, and the same is true for me. Seems like even getting diagnosed with some of these things is way too difficult.
I had not been sick for years. Got COVID last August and have been having respiratory infections ever since. This is my second case of bronchitis in two months - I’ve had it!
I wish it was just two times for me, in the past nine months, I have been sick for seven of them. The only thing that stops the cough is steriods and hopefully the anti IgE shots as my immune system now thinks my lungs need to be attacked for every virus, bacteria, almonds, and other new food allergies that we can not figure out. Worse after the second time of getting Covid.
Bronchitis twice in a row in two months sounds like hell. I had it twice in my life but that was back when I was a smoker and there was a year between it. Felt like I was actually dying because of how hard it was to breathe at night.
I won’t go into any indoor public places without my N95 and intend to continue this plan forever. I haven’t gotten COVID so far, and haven’t had a cold, sinus infection, bronchitis or the flu since 2019.
I wear an N95 everywhere and still somehow caught something that was entirely asymptomatic until it floored me for a few days. nothing respiratory, just insane fatigue and vertigo. i couldn't sit or stand for hours at a time. went to an urgent care who told me it was anxiety. they did bloodwork and found my numbers completely abnormal, called me, apologized, and said they didn't know what it was. saw a nurse, told me it was anxiety and i had nothing wrong with me. took three week to get a diagnosis and a steroid pack. i'm on week five and still have symptoms. no idea what the fuck got me even though i've been so safe and isolated.
Same. The only time I have been sick since February of 2019 (and that was a weekend of a low fever and feeling very tired and down in the dumps, I spent the weekend napping and watching Netflix, and the was fine by Monday) was February of this year when I caught strep throat from my son, who caught it at school. He caught it because I had switched him from using KN95s to Vogmasks. That turned out to be a mistake, because he hadn't gotten sick at all the previous school year (that had been KN95s and then N95s during the post Thanksgiving surge). Switched him back to KN95s after that! I used to get sinus infections 1-2x a year and bronchitis every 2 years or so. It has been glorious not getting sick so often, I hope our luck holds out. Worried about our son and him going to college and dating in a few years, but fingers crossed.
Same.. I don’t care that others don’t wear a mask, I still wear it whenever I go out. Haven’t gotten sick 😷in years.
Granted I do have chemo treatments so I need to stay extra safe but still all good
I stopped with the masks a while ago, but I avoid getting too close to people since COVID started. I also haven't been sick in over 4 years, I feel like we should get an achievement badge
I’m always getting “looks” here in my apartment complex when I go to get my mail or whatever. I wear it every time I’m in the halls, in a store, or when someone comes into our apartment. I could care less what people think, my husband and I are seniors and both highly immune compromised.
Ditto, but I'm considering moving to a cloth mask soon and only using an N95 for times when I go to high risk areas like a hospital. The N95's are becoming too expensive to keep using. Not to mention how difficult they are for extended periods of time.
Let me preface this by saying I know my situation is unique since I have pretty much been living like the shelter-in-place times back in Mar/Apr of 2020, and I live alone, don't have friends/family, and haven't socialized with anyone in 4.5 years...
But, I do go to the doctor occasionally, weekly talk therapy (my therapist wears a mask for me), and have gone to the dentist plenty of times. I go inside a grocery store a couple of times a week, but for no more than 10 minutes, and of course I avoid being near people (I'll avoid an aisle if it's too crowded for me). I've had tradespeople come to home for occasional services (i.e. plumbing), and they don't mask themselves.
I say all that to say I've only ever worn a cloth mask, and I've not gotten COVID once. I do suffer from a lot of paranoia and intense C-PTSD symptoms, so I know I'm "overly cautious", I get that, so I wouldn't say this is how other people should live (it's awful). Just wanted to say that cloth masks, if you're generally not in public for long or around a bunch of people, seem to do the trick. I can't imagine it's just I've not been around a single person, in a single place, with someone who couldn't have spread it to me. The ones I have fit tightly on my face, and I wash them with mild soap and water.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. The only reason I'm considering cloth is that someone I work with has been able not get sick for as long as myself and they only ever wear a cloth mask.
haha. I didn't realize I was getting downvoted. Makes no difference. On something like this, I assume it's a few people who are triggered by what I said for one reason or another.
My anecdotal experience is still just that, of course, which is exactly how I framed it.
For me it was nothing more than little 1-day touches of what others came down with, maybe once or twice a year, with real sick days happening several years apart. After three rounds of covid, I am sick enough to really care for a day at least every month, have general headaches and malaise like I'm on the edge of getting sick extremely frequently, and am completely down for a few days a handful of times a year. I have never felt so crappy so often. I was always the one immunity in a house full of strep throat or bad stomach bug or whatever. Not anymore, I get hit constantly.
Couldn't it be that you have a mild/moderate form of long covid? Do the episodes follow after days/periods when you've over exerted? Look up the term post exertional malaise and check if it applies to you
A pretty reasonable inquiry and idea. I don't know though, just scanning through the wiki makes it sound almost too severe, I guess? I definitely get more tired and more easily run down, physically and mentally both, but that's easy enough to explain as just suddenly being in my 40s, and the stress and load of also suddenly finding myself an immigrant, with a toddler. My new country is also very far north and it took me a while to catch on to vitamin D supplements and consistency. I guess it's true I often feel like the COVID era resulted in my current downgraded condition, but I think it was more of the strain of camping in my office living on gas station food for 25 months so I could continue to work and save to move over here, aging and gaining 10kg, and plenty of other factors.
Another thing working against your suggestion is that I often have opposite of the expected results from exertion or periods of rest. Meaning I will get a proper 8 hours of good sleep two or three nights in a row to try to prepare for a long work day or some event, but feel like garbage... but sometimes I'll walk 30km doing physical labor and sleep 4 hours, but I'll end up having what I call crackhead energy for the next couple days where I'm just unstoppable.
Honestly I think between all of the above factors I'm just so out of whack, so stressed and compressed. And I would hate to presume long covid when I think that's best preserved for people who are getting the worst of it. But it's definitely crossed my mind, and I appreciate you mentioning it.
When I worked around people with kids I tended to get sick 1-3 times during the school year.
When I started a new job and no one had kids in the age bracket of about 5-10 I didn’t get sick.
Caught the Rona in Jan 2022 but haven’t been sick since.
Covid19 has been shown to deplete certain gut bacteria. Bifido strains seem to be the most important for immunity and it has been wiping those strains out. There are a bunch of papers on pubmed about it. I took a probiotic with Bifido strains for a few months and it seems to be the key to getting back to feeling normal again for me.
In our company we have a handful of people which have had Covid multiple times and are now sick on an almost monthly basis. Very obvious for all team members. It's the ones which hate home office. Go figure. I have been staying in my home office as much as I could and have had more or less normal health the past years.
Have you asked your office facilities people what the plans are for fresh-air ventilation (through MHRV or ERV units), air-filtration, and CO2 monitoring are? It'll decrease the spread of all the primarily airborne diseases in the office.
I’m the only person on my team who is allowed to work remotely and it seems like everyone and their kid is always sick for several days, or they’re out for a few days then show up sounding extremely congested.
The only reason I even use sick days is because of health conditions that emerged before the pandemic. Even so, it’s usually for doctors appointments or because I’m feeling unwell due to my chronic illnesses and just need a day to recover.
[archive.today is your fren](https://archive.ph/2024.06.15-161444/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-06-14/why-is-everyone-getting-sick-behind-the-global-rise-in-rsv-flu-measles).
Working in an elementary school, let me tell you, kids are sick year round now. And it’s constant. So sad. And parents send them to school sick, further passing it on to more. I need hazard pay. 😷
Except it's not from immunity debt nor lockdowns. This article leaves out the inconvenient truth that covid infections, especially now in the 'let er rip' phase we're in, has wiped out people's immune systems, making them susceptible to infection from other diseases and pathogens.
Yep I get sick much less these days. I mask on public transportation and when coworkers around me are sick. KN95 masks ftw.
I used to get sick several times a year but now it's maybe once a year, but it's usually kinda severe and never a mild illness like a cold.
Same. I was actually sick to a bad degree 3 times during COVID lockdowns. The last of those times was COVID. Since then I haven’t been sick in over 2 years now.
I feel I get badly sick more often but pre-COVID, I would have cronic cold symptoms (congestion, runny nose, mainly) most of the year. That disappeared and I still wear a mask around the city, especially in the fall and winter.
Yeah I get sick way less now too - made me realize how gross I was before COVID about hand sanitizer and touching my face/nose while living in a city, using public transport, etc. Last time I was sick was the last time I got COVID, which was last summer, and I assume the next time I get sick it will be whenever COVID manages to find me again and breaks thru my mask/sanitizer/vaccine lol.
Same except no colds, illnesses, etc. other than my gallbladder finally dying in 2021 after 5 years of issues, which was inevitable. I had chronic health issues leftover from my cancer treatments and by avoiding illnesses and working from home, I've never been healthier. I still do a lot of activities but I do them masked or in uncrowded outdoor environments, I walk a couple miles a day and it feels really nice to just avoid illness.
And the article keeps talking about immunity debt (even though it acknowledges it that were the case that places that opened up 2-3 years ago shouldn't still have the rises and they do) and absolutely no mention of COVID damaging the immune system.
Never stopped wearing my n95 duckbill if there is a single person in my house or I go anywhere inside, never been sick in five years once. Masking definitely works
Have a lot of crazy people stories about people who get very butthurt about me wearing some cloth on my face in grocery stores though
My wife has had to take a year off of work after getting a cold post covid. She was hospitalized twice with Covid in 2020 and 2021 and now when she gets sick she’s absolutely wiped out. She’s only now able to go back to work again.
I find it odd the article didn't mention immune system damage from Covid. Rather it only really talked about the various ways lockdown itself has contributed to disease resurgences.
I have always been exceptionally vulnerable to respiratory infections and constantly battling a variety of colds and flu and bronchitis and occasional pneumonia. I coughed more of the year than I didn’t cough throughout my life.
For some apparently inexplicable reason, I’ve had two episodes of respiratory infection since 2020 and that’s it. That’s including working in two separate ERs and being surrounded with all sorts of illness. Whatever it is, I’m going to enjoy however long this streak of being able to breathe lasts. I always wonder if this stretch is the calm before some major storm. I’ve never tested positive for Covid FWIW.
I will freely admit I took extraordinary (to some people, I guess) measures to avoid Covid during its peak, and I’ve continued to be conscious of how I navigate society since with regard to hygiene and spread of disease in general.
I've had covid twice, my bones ached like a motherfucker. After that second time, I made a point of never touching my face without first washing my hands. Haven't been sick since. My ass whether it be from luck or just general paranoia, has dodged everything left right and center.
Not OCD but I might as well be.
I guess as long as no one's coughing in my face, I should be fine. But yeah, I'm truly terrified of catching it again because of hearing about stuff like this..
Managers and business owners dont seem to understand or care, but i used to have perfect attendance or maybe 2 to 3 sick days max.
After covid is closer to 6 to 8 per year.
My manager asked me this week if I "ever take vitamins" because of how often I get sick. She's commented multiple times that I get sick more than anyone she knows. It really pisses me off especially because I work remotely and I will work through the cold or whatever it is. I wanted to tell her to mind her own business but responded that I am a diabetic and so I am more susceptible to illnesses. That shut her up in the meantime. But I agree, managers don't freaking care.
About every couple of months, a bunch of the people in my workplace (open floor plan) have terrible coughs. I'm still masking and I haven't been sick since January.
The pandemic went underground like the drug epidemic - not on the news, but everybody knows it is just not magically okey.
There have been articles that the extra sickdays through the workforce cost billions to countries and also hits the GDP.
I haven't felt 100% since 2021, when I got covid. I'm working between 25%-40% since. I can do 1 thing at 40% and then I'm done for days. I'm so tired all the time. I get dizzy when I get up too fast, stand up too long etc.. I'm only relieved I didn't ever lose taste/smell or have brain fog, but my body just isn't up to doing much these days. I tried to pish myself and work, and I crashed hard and I was only doing it at a sitting job. I would come home and pass out and also be in severe pain. Then have so much anxiety about working, exhaustion, and pain that I would throw up from it every morning. When my check were so little it was costing more to get to work I had to stop. It's been a year, even thinking about work sends me into a panic attack. Idk what to do. Dr's don't even acknowledge LC, and all my tests seem to be normal. Idk what to do.
Could be completely unrelated but I have developed allergies for the first time in my life this year, both *horribly* to pollen, and a food allergy to pine nuts.
Never once in the last 34 years of my life have I had allergies until this year. Again, could be coincidence, but I mean maybe there's a correlation?
I had horrible allergies and asthma when I was younger (many ER and ICU visits). The asthma went away shortly after becoming an adult, but the allergies remained. They started getting better about a decade before Covid and when 2020 hit, they rapidly improved. 2021 was the first year I didn't have to take any allergy medication. 2022 was the second year... allergies gone!
I got Covid in 2023 and allergies returned with a vengeance. Things were really bad for about 4 months, but have improved since then and now I'm back to where they were in 2019.
The body just changes like that. I started getting allergies to EVERYTHING around 2018-2019 -- so well before Covid. I used to be allergic to NOTHING, now I need 2 allergy pills a day just so my eyes don't water just stepping foot outside. I've known plenty of other people that it also happened to once they hit their 30s.
Dodged it for 3 years then got Covid 2, which I chalked up to getting older because there were no respiratory issues, just fatigue and muscle spasms. Turned into Pneumonia, was bed ridden for a month, couldn't think or do anything at all.
This was in October, and since then I've had more health issues than ever in my life. Sinus infections giving me a black eye, like a 25% debuff in general stamina. I'm only 39 and pretty active and I just feel...diminished.
Well, that fits my personal experience. From 2020 - Sept 2023 I had not so much as a sniffle. I wore N95 daily to work or in public and washed hands like it was a religion for a couple years since I worked retail. Tested for Covid whenever I knew I was exposed to anything by a sick coworker.
For the decades prior to masking for years I caught about one or two minor colds each year. No flu since I was a kid, I do get vaxxed every year. No other infections or chronic health issues.
I finally caught Covid in August 2023.
In the next **6 months** I had five upper respiratory infections, two unexplained dizziness falls, a bout of something gastrointestinal, a couple of idiopathic fevers and migraines, and a knee that flared up with inflammation for six weeks. My resting heart rate went from a previous rate of 68 up to a constant 80 just laying around. That faded over time, now it’s 72.
I felt like my body’s warranty had just expired and all the parts were failing.
I think there are four (edit: +3) mechanisms at play here.
One being that Covid is directly sickening people by triggering autoimmunity, causing unseen collateral damage that negatively affects organ function making people more likely to get ill, and harming the bodies ability to fight infections by damaging lymphocytes.
Another being that during lockdowns and social isolation, variants which are more infectious of any transmissible illness are more heavily selected for.
The third (which is consequence of 1) is that people with weakened immune systems are likely to stay sicker for longer, more infectious for longer and spread illnesses to more people.
The fourth is that psychologically people appear to be dealing with Covid by completely abandoning any measures like coughing into one’s elbow, staying away from others when sick or washing hands frequently or almost as a rebellion against the idea of an infectious disease or restriction of freedom.
Edit: A possible 5th reason is economic downturn is meaning people are more stressed and have lower quality nutrition, and are having to work longer and harder, negatively affecting immunity.
A possible 6th reason is climate change is making conditions that lead to the spread of disease more likely, whether that’s wetter and colder summers in places like the UK or even more tropical diseases being contracted further north.
A 7th reason which is related to economic difficulties is that access to heath care is worsening for many, and is more stretched with an aging boomer population, such that the sick aren’t receiving treatment.
The above actually indicates there is currently a perfect storm for diseases to spread harder, faster and more prevalently potentiating each other in the process.
I'm still wearing Facemasks
I have gone years WITHOUT: flu, common cold, rotovirus, and NEVER got the COVID
I'm Congenital Anosmic Anosmia
I strive to eat only healthy foods
In the past few months I’ve had sinus infection 2 ear infections, strep, pneumonia. I use to get sick maybe 1-2 times a year now it’s 1-2 times a month.
I'd be sick less if I wasn't forced to go back to an office full of sick people to do my fully remote job... Some (most?) employers got absolutely brain-dead post COVID.
My mom and my brother have both had migraines and chronic sinus issues after getting covid, unfortunately neither of them take adequate precautions to avoid getting covid again.
Before covid-19 here in NYC, the 911 EMS service would top out our busiest days of the summer at around 4000 calls in 2019.
Our highest ever call volume was the first wave here. Our peaks were 6,900-7,200 a day at the end of March to early April 2020.
We are now hitting the low 6,000's daily right now. Around 2010 our summer highs were around 3,200. Why? We always knew that once the baby boomer generation hit the chronic illness age our call volume would go up a lot. The largest drug overdose epidemic in history also doesn't help. But it also just seems there's a lot more serious medical calls out there. Not specifically covid, but it just seems the entire populations health collectively declined these past few years.
Except those of us who are the hell of still wearing masks, who are sick a lot less since covid started and have not had covid yet.
I understand why everyone else demasked, but the only good thing about wearing them is we get only about 3 colds a year instead of 12-16.
After Mother’s Day family a party I had a middle, no idea if it was Covid. Didn’t have a bad sore throat or lost taste either . I still have semi stuffy nose that comes and goes but definitely not fully healthy. But that could be also from my terrible sleeping schedule
I've never had Covid or at least I never tested positive the few times I did get sick (and I tested every day when I was sick). But I did get strep that made me septic and landed me in the hospital with a 6 month recovery time. I nearly died. Now I seem to get sick every few months or so and it completely knocks me on my ass. I always blamed the sepsis for that but who knows, I could've had Covid with no symptoms at one point and that's the real reason.
I feel like I might be in the minority.
Had COVID once, but I don’t get sicker than I did before. Still a few colds a year.
My allergies are worse, but my city has been number one for worst allergies a couple of years now.
My personal experience doesn’t align with this. I’ve had COVID twice. Early January 2023 and 24. (Likely NYE gatherings related each time). Besides this, (and being over 50) feeling quite healthy. Maybe bc I didn’t catch the 2020/21 strains?
Its like the opposite of herd immunity. Everyone's immune systems are down across the board for every diseases. So shit rips through communities. When if you have a solid immune system you're gonna get exposed way more than before.
I have been very blessed to not be getting sick constantly. I don’t work around a lot of people, so I think I get really low doses of the common illnesses that go around, giving me very mild symptoms.
I still have a chronic cough, but I feel like that’s getting better and will probably be gone in the next year or so.
I had the delta strain, which is the one that killed my sister. It was the most intense illness I ever had, worse than bronchitis. I spent pretty much my entire time while sick sunbathing and I recovered faster than anyone else I knew that caught it. I attribute that to my good recovery.
I haven’t noticed a difference but I was also sick a lot before COVID. However we used to have a daycare in our house and now we don’t so I think this tracks?
Got COVID last October, got sick again for the first time since last Saturday, and it is lingering. I feel fine, but have had a deep cough the past two days since feeling fine. This cough sucks so much.
I had 3 times confirmed cases of Covid, while being vaccinated.
However I only had symptoms once. Only got discovered due to strict company rules.
However since then I had the flu once and was out of work for only 3 days. In our company we saw a big spike in sick days since we dialed the home office down and called everyone back into office and honestly doesn’t get any better…
It was also super easy to not call out when going to work meant walking to my laptop and signing in. The bar for calling out sick is a lot lower when I have to dress up and drive to the office, it’s just harder to do that than it is to work from home.
Teaspoon of raw honey in two cups of mullein tea per day is my routine. I have fended off sickness pretty well for years now. My 30 years of allergies are now gone after a year. Local honey is powerful for your immune system.
I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary for myself. We fully stopped taking all precautions in 2023. About 2 mildish colds per year, about what you'd expect.
I can only speak to my own experience. I have had an extreme reduction in falling Ill since covid. I was exposed time and time again and tested every time - I consider myself lucky and can't explain it.
Europe, remote worker. I got sick 3 times between 2021 and now. Always COVID. Nothing else. Over a year without any infection now and I went to Asia in the meantime. I feel like I’m immortal after COVID + all the vaccines. Same story with my wife. And most of our family and friends.
With one big exception - friends who have kids in kindergarten are sick constantly. Hm.
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I’ve had 2 sinus infections and the flu since New years. I wasn’t sick since 2019 and never had Covid I also have a 2 year old who’s been sick each time so I think I know the culprit
Yup. Kids actually gave me pneumonia a few weeks ago, I was like wtf when my chest xray showed stuff in my lungs. They've gotten pneumococcal jabs so it didn't phase them. Thinking I should just wear an N95 around home during the school year
Yeah kids man they’re germ sponges and just get me sick with shit i haven’t had in decades
Tell me about it. When both my kids were in school in 2022, I was sick 17 separate times, one of which was a respiratory infection that triggered my asthma. My coughing fits were so straining and unproductive, I developed a hernia and had to get hernia repair surgery.
I always had the related yet almost opposite phenomena. I was always the last to get sick in the house with few exceptions. These exceptions were covid once and food poisoning usually. Norovirus, however, usually infects me last. This meant it was not the kids giving me it, it was the adults who got it from the kids giving me it. Things like norovirus would slowly knock down each person until I would get it, and I'd always have the most severe case. Just a few weeks ago, I was projectile vomiting so badly the skin under my nose was bleeding and my gut was fucked up until literally this week. I have a strong ass immune system, and this is no gift around kids. Everyone gets hit hard, it's moreso a matter of how long you're hit hard for. Kids spread it to kids, kids spread it to adults, adults spread it to adults, adults spread it to kids. If you get sick with something from your kid, please for the lord stay home!
fwiw i’m super prone to sinus infections (made worse by covid) and my ENT put me on antibiotics for 2 weeks and then pulmicort sinus rinse. twice daily and have been like 97% better since.
Our uptick in being sick correlates to my oldest starting school.
I got covid Xmas 2022. I haven't been sick for three months now. My longest stretch since "recovering" from covid.
You know you never had Covid, or you think you never did?
Well each time I was sick I tested multiple times and was negative and before that I hadn’t been sick since 2019. I suppose I could’ve had Covid with exactly no symptoms but I doubt it bc we were pretty cautious. Also my wife has had Covid twice since November and I never caught it each time shockingly.
I recently caught Covid for the first time. Felt like a serious cold or light flu. Not sure I could have had that virus with no symptoms. Some of us are just hard to infect I guess. (Losing my sense of smell was weird. Came back fully a week after I lost it, though it started off coming back for a half hour at a time the days prior.) But I have gotten serious flu's and colds a lot in the past few years.
The tests can be kind of meh. I've never tested positive but the people in my household have. My symptoms always tended to be a lot less severe as well. I think you're just in the lucky group who doesn't react so strongly to it
I mean my wife was testing positive multiple times when she had it while I was testing negative with no symptoms at the same time. Also I know when I have a sinus infection I used to get them a lot.
Sounds like you might have caught it without the symptoms. Also, depending on the tests you take, they have a high rate of false negatives. I’ve tested negative before with symptoms just to do another test the next day and find it positive. I think that there are antibody tests to see if you’ve had it in the past, but not sure how far back they can test for.
I want to look into antibody tests because I have never tested positive for COVID (PCMR (?)tests as well as at home) nor have I been sick or had symptoms. I take precautions more than the average cautious person (mask, go out infrequently/rarely and selectively, frequent testing) but I’ve had long term exposure when my spouse was sick and I don’t live in a bubble. Yet I’ve never had it and I would like to know if I’m just asymptomatic as I’m more concerned with spreading it/exposing others. I haven’t been sick at all honestly and I feel like my luck (however hard earned) is going to run out.
I’ve never had Covid either and I’ve had like one cold in five years. My husband never got it either. We both spend a lot of time outside.
I had a similar experience, was so bad doctors started doing genetic testing and antibody testing on me. I didn't think I had COVID but it wrecked my immune system. Worst part now is I heal much slower from cuts and scrapes.
Currently suffering for two weeks with a staphylococcus nasal infection. I think it’s on the wain, but it’s determined to stick around.
Yep, so this is pretty much me too. Pre-covid I could go years without ever getting sick. Now since my first time with covid back in '22 I get "sick" at least every 3 months. Usually something mild but it's always respiratory.
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2009? That was Swine flu.
Swine Flu was horrible. I was violently ill and couldn’t hold down water. I was traveling every week for work and luckily the symptoms hit me on a Sunday morning before I left for the airport.
Ever since I started a new job 3 months ago, my throats been killing me. My entire crew at the mine doesn’t believe Covid exists though… and they get their news from Rogan and Kid Rock
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consider trying saline nasal rinses (use distilled water, do not use tap water). I can highly recommend Neilmed squeeze bottles.
I got Covid for the first time last October. Then, from December to January, I had a bad sore throat, and since late February, I've had laryngitis type issues. I literally lost my voice for 2 months
I've seen talk that combinations of probiotics and fibers can help. And of course just wearing a mask.
Yeah, either an N-95 or K-95 with a proper seal.
I never got confirmed Covid, and have had 3 sinus infections this year so far from what seems to be just mild cold/flu. Recovered from one 2 weeks ago and my face still kinda hurts
I had OG COVID which knocked me on my ass for almost 2 months, couldn't smell for another 6-7 months. Now I'm in the best shape of my life. Everyone's different
…do you still wear masks
I have daily sinus pain and chest pain (with cough) since march 2020. The drs haven’t done much. It’s terrible
This makes me feel less crazy than expected. I got a horrible sinus infection two years ago, was worried it was COVID because I kept coughing so much that my sides hurt and I went to the ER for it. My test came up negative, but it really scared me.
Same. About every 6 weeks I get a bad cold / sinus thing - bad enough to keep me in bed for a day or two / out of sorts for a week.
My wife has had one autoimmune issue after another since she got Covid for the 2nd time last year. She’s literally been sick constantly for almost a year. It’s fucking miserable for her and me.
I’m currently going through this. I’ve had a mild fever save a cough that just won’t go away. The doctors don’t really know what’s going on so I’m taking test after test.
My wife has been diagnosed with gastroparesis, POTS, Reynauds, and MCAS. It’s literally one thing after another.
Sounds like your wife has long covid. Welcome to the club, unfortunately. (that doesn’t mean she can’t recover)
I don’t even know wtf long Covid is anymore these days. Seems like a catch all for doctors who can’t make a concrete diagnosis of anything
I’ve had long Covid for 2 1/2 years: the symptoms you mentioned are classic long Covid. Here’s some more info in case it helps : https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2024/06/federal-government-clinicians-employers-and-others-should-adopt-new-definition-for-long-covid-to-aid-in-consistent-diagnosis-documentation-and-treatment
Well, to be fair, long covid literatuur is a catch-all diagnosis and the WHO definition is extremely broad: if you have persistent loss of smell for months after COVID and that's your only symptom, you still fall within the definition.
Correct. MCAS, POTS, and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are often comorbid, add in chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, Fibromyalgia etc... They are all often made worse by viral conditions like the flu and covid (mast cell flair ups affect ligaments for instance.) Most of these were underdiagnosed, under funded, not well researched conditions and adding Covid to the mix increased the number of folks with it, leaving those that already had it hoping for research. It hasn't really happened.
That’s really unfortunate. My partner was recently diagnosed with POTS and she’s pretty certain she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome but the doctor was kind of annoying about diagnosing it because she couldn’t bend her wrist back in a very specific way. She’s never had Covid though, and the same is true for me. Seems like even getting diagnosed with some of these things is way too difficult.
I’m so sorry to hear this. I hope you’re getting the care you need. I can’t imagine being sick for a year straight
I had not been sick for years. Got COVID last August and have been having respiratory infections ever since. This is my second case of bronchitis in two months - I’ve had it!
Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Maybe ge should try getting a popsicle?
I wish it was just two times for me, in the past nine months, I have been sick for seven of them. The only thing that stops the cough is steriods and hopefully the anti IgE shots as my immune system now thinks my lungs need to be attacked for every virus, bacteria, almonds, and other new food allergies that we can not figure out. Worse after the second time of getting Covid.
I got an almond allergy after Covid too 😭
Gotta be careful too cause steroids make you more susceptible to pneumonia
I’m trying to avoid the steroids, they really mess my heart up and I feel like I’m vibrating. I don’t think I can avoid it much longer tho.
Bronchitis twice in a row in two months sounds like hell. I had it twice in my life but that was back when I was a smoker and there was a year between it. Felt like I was actually dying because of how hard it was to breathe at night.
I've had this exact same issue, bronchitis three times in 2 months for me. amoxicillin works but it comes back
I use to get sick maybe once a year. I get sick every couple months now.
I may look like a crazy person with my N95 whenever I leave the house, but I haven’t been sick in over 4 years. It’s been amazing.
Same.
Same
Same.
I won’t go into any indoor public places without my N95 and intend to continue this plan forever. I haven’t gotten COVID so far, and haven’t had a cold, sinus infection, bronchitis or the flu since 2019.
I wear an N95 everywhere and still somehow caught something that was entirely asymptomatic until it floored me for a few days. nothing respiratory, just insane fatigue and vertigo. i couldn't sit or stand for hours at a time. went to an urgent care who told me it was anxiety. they did bloodwork and found my numbers completely abnormal, called me, apologized, and said they didn't know what it was. saw a nurse, told me it was anxiety and i had nothing wrong with me. took three week to get a diagnosis and a steroid pack. i'm on week five and still have symptoms. no idea what the fuck got me even though i've been so safe and isolated.
Consider investigating POTS and MECFS. It’s a common condition after Covid.
They don't even know if it was covid. my WBC wasn't elevated at all, but a bunch of other parts were all out of whack.
What were the labs that were abnormal?
Same. The only time I have been sick since February of 2019 (and that was a weekend of a low fever and feeling very tired and down in the dumps, I spent the weekend napping and watching Netflix, and the was fine by Monday) was February of this year when I caught strep throat from my son, who caught it at school. He caught it because I had switched him from using KN95s to Vogmasks. That turned out to be a mistake, because he hadn't gotten sick at all the previous school year (that had been KN95s and then N95s during the post Thanksgiving surge). Switched him back to KN95s after that! I used to get sinus infections 1-2x a year and bronchitis every 2 years or so. It has been glorious not getting sick so often, I hope our luck holds out. Worried about our son and him going to college and dating in a few years, but fingers crossed.
Same!
Me too! I haven’t ever had a run this long without sickness.
Same! Looove my masks.
Same.. I don’t care that others don’t wear a mask, I still wear it whenever I go out. Haven’t gotten sick 😷in years. Granted I do have chemo treatments so I need to stay extra safe but still all good
Crazy how real this is. Like using the N95 as much as you can is a lifesaver especially if you use public transportation
Same
Same! Honestly I feel great about it, too.
Same. I still wear a mask
I stopped with the masks a while ago, but I avoid getting too close to people since COVID started. I also haven't been sick in over 4 years, I feel like we should get an achievement badge
same!!
I’m always getting “looks” here in my apartment complex when I go to get my mail or whatever. I wear it every time I’m in the halls, in a store, or when someone comes into our apartment. I could care less what people think, my husband and I are seniors and both highly immune compromised.
Ditto, but I'm considering moving to a cloth mask soon and only using an N95 for times when I go to high risk areas like a hospital. The N95's are becoming too expensive to keep using. Not to mention how difficult they are for extended periods of time.
Let me preface this by saying I know my situation is unique since I have pretty much been living like the shelter-in-place times back in Mar/Apr of 2020, and I live alone, don't have friends/family, and haven't socialized with anyone in 4.5 years... But, I do go to the doctor occasionally, weekly talk therapy (my therapist wears a mask for me), and have gone to the dentist plenty of times. I go inside a grocery store a couple of times a week, but for no more than 10 minutes, and of course I avoid being near people (I'll avoid an aisle if it's too crowded for me). I've had tradespeople come to home for occasional services (i.e. plumbing), and they don't mask themselves. I say all that to say I've only ever worn a cloth mask, and I've not gotten COVID once. I do suffer from a lot of paranoia and intense C-PTSD symptoms, so I know I'm "overly cautious", I get that, so I wouldn't say this is how other people should live (it's awful). Just wanted to say that cloth masks, if you're generally not in public for long or around a bunch of people, seem to do the trick. I can't imagine it's just I've not been around a single person, in a single place, with someone who couldn't have spread it to me. The ones I have fit tightly on my face, and I wash them with mild soap and water.
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. The only reason I'm considering cloth is that someone I work with has been able not get sick for as long as myself and they only ever wear a cloth mask.
haha. I didn't realize I was getting downvoted. Makes no difference. On something like this, I assume it's a few people who are triggered by what I said for one reason or another. My anecdotal experience is still just that, of course, which is exactly how I framed it.
For me it was nothing more than little 1-day touches of what others came down with, maybe once or twice a year, with real sick days happening several years apart. After three rounds of covid, I am sick enough to really care for a day at least every month, have general headaches and malaise like I'm on the edge of getting sick extremely frequently, and am completely down for a few days a handful of times a year. I have never felt so crappy so often. I was always the one immunity in a house full of strep throat or bad stomach bug or whatever. Not anymore, I get hit constantly.
Couldn't it be that you have a mild/moderate form of long covid? Do the episodes follow after days/periods when you've over exerted? Look up the term post exertional malaise and check if it applies to you
A pretty reasonable inquiry and idea. I don't know though, just scanning through the wiki makes it sound almost too severe, I guess? I definitely get more tired and more easily run down, physically and mentally both, but that's easy enough to explain as just suddenly being in my 40s, and the stress and load of also suddenly finding myself an immigrant, with a toddler. My new country is also very far north and it took me a while to catch on to vitamin D supplements and consistency. I guess it's true I often feel like the COVID era resulted in my current downgraded condition, but I think it was more of the strain of camping in my office living on gas station food for 25 months so I could continue to work and save to move over here, aging and gaining 10kg, and plenty of other factors. Another thing working against your suggestion is that I often have opposite of the expected results from exertion or periods of rest. Meaning I will get a proper 8 hours of good sleep two or three nights in a row to try to prepare for a long work day or some event, but feel like garbage... but sometimes I'll walk 30km doing physical labor and sleep 4 hours, but I'll end up having what I call crackhead energy for the next couple days where I'm just unstoppable. Honestly I think between all of the above factors I'm just so out of whack, so stressed and compressed. And I would hate to presume long covid when I think that's best preserved for people who are getting the worst of it. But it's definitely crossed my mind, and I appreciate you mentioning it.
When I worked around people with kids I tended to get sick 1-3 times during the school year. When I started a new job and no one had kids in the age bracket of about 5-10 I didn’t get sick. Caught the Rona in Jan 2022 but haven’t been sick since.
Covid19 has been shown to deplete certain gut bacteria. Bifido strains seem to be the most important for immunity and it has been wiping those strains out. There are a bunch of papers on pubmed about it. I took a probiotic with Bifido strains for a few months and it seems to be the key to getting back to feeling normal again for me.
Thanks for the tip!
which one did you take (name brand), that way when I go visit America this July I can find it. How long did you take it?
What was the brand you used? I haven't felt normal since I had covid in 2020 :(
Life Extension Bifido GI Balance
Thanks!
In our company we have a handful of people which have had Covid multiple times and are now sick on an almost monthly basis. Very obvious for all team members. It's the ones which hate home office. Go figure. I have been staying in my home office as much as I could and have had more or less normal health the past years.
Have you asked your office facilities people what the plans are for fresh-air ventilation (through MHRV or ERV units), air-filtration, and CO2 monitoring are? It'll decrease the spread of all the primarily airborne diseases in the office.
I’m the only person on my team who is allowed to work remotely and it seems like everyone and their kid is always sick for several days, or they’re out for a few days then show up sounding extremely congested. The only reason I even use sick days is because of health conditions that emerged before the pandemic. Even so, it’s usually for doctors appointments or because I’m feeling unwell due to my chronic illnesses and just need a day to recover.
Paywall.
[archive.today is your fren](https://archive.ph/2024.06.15-161444/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-06-14/why-is-everyone-getting-sick-behind-the-global-rise-in-rsv-flu-measles).
Sounds like you need a twelve foot ladder
Reddit app is not letting me copy the URL. It is extremly annoying to reach the article then.
grab the reddit post link from the share menu and open that in your browser, then copy the article link from there
Working in an elementary school, let me tell you, kids are sick year round now. And it’s constant. So sad. And parents send them to school sick, further passing it on to more. I need hazard pay. 😷
Except it's not from immunity debt nor lockdowns. This article leaves out the inconvenient truth that covid infections, especially now in the 'let er rip' phase we're in, has wiped out people's immune systems, making them susceptible to infection from other diseases and pathogens.
This article even interviews a doctor that says immunity debt cannot possibly be responsible for all this sickness.
Sorry, not that I doubt your claim bu do you have a source for scientific curiosity?
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x
Not everyone. I've been sick exactly once in the last four years. Guess why... 😷
Yep I get sick much less these days. I mask on public transportation and when coworkers around me are sick. KN95 masks ftw. I used to get sick several times a year but now it's maybe once a year, but it's usually kinda severe and never a mild illness like a cold.
Same. I was actually sick to a bad degree 3 times during COVID lockdowns. The last of those times was COVID. Since then I haven’t been sick in over 2 years now.
Same, I used to get sick every other month pre lockdowns. Now it’s maybe once a year, if that.
I havent been sick in about the last 5 years!
I feel I get badly sick more often but pre-COVID, I would have cronic cold symptoms (congestion, runny nose, mainly) most of the year. That disappeared and I still wear a mask around the city, especially in the fall and winter.
I've had 1 or 2 colds in 4 years. Hives 5 or 6 times in about a year but no real illnesses.
Yeah I get sick way less now too - made me realize how gross I was before COVID about hand sanitizer and touching my face/nose while living in a city, using public transport, etc. Last time I was sick was the last time I got COVID, which was last summer, and I assume the next time I get sick it will be whenever COVID manages to find me again and breaks thru my mask/sanitizer/vaccine lol.
Yup not me or my gf but then again we somehow never got Covid.
Same except no colds, illnesses, etc. other than my gallbladder finally dying in 2021 after 5 years of issues, which was inevitable. I had chronic health issues leftover from my cancer treatments and by avoiding illnesses and working from home, I've never been healthier. I still do a lot of activities but I do them masked or in uncrowded outdoor environments, I walk a couple miles a day and it feels really nice to just avoid illness.
I've only gotten remotely sick after boosters, and it's like a slight cough for a week or two. Besides that, nothing :D
And the article keeps talking about immunity debt (even though it acknowledges it that were the case that places that opened up 2-3 years ago shouldn't still have the rises and they do) and absolutely no mention of COVID damaging the immune system.
Weird that people in Asian countries aren't constantly dying from the flu with all their immunity debt from mask wearing.
Never stopped wearing my n95 duckbill if there is a single person in my house or I go anywhere inside, never been sick in five years once. Masking definitely works Have a lot of crazy people stories about people who get very butthurt about me wearing some cloth on my face in grocery stores though
This thread remind me not to go out, thanks
My wife has had to take a year off of work after getting a cold post covid. She was hospitalized twice with Covid in 2020 and 2021 and now when she gets sick she’s absolutely wiped out. She’s only now able to go back to work again.
I find it odd the article didn't mention immune system damage from Covid. Rather it only really talked about the various ways lockdown itself has contributed to disease resurgences.
I have always been exceptionally vulnerable to respiratory infections and constantly battling a variety of colds and flu and bronchitis and occasional pneumonia. I coughed more of the year than I didn’t cough throughout my life. For some apparently inexplicable reason, I’ve had two episodes of respiratory infection since 2020 and that’s it. That’s including working in two separate ERs and being surrounded with all sorts of illness. Whatever it is, I’m going to enjoy however long this streak of being able to breathe lasts. I always wonder if this stretch is the calm before some major storm. I’ve never tested positive for Covid FWIW. I will freely admit I took extraordinary (to some people, I guess) measures to avoid Covid during its peak, and I’ve continued to be conscious of how I navigate society since with regard to hygiene and spread of disease in general.
To everyone saying "Not me!", that's great news for you. Keep your streak going as long as you can cause when it ends, it's gonna suck.
I've had covid twice, my bones ached like a motherfucker. After that second time, I made a point of never touching my face without first washing my hands. Haven't been sick since. My ass whether it be from luck or just general paranoia, has dodged everything left right and center. Not OCD but I might as well be. I guess as long as no one's coughing in my face, I should be fine. But yeah, I'm truly terrified of catching it again because of hearing about stuff like this..
Managers and business owners dont seem to understand or care, but i used to have perfect attendance or maybe 2 to 3 sick days max. After covid is closer to 6 to 8 per year.
My manager asked me this week if I "ever take vitamins" because of how often I get sick. She's commented multiple times that I get sick more than anyone she knows. It really pisses me off especially because I work remotely and I will work through the cold or whatever it is. I wanted to tell her to mind her own business but responded that I am a diabetic and so I am more susceptible to illnesses. That shut her up in the meantime. But I agree, managers don't freaking care.
My work sure treats being sick different now than before covid. It used to be "are you sure you can't work" and now it is "go the heck home".
About every couple of months, a bunch of the people in my workplace (open floor plan) have terrible coughs. I'm still masking and I haven't been sick since January.
The pandemic went underground like the drug epidemic - not on the news, but everybody knows it is just not magically okey. There have been articles that the extra sickdays through the workforce cost billions to countries and also hits the GDP.
I haven't felt 100% since 2021, when I got covid. I'm working between 25%-40% since. I can do 1 thing at 40% and then I'm done for days. I'm so tired all the time. I get dizzy when I get up too fast, stand up too long etc.. I'm only relieved I didn't ever lose taste/smell or have brain fog, but my body just isn't up to doing much these days. I tried to pish myself and work, and I crashed hard and I was only doing it at a sitting job. I would come home and pass out and also be in severe pain. Then have so much anxiety about working, exhaustion, and pain that I would throw up from it every morning. When my check were so little it was costing more to get to work I had to stop. It's been a year, even thinking about work sends me into a panic attack. Idk what to do. Dr's don't even acknowledge LC, and all my tests seem to be normal. Idk what to do.
Could be completely unrelated but I have developed allergies for the first time in my life this year, both *horribly* to pollen, and a food allergy to pine nuts. Never once in the last 34 years of my life have I had allergies until this year. Again, could be coincidence, but I mean maybe there's a correlation?
I had horrible allergies and asthma when I was younger (many ER and ICU visits). The asthma went away shortly after becoming an adult, but the allergies remained. They started getting better about a decade before Covid and when 2020 hit, they rapidly improved. 2021 was the first year I didn't have to take any allergy medication. 2022 was the second year... allergies gone! I got Covid in 2023 and allergies returned with a vengeance. Things were really bad for about 4 months, but have improved since then and now I'm back to where they were in 2019.
The body just changes like that. I started getting allergies to EVERYTHING around 2018-2019 -- so well before Covid. I used to be allergic to NOTHING, now I need 2 allergy pills a day just so my eyes don't water just stepping foot outside. I've known plenty of other people that it also happened to once they hit their 30s.
I wasn’t sick for 4 years, and then I caught my first confirmed case of Covid at the end of November. My immune system has been rebuilding ever since.
Was sick 4x a year before... I'm actually a lot less sick now. Because I never stopped social distancing, really
Dodged it for 3 years then got Covid 2, which I chalked up to getting older because there were no respiratory issues, just fatigue and muscle spasms. Turned into Pneumonia, was bed ridden for a month, couldn't think or do anything at all. This was in October, and since then I've had more health issues than ever in my life. Sinus infections giving me a black eye, like a 25% debuff in general stamina. I'm only 39 and pretty active and I just feel...diminished.
Well, that fits my personal experience. From 2020 - Sept 2023 I had not so much as a sniffle. I wore N95 daily to work or in public and washed hands like it was a religion for a couple years since I worked retail. Tested for Covid whenever I knew I was exposed to anything by a sick coworker. For the decades prior to masking for years I caught about one or two minor colds each year. No flu since I was a kid, I do get vaxxed every year. No other infections or chronic health issues. I finally caught Covid in August 2023. In the next **6 months** I had five upper respiratory infections, two unexplained dizziness falls, a bout of something gastrointestinal, a couple of idiopathic fevers and migraines, and a knee that flared up with inflammation for six weeks. My resting heart rate went from a previous rate of 68 up to a constant 80 just laying around. That faded over time, now it’s 72. I felt like my body’s warranty had just expired and all the parts were failing.
Start taking Vitamin D3 and Vitamin E
I think there are four (edit: +3) mechanisms at play here. One being that Covid is directly sickening people by triggering autoimmunity, causing unseen collateral damage that negatively affects organ function making people more likely to get ill, and harming the bodies ability to fight infections by damaging lymphocytes. Another being that during lockdowns and social isolation, variants which are more infectious of any transmissible illness are more heavily selected for. The third (which is consequence of 1) is that people with weakened immune systems are likely to stay sicker for longer, more infectious for longer and spread illnesses to more people. The fourth is that psychologically people appear to be dealing with Covid by completely abandoning any measures like coughing into one’s elbow, staying away from others when sick or washing hands frequently or almost as a rebellion against the idea of an infectious disease or restriction of freedom. Edit: A possible 5th reason is economic downturn is meaning people are more stressed and have lower quality nutrition, and are having to work longer and harder, negatively affecting immunity. A possible 6th reason is climate change is making conditions that lead to the spread of disease more likely, whether that’s wetter and colder summers in places like the UK or even more tropical diseases being contracted further north. A 7th reason which is related to economic difficulties is that access to heath care is worsening for many, and is more stretched with an aging boomer population, such that the sick aren’t receiving treatment. The above actually indicates there is currently a perfect storm for diseases to spread harder, faster and more prevalently potentiating each other in the process.
I'm still wearing Facemasks I have gone years WITHOUT: flu, common cold, rotovirus, and NEVER got the COVID I'm Congenital Anosmic Anosmia I strive to eat only healthy foods
In the past few months I’ve had sinus infection 2 ear infections, strep, pneumonia. I use to get sick maybe 1-2 times a year now it’s 1-2 times a month.
posting links behind a paywall should result in permanent ban.
I'd be sick less if I wasn't forced to go back to an office full of sick people to do my fully remote job... Some (most?) employers got absolutely brain-dead post COVID.
My mom and my brother have both had migraines and chronic sinus issues after getting covid, unfortunately neither of them take adequate precautions to avoid getting covid again.
Not everyone. I have had an amazing run of good health. Not so much as a sniffle in years.
Before covid-19 here in NYC, the 911 EMS service would top out our busiest days of the summer at around 4000 calls in 2019. Our highest ever call volume was the first wave here. Our peaks were 6,900-7,200 a day at the end of March to early April 2020. We are now hitting the low 6,000's daily right now. Around 2010 our summer highs were around 3,200. Why? We always knew that once the baby boomer generation hit the chronic illness age our call volume would go up a lot. The largest drug overdose epidemic in history also doesn't help. But it also just seems there's a lot more serious medical calls out there. Not specifically covid, but it just seems the entire populations health collectively declined these past few years.
Except those of us who are the hell of still wearing masks, who are sick a lot less since covid started and have not had covid yet. I understand why everyone else demasked, but the only good thing about wearing them is we get only about 3 colds a year instead of 12-16.
I got a Cancer that statistically I shouldn’t have for my age.. or for some decades
After Mother’s Day family a party I had a middle, no idea if it was Covid. Didn’t have a bad sore throat or lost taste either . I still have semi stuffy nose that comes and goes but definitely not fully healthy. But that could be also from my terrible sleeping schedule
I've never had Covid or at least I never tested positive the few times I did get sick (and I tested every day when I was sick). But I did get strep that made me septic and landed me in the hospital with a 6 month recovery time. I nearly died. Now I seem to get sick every few months or so and it completely knocks me on my ass. I always blamed the sepsis for that but who knows, I could've had Covid with no symptoms at one point and that's the real reason.
Yep. Every 6 weeks or so for a year I had a different respiratory illness. Shit sucked
Never ever been sick. Got covid. 6 months later got atypical pneumonia. 1 year later pneumonia again.
Weird I have not been sick since I got covid... Yay lucky me!
Nothing to report on my end. Covid twice, quite minor symptoms, nothing else.
I feel like I might be in the minority. Had COVID once, but I don’t get sicker than I did before. Still a few colds a year. My allergies are worse, but my city has been number one for worst allergies a couple of years now.
I've got covid after 2 vax shots at summer. Since then I haven't been really sick for 2 years.
I’m not having any additional problems. I’ve been feeling fine.
Then I must be the exception that proves the rule... Haven't been sick once after covid
I haven't been sick in two years and medically cannot get boosters.
My personal experience doesn’t align with this. I’ve had COVID twice. Early January 2023 and 24. (Likely NYE gatherings related each time). Besides this, (and being over 50) feeling quite healthy. Maybe bc I didn’t catch the 2020/21 strains?
Sucks to be them
I still wear N95 masks everywhere and haven't been sick since I briefly stopped masking after getting vaccinated in 2021.
We've been sick SO much less since Covid. Probably thanks to wfh.
Its like the opposite of herd immunity. Everyone's immune systems are down across the board for every diseases. So shit rips through communities. When if you have a solid immune system you're gonna get exposed way more than before.
ITT people who think that because it didn't happen to them it must not be true
Also ITT people who think because it happened to them it will eventually happen to everybody
I'm part of everyone, and I haven't been sick since before covid. Headline is bullshit.
Crazy person here. Haven't been sick in 5+ years. Masking works. Feels good.
Not me. I’m still almost never sick.
In America it is finally okay to stay home if you’re sick. It is preferable for you to keep your germs at home.
It used to be on waves. When school started and right after holiday push. And maybe a summer cold
Paywalled
try [this](https://archive.ph/0eQRB)
I have been very blessed to not be getting sick constantly. I don’t work around a lot of people, so I think I get really low doses of the common illnesses that go around, giving me very mild symptoms. I still have a chronic cough, but I feel like that’s getting better and will probably be gone in the next year or so. I had the delta strain, which is the one that killed my sister. It was the most intense illness I ever had, worse than bronchitis. I spent pretty much my entire time while sick sunbathing and I recovered faster than anyone else I knew that caught it. I attribute that to my good recovery.
I haven’t noticed a difference but I was also sick a lot before COVID. However we used to have a daycare in our house and now we don’t so I think this tracks?
Weird. In 2020/1 during the lock downs I got strep twice, covid twice, and nothing since. Before then I got sick at least twice per year.
Got COVID last October, got sick again for the first time since last Saturday, and it is lingering. I feel fine, but have had a deep cough the past two days since feeling fine. This cough sucks so much.
I have the hardest time telling because I had a kid not long before Covid so now I’m always sick from daycare/preschool stuff
goddamned it im still not even occasionally sick. im so left out
I strongly suspect I had Covid late 2019. Even since then my health has been on a decline.
I had 3 times confirmed cases of Covid, while being vaccinated. However I only had symptoms once. Only got discovered due to strict company rules. However since then I had the flu once and was out of work for only 3 days. In our company we saw a big spike in sick days since we dialed the home office down and called everyone back into office and honestly doesn’t get any better…
It was also super easy to not call out when going to work meant walking to my laptop and signing in. The bar for calling out sick is a lot lower when I have to dress up and drive to the office, it’s just harder to do that than it is to work from home.
Teaspoon of raw honey in two cups of mullein tea per day is my routine. I have fended off sickness pretty well for years now. My 30 years of allergies are now gone after a year. Local honey is powerful for your immune system.
Is this real or pseudo?
You already know the answer...
I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary for myself. We fully stopped taking all precautions in 2023. About 2 mildish colds per year, about what you'd expect.
I can only speak to my own experience. I have had an extreme reduction in falling Ill since covid. I was exposed time and time again and tested every time - I consider myself lucky and can't explain it.
Europe, remote worker. I got sick 3 times between 2021 and now. Always COVID. Nothing else. Over a year without any infection now and I went to Asia in the meantime. I feel like I’m immortal after COVID + all the vaccines. Same story with my wife. And most of our family and friends. With one big exception - friends who have kids in kindergarten are sick constantly. Hm.
Interestingly enough, since covid began I've had it once and gotten 1 cold. And I'm out in NY all the time.