this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (8 children)

At this point it's highly unlikely that there remains a human in an urban center that has not caught covid once. Maybe they didn't have symptoms, maybe they didn't notice, but they've had covid.

That or they're a hermit.

[–] Kepabar@startrek.website 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hermit reporting for duty, sir!

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are plenty of immunocompromised folks who have continued to be vigilant and likely haven't caught it.

But generally, yeah. If you are in a city and haven't been taking precautions you had it, you were just asymptomatic.

[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I agree for the immunocompromised, but I'd say they just isolated.

[–] synae@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago

you had it, you were just asymptomatic.

A distinction without a difference, in my mind. I'll take it

[–] darthelmet@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] shiftymccool@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hermits unite! Metaphorically... Stay away from me

[–] kamenlady@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I like where you stand on this

[–] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I live in one of the largest US cities, attend concerts, use public transit, and fly internationally. No covid in this house, and we go through a box of RATs a week. Not immunocompromised, we just don't want covid.

The secret: we wear respirators everywhere and use nasal spray before & after risky situations.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

My wife and I just mask up and not n95's. She wears gloves to but I just wash my hands often. No covid, no regular flue, no cold, no food poisoning. We have not had anything behind headaches and allergies in the last 3 or 4 years. And for those who are going to ask how we know its allergies. Well its because allergy medicine clears it right up and its usually something that would set off allergies.

[–] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

surface transmission seems to be extremely rare so I wouldn't worry about gloves.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thats why I don't wear them but my wife is a bit more cautious and she should be given her medical issues. Her biggest threat is likely me. That being said in the long run we have been more impressed with how the precautions have kept all the other stuff as well as covid away. I keep worrying restaurants will stop using the light plastic gloves but luckily they seem to be keeping them. I would not be surprised if they looked at the data and saw a marked reduction in online complaints about eating there and then getting sick and decided it was worth the cost. That being said wearing the mask, to me, is nor more and maybe a little less annoying than wearing a hat. But gloves, especially disposable type, does not pass the value vs nuissance factor for me. Granted I live in the north so half the year I am wearing some kind of glove outside. I still hand sanitize and wash though.

[–] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Breathing and eating unmasked at a restaurant is a much bigger risk for covid than anything to do with hands. Covid is airborne.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah and I don't do it often or unnecessarily but I don't really close myself off all that much. I just use a mask when in an enclosed public space or outside space with inadequate distancing when I don't otherwise need to utilize my pie hole. So im not zero risk by any means but from my anecdotal data of the last 3 or 4 years its amazing how much it helps. Im wondering how long I can go without getting sick.

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 7 points 1 year ago

No one in my family got it, and my kids are in public school, while I work in a restaurant. Precautions plus luck, I guess. That or we're genetic freaks.

[–] Voyajer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never got it, and I've been tested a few times due to coming into contact with people who did and always tested negative.

[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Negative test, especially negative rapid-test do not mean you don't have covid. And positive tests don't necessarily mean you're visibility sick/contagious.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago

Not a hermit, just mask everywhere, don't go to big things, and ask my friends what they've been doing recently if I want to take off my mask around them.

[–] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip -5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Yeah people are confusing subclinical disease with not ever having it. Outside of total extreme isolation you had it at some point. You didn't know you had it. You were in denial about having it. But you had it.

Tests are not 100 percent sensitive. Or many people just chose not to test themselves. But if you were interacting with the general population in the past 3 years you have had covid.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Whats extreme isolation to you? The person at the grocery store still wearing a mask and cleaning with hand sanitizer at the car?

[–] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I don't think my entire family that spans from toddler to elderly would all be asymptomatic and show false negatives on RATs, but I guess it's possible.

[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see this assertion all the time and while there is a fair bit of underreporting this line is just plain wrong but said with 100% conviction every time.

Estimates using late 2022 data assumes about 25% of Americans 16 or older have not caught COVID. 50+% believe they have not caught COVID, so unless I'm missing something drastic then if you are like me and lived as a hermit for 3+ years, followed all the reasonable precautions, and never had symptoms there is more like a ~50% chance you caught it and were asymptomatic.

[–] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago

It's only an estimate. It's closer to only 20 percent not producing antibodies. Some percentage of that is people having immuno compromise and not developing humeral immunity even though they've likely been exposed. Then there's testing failure. None of these tests are 100 percent sensitive.

I do believe though like what. Ten to fifteen percent of people have isolated for three years and not gotten it. I'd buy that for sure. And there are a lot of places where you just don't encounter people often. People that naturally were distanced from others just sort of...kept doing what they were doing.

[–] Terces@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But also is cross-immunisation. So...one could have had something other than Covid-19 and still be immune to it. Then there are also the genetic outliers that are just naturally immune to the attack-vector of the virus.

[–] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

This is just multiple ways of saying what I said. Outside of some extreme outliers every person has come in contact with the virus. But that doesn't always translate to extreme illness or even mild illness. As you said some people are naturally resistant or have other means of a defense that doesn't lead to a significant illness after exposure.

So really the more accurate thing to say is that you never got sick from your covid exposure. Again you have to divide this further into those who genuinely have never had cold like symptoms since 2023 and those who are just in denial about it. I've come across a few people who proudly claim they've never had it but have shown up to work coughing and hacking. Lol sure you haven't.

[–] IzzyData@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think that depends on what you mean by "having it". Does having any amount of the covid-19 virus flowing through your body automatically mean you have it? Because the amount of the virus you have been exposed to is an important factor in whether or not you are impacted by it. Also if you aren't impacted at all, but had what basically amounts to a microdose of the virus did you have covid?

It would be good to know what the medical definition is for this. I don't actually know personally.