Memes @lemmy.ml

1y ago

I should buy a lottery ticket

206 comments

I would have said the same. 3 and a half years working retail during the pandemic and last week was the week it knocked me on my ass. Be careful.
- Same! I work in healthcare and had to test nearly daily (using the antigene tests) and didn't catch COVID until last week. If I didn't work in healthcare I probably wouldn't even know I had it, since the symptoms were rather mild. I only tested, because I had to work with people on chemotherapy and didn't wanna risk them. At this point, I think there's lots of people who catch the virus and don't even know about it since we mostly stopped testing.
- What did you do to avoid it for three years?
  
  I dunno, wore a mask in public during the worst of it and used hand sanitizer regularly? I think it helped more that I'm a homebody with no friends.
- DUDE SAME
- I got it for the first time at the beginning of September. I was so pissed, my 2.5 year streak of avoiding it gone. It was pretty brutal too, the fever and muscle soreness was no joke.

I'm just lonely, that's my secret :)
- yeah i pretty much didn't notice the lockdown.
  
  Yeah the only things that changed for me much for the pandemic was masking when I grocery shopped, extra SNAP, and the stimulus payments.
- Had this weapon hidden under my sleeve for my whole life
  It was super effective.

That's me. I stayed home, avoided events, and waited to go to restaurants until cases were down. When I did go places, I went when it wasn't busy and sat outside. Avoiding COVID wasn't rocket science, all you had to do was follow the basic principles of disease prevention.
- Now try it with kids or a partner who works in health care. Personally I was quite strict like you, but had it a couple of times due to external factors becoming internal factors.
  
  My wife is an ER nurse and I never got it. Funny thing is she didn't get it until she was in the hospital getting her gall bladder out. We also had two kids in elementary at the time, and they never got it either.
  
  I won't pretend that luck wasn't a big factor, but my wife worked at a senior living facility and I managed to avoid catching it. Hell my wife even caught it, but she moved into the guest room and we just treated it like a clean room
  
  Family of four here, 3 of us got it for the first time this past weekend. My wife still hasn't had it.
  
  I work in childcare so it was inevitable for me lol. I managed to go a whole 3 years though but caught it a month ago lmao

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.
- Hermit reporting for duty, sir!
- 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.
  
  I agree for the immunocompromised, but I'd say they just isolated.
  
  you had it, you were just asymptomatic.
  A distinction without a difference, in my mind. I'll take it
- 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.
  
  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.
- I’m basically a hermit.
  
  Hermits unite! Metaphorically... Stay away from me
- 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.
- 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.
  
  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.
- 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.
- 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.
  
  Whats extreme isolation to you? The person at the grocery store still wearing a mask and cleaning with hand sanitizer at the car?
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.

I really should. I haven't had the 'rona and also survived a stroke and two rounds of brain surgery in 2022. I'm one lucky bastard.
- Wow, glad you're still with us.
  
  Thanks, me too! Otherwise I would have missed the whole reddit debacle, and never discovered Lemmy😉
- I only had one round of brain surgery and worked in a convince store all through COVID taking slander from all the customers in my super red county. Did not get COVID!

Yeah. You'll win nothing. :-D
Just like the guy whose name was Peter Ninth, born on 9.9.1999, who was living in flat number 9... On his 19th birthday he bought a ticket on horse race for the horse number 9.
The horse ended up ninth.
- Did Peter Ninth bet that horse number nine would come in 1st or something? After all of those nines, he went against it regardless, and lost? Peter needs to pick another pony if he's gonna gamble against all odds anyway
  
  I'm... Not sure. It's an old joke and I only remember the point, and I basically wrote it from scratch. :-D

I'm one of those who still haven't caught covid. But every time I leave home, I still wear a mask. I vaccinate whenever a booster's available. And i still wash my hands all the time.

that you know of. I'm sure there are sections of the population that were silent carriers. you fuckers got us sick!

meanwhile i got vaccinated 4 times and still caught it twice - is there a prize for that end of the spectrum?
- Your prize is still being alive!
  
  What a rip off!

Feel like I had very covid-like symptoms a couple of times. Not quite like a flu, similar, but a little different.
Tested myself every time, always negative. Not sure if it's a false negative, or a variant that doesn't get a result on those tests tho. Almost hard to believe i never caught it tho, as I have been exposed a couple of times too.
- Same here
- This is my speculation too. Been super-sick a number of times. Always swabbed negative. Anecdotally, I know folks that tested a lot more often and only came back with a positive on the 4th try or so when feeling ill. The fine-print of my at-home tests say they're only something like 76% accurate. Maybe I need to play the odds.

I worked retail through the worst parts of the pandemic, there is no chance I didn't get it, but I never had symptoms.
- The more that time goes by the more that I feel like I'm in this camp. Never got it, and never officially tested positive for it despite taking several over the years but there is just no way I didn't get it. Even my roommate/family members did, and I didn't? But yeah. Never had a single symptom.
  
  I've only tested positive for it once, and that illness wasn't even in the top 5 worst colds that year. I've had numerous shitty colds since, any one of them could have been Rona again, but I ether wasn't infectious at the time I tested or it was after the point I stopped testing every sniffle.
  ~~There's a chance~~ I have it right now, ~~but I don't know if I can be bothered to grab a test when~~ it will be done in a couple of days.
  I'd take an updated booster if they offered me one, but my government is only offering them to over 50s.
  I'm of the opinion* that once the majority has spike protein specific antibodies, occasional exposure to small viral loads (incidental contact) is probably a good thing for refreshing an immunity that might otherwise wane and allow a serious case to take root.
  *I'm not an immunologist obviously, but I've previously read up on the clinical justification the NHS uses to recommend against widespread chicken pox vaccination

This is me so far

Avoid kids, don't go outside unless you have to, don't touch everything you see like you're some kind of toddler; hands in your pocket. Don't slack on basic precautions, gravitate towards old people and if you see a white girl cough, drop your path and reroute to avoid them.
The first and last ones are by far the most important to follow; by far the biggest vectors of the disease.
- The touching stuff is much less important for Covid. (It's a huge vector for other things like the flu though.)

That fucker got me in april. Even with precautions. Thank god i got vaccinated or my immunocompromised ass would be six feet under.

That's me!
- Me too. Though I'm wondering if I ever caught it and just ended up being asymptomatic. I can't say that I've been particularly careful and pretty much everyone in my social circle had it at some point.
  
  I thought about that to but I usually got sick with something every year before 2020 and I have not been sick since either late 2018 or early 2019. Its been so long I can't remember. The masking is working for everything else so likely I don't think my wife or I have caught covid ever.
- High five! (from a safe distance)
- Me too!

I haven't ever had COVID (that I'm aware of, and I tested regularly for the first two years of the pandemic), because I never stopped following the science and taking precautions.
I recognize that I was and am able to consistently take those precautions only because of a lot of privilege.

I'm going to guess that a lot of people ,like myself, who believe they never caught COVID actually have. A large percentage are likely just asymptomatic carriers. Or light symptoms that didn't show up on any tests.

I am sure, at this point, for some people the tests don't work. I have lupus and take immune suppression medication and my only means of transportation is public transport. Normally, I collect every germ possible. But somehow not COVID? Nah.
- For me, the vaccine seemed to prevent catching the first few variants quite well, but i eventually caught the Omicron (probably, idk for sure) variant. My SO showed symptoms first, and neither of us tested (nasal swab) positive until ~24hrs after symptoms appeared.

I made it to last week. Sorry guys.
- Damn me too. These recent strains are contagious as fuck
- Turn in your membership card please.
- Same here. 3 years covid free until last week.

I'm one of them! It has been in the house three separate times and I've managed to make out without a single positive test. I don't even bother with masks outside the house
- Me too and i even live alone!

I just got my first positive covid test a few minutes ago. My luck has run out.
- Damn, please turn in your badge and gun. You're off the case.

I realized a latent autoimmune disorder instead! Winner!

I've probably gotten it at least once, since most people are asymptomatic. I've never had symptoms and never tested positive. Still, I feel like there's a good chance I just got it and it was never detected.
- I do think that is true. I've worked in a clinic through the whole pandemic, which meant mandatory tests everyday. Cought two asymptomatic infections this way. With the first one I had a very light headache - I would have thought absolutely nothing of it if it weren't for the test. Second time I've got no symptoms whatsoever. I then got it again for round three and that one suuucked.
  Who knows how many had it were none the wiser.

About 1 in 4 haven't had it https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-many-americans-havent-caught-covid-cdc-estimates/
- Oh wow, I thought I read that we were in the single digits by now.
  1/4 is surprising!

You might have, but it could have been asymptomatic.

I suspect that I had an asymptomatic case at some point, my dad was testing positive and was not showing symptoms and my mom and sister were both showing symptoms but tested negative (even though given the circumstances, I don't think that result was correct)
I never showed symptoms or took a test as I wasn't showing symptoms so hard to know

I totally thought I was never gonna get it and then I got it a month ago and was so sick.

My immunocompromised wife is now on day 3 of her 3rd case. She's a preschool teacher, and one of her students is always sick at any given time.
So far I'm lucky and only had it once (after the first time she had it) and it was barely more than a tickle in my throat. I'm still coming up negative despite still sharing a bed with her (I keep the windows and bedroom door open and ceiling fan on high hoping to dissipate the germs).
Thankfully my 6yr old has been rolling negative tests all week too. Crossing my fingers we get through the next few days clean.

Still can’t believe I’ve avoided it this long. Responded super strongly to the vaccine so I can’t imagine I would be asymptomatic. I was also traveling all over during the worst of it.

I kind of hope I am just immune at this point. I'll probably get it randomly in a few years when I least expect it.
- That's where updated vaccinations come in handy.

I wonder if I’ve had it. I got tested the few times I felt sick and always negative. But it seems a lot of people have been asymptomatic so it is probably more prevalent than we know.

I work with the public and I didn't catch it until 2021. I felt slightly groggy for a day, and coughed a bit.
Felt fine the next day but tested positive
I felt like writing a strongly worded letter of complaint about false advertising but I didn't know who to send it to
- I felt the same way when my initial symptoms cleared up in about a week.
  Then I got Bell's palsy which lasted for about a month. That wasn't fun.
- I'm pretty sure there are plenty of people that think they never got it, but just had zero (or almost zero) symptoms and just never knew.
  My son was born 4 months before the pandemic. Because he went to daycare me and my wife always felt like we had a cold or something. I tested and tested and tested even more. For me it was also really late (at least 2021, maybe even later) that one was positive. The actual thing was so much more mild than all those flu's and colds we had before.
  
  Depends I guess how you define "getting" something. We're constantly getting things, viruses and small infections, and having no idea about them. Especially if you're in a cubicle at work near somebody with young kids, oh meh gerd. I wouldn't want to know about everything my body is fighting off on a daily basis.
- Were you vaccinated?
  This isn't a snarky setup question either cause if you were vaccinated that could explain why you barely felt symptoms.
  
  There were always people who were carrying without any symptoms, or who had mild symptoms. That's part of why it kept spreading.
  Or why the "yankee candle index" exists, because it was people with just the smelling loss who didn't realize they had it.
- I got it in August 2022 and tested positive the first day of a new job.
  They had paid Covid leave, so my first week I was paid for staying home.
- I felt like writing a strongly worded letter of complaint about false advertising but I didn’t know who to send it to
  Fauci would be a good start
  
  I have no clue who that is

I work in the medical field and was providing COVID testing and vaccines for a majority of the pandemic. During this time, all of my coworkers and two of my roommates have caught COVID at least once.
I still have never had it. Genuinely think I'm immune.

Made it to July. I don't go out much so not a big surprise. Knew it would happen. Girl I was seeing tested positive but said I could still come over to have sex. Had sex, caught covid. Stayed at home til I tested negative. Totally worth it.

Ugh, this would've been me but I succumbed to covid in April this year due to being at a wedding... The one time I didn't wear my mask 😷
- The mask isn't for you, it's for everyone else.
  
  It's more for everyone else, yes, but it does still help you.
  
  unless its an n95.
- I honestly think I'm immune or something. I pretty much followed all the lockdown rules, though I didn't go disinfecting my groceries like some people I know. After things loosened up I went on a day trip with a group of friends, and we all had dinner & drinks together afterwards. One woman unknowing had COVID, and over the next few days everyone else came down with it. Except me. Last Christmas I spent with close friends, lots of kissing and hugging - COVID for them but not me. I still get all my shots (five so far), I'm scared of long COVID more than anything. I'm too busy to be long-term sick.
  Edit just to add that I tested negative every day for a week after those exposures.

Didn't get it until July this year. The kids brought it through the house in 2021, by some miracle of vaccination the wife and I didn't catch it then. Then the wife brought it home. Was pretty mild for both of us. We've kept our boosters up and we're in Australia so it didn't go nuts here until omicron
- You mean there weren't a bunch of insane morons running around screaming that N95 masks are basically the same as concentration camps and eating livestock de-wormer by the handful? That must be nice.
  
  Also WTH was the toilet paper thing about

We provided home-schooling for two and had an immune suppressed person at our home. I added a HEPA air exchange filtration system and upgraded our furnace/AC for a second HEPA filter in our home. Now, the children are back in school, and their dad is back to the office. We are teaching at school, but remain Covid free. We had our most recent shot on Thursday. We know of more infected people this year in our circle this past two months, than the entire time before, so we are hoping for the best.
- That's so much work, but it sounds worth it!
  
  It sounds harder than it was. Our furnace was on its last leg, huge, loud, and inefficient. We made sure that our replacement could handle a heavier load that a HEPA filter would add when we bought it. The second HEPA air exchange filter was an off the shelf unit, put in the room that our immunosuppressed relative worked from. We have allergies, (not serious, but uncomfortable at certain seasons) so the HEPA upgrade seemed to just make sense. Because the new furnace was smaller, making room for a thicker filter was easy. It was an easy swap. Our heating bills went down, so the payback is relatively short.

I haven't but fucked if I know how.
- Hahahaha but fucked

As I'm writing this right now, I'm getting sick for the second time. Thanks dad.

I was like you once. I lasted 2 and a half years 😔

oh shit, this is me! i'm worried i'm about to tho, uninsured and can't really fork over the money for a shot.
- America! Fuck yeah! Coming again to fuck the working class's ass yeah!
- https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies/types-of-emergencies/coronavirus-safety/not-insured-and-covid-19.html
  COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots are 100% free for every individual living in the United States - even if you do not have insurance.
  
  supposedly. not at the local grocery chain, according to them. at the pharmacy chain i can get one, but my teens will only get them if they are covered by state health insurance, which they aren't. my income from my new job stopped that instantly, but my coverage doesn't start until november. they're in limbo.
  edit - so i'm just waiting. i guess i could get mine at least.

I'm in this picture (or, if I've had it, it has been asymptomatic - but I doubt that I have), although it's not as much luck as it was precautions on my side. The first year I would only go out when I need to (and I was working from home full time before that anyway). For some time after I even avoided meeting people outside. Got my shots pretty late, I think in early 2022, because I wanted to go to an outdoor festival with a lot of people.
- I took no precautions and either asymptomatic, just straight luck, or I didn't test often enough.

I wouldn't have gotten it if not for a libertarian roommate who didn't believe it existed. They tested positive, said it was a false positive, took no precautions whatsoever at home, and then went back to work at their nursing home a day later.

I was COVID-free until the end of July. I've now had it twice.

Thats me! And people laugh at me for still wearing a mask

Alright I’m not certain there’s not a genetic variable here but I have not found it very hard to avoid. I wear a mask indoors and eat outdoors and don’t really do anything else.
But like, I travel a lot not for business which I theorize is riskier than business travel. That’s a lot of airports, and even with an optimistic 70% lounge rate it’s probably not great for avoiding illness (plus I managed to get flu somehow). I do eat indoors for special places but I guess those typically have less than 20 seats so the risk is reduced. Still.
My immediate family all got it and were extremely symptomatic so I doubt it’s genetic though. Plus I don’t think I’m related to my SO and by using an N95/KN (I prefer N for comfort on the ears) we’ve managed to avoid it despite frequent travel and separate social lives. I know masks are very uncommon now but honestly, didn’t really change my life that much. I’m pretty sure they work too, the second time I was in Tokyo this year masks were a minority thing and you couldn’t get onto a bus or train without people coughing. I resigned myself to Covid but somehow still didn’t get it.
Anyway now that I’ve gone on this incoherent ramble I’m definitely gonna be sick next week. Probably deserved.

Caught covid in line at the gas station for a lottery ticket :(
- RIP
- Did you win?

That's me and my whole family of 4. Suck it, COVID.
- You could have caught it, even multiple times, while not experiencing symptoms. Meanwhile you did spread it to others unknowingly.
  
  I am aware of this aspect, but all four of us would have to be non-symptomatic people, which I find highly unlikely; we just mask, vax, hand-wash constantly, and avoid crowds. I was certainly knocked on my ass by each vaccination. Other circumstantial evidence that we probably haven't had it yet is that none of us have had a cold in 3 years either, thanks to our pandemic habits and precautions. It's been great.
- That was my family until this variant late summer. My kids brought it home after school started and a week later my wife and I had it.
  After 4 days I was back up and moving around like nothing happened. If there's any variant to catch, apparently this one isn't bad at all compared to previous iterations.
  Eris didn't have any lung involvement at all and was basically like a week long sinus infection with muscle aches, chills, and fatigue.
  So now I've got a bit of natural immunity and I'll get my booster when I get my flu shot like I've been doing every year.

70 years old ... lived in a big city ( small town now) and haven't caught it yet

I finally caught it after being around a few dozen people who has had it. Wasn't even that bad. Sinus pain and mucus...
- All of the later versions of coven were less deadly and had less of your symptoms and lasted less. It was the first person to covet that really fucking sucked
  
  All strains of covid was relatively "less lethal" at a mortal rate of 1%. "Long covid" was more common.

The secret is to barely go outside.
I mean I have grocery shopped one a week the whole time but I've literally not been sick, not even with a cold, this whole time (and I used to get colds all the time). I didnt even mask for awhile there though I decided to start again because of the surge and the fear of long covid.

206 comments