PS: Carlisle

Glad you're feeling as well as you are, Kelly.  As with most, I'm not surprised you can't pinpoint when and where you were exposed.  The important thing is you recognized it and alerted everyone.

PS- I, on the other hand, have figured out exactly where/who I got it from!

ALB, I think I'm on the mend, and did not actually get very bad off in any event. Biggest problem: I'm not real good at doing nothing, and I have had to practice that the last few days.

I was sick at Christmas, Kelly, when they were still advocating a full 7 days isolation (which, of course, my Registered Nurse wife who works in the Intensive Care unit of the biggest hospital in the area and has watched too many people die of this mess in the last 2 years) and when I got sick at Christmas she made me stay locked away TO THE HOUR!  I don't mind laying around for a little bit every once in a while, and yeah, there was the TV and the laptop, but talk about going stir crazy...

PS- Glad you're on the mend.  I was double vaccinated and really didn't get that sick either- a slight fever for 4 days (just enough that I only slept an hour or 2 at a time so I was up at all hours), a sore throat for 1½ days and a cough that lingered for a week or so.

I, on the other hand, seem to have developed a talent for doing nothing.  I spent most of yesterday on the couch asleep and feel much better today because of it.  Other than periodically checking work email I intend to do the same today.  I'm actually enjoying wasting time guilt-free.

Wise words Kelly. Glad you are feeling better. And Jeni is right. It’s not going anywhere. Like influenza which raised its ugly head as the Spanish flu just after WWI, COVID is here to stay. Everyone will eventually be exposed to it. Unfortunately being exposed to Omicron doesn’t necessarily give you immunity to the other variants so yes you can get COVID over and over again just like the flu. But the good news is that if you have had COVID and you also get vaccinated your immunity level to severe infection is tremendous. Anyone who has had COVID and thinks they are immune to further infection is kidding themselves. The best immunity it appears is from a combination of natural immunity and the vaccine. I think in the future you will be given the opportunity to not only get the influenza (flu) vaccine every year but also the COVID vaccine. It’s just something we will have to learn to live with. And we have to keep living our lives to the fullest.

Glad no one in our small group seems to have serious symptoms. I've had none; tested this a.m.—negative.

Probably wasn't a bad call to get that second booster shot a few weeks ago.

Best of health to all.

Impressive turnaround on my PCR test today at a local hospital (Holy Name, Teaneck NJ): Test around 9:30, negative result reported around 3:30. At-home antigen test -- because I was concerned I might not get the PCR results until tomorrow -- also negative.

Like Ed above, I've had my second booster and will continue to get topped up whenever "they" say it's a good time to do so.

I'm hoping for good outcomes for all, not only on this go-round but on all your interactions. Enjoy the sportscar weather and take good care of yourselves and your loved ones.

Bill K.

@El Frazoo et al

So glad to hear that your symptoms are mild (pretty much for everyone, so far) and I understand how hard it might be to figure out where the heck anyone got exposed.  If it was easy, then “contact tracing” wouldn’t be so difficult to do, either.  

It’s also really hard this Spring, with high pollen counts, to figure out if you have your regular seasonal allergies or Covid - The early symptoms seem the same, so you don’t know until you test.

Anyway, I pray that those who turn positive have mild symptoms and are not too inconvenienced by their quarantining (sounds like Lane has quarantining figured out) and that you all come out of it just fine.

I just tested positive. My wife asked if I was sure....of course, I'm positive. My at home test did not work...no results at all....so went to urgent care today. Same symptoms as Kelly....allergies except they don't cause coughing and sore throat. After hearing about Kelly's experience I stopped taking allergy meds and realized they weren't working. Was told that isolation is 5 days from first symptoms. Therefore, Lane needs to get back to work. We're plann9ng to go camping Monday.

Currently CDC recommends isolation (like by yourself isolation) from other household members for 5 days from first symptoms. Then shared rooms with masks at home, and masked for short trips outside the home (grocery store) for and additional 5 days. After that one is clear to procede as before infection.

Stay safe out there.

"Therefore, Lane needs to get back to work."

Nooooooooo!!!!!!

Actually I am still somewhat symptomatic, but I work from home so that's not as much of an issue. If I could stay awake more than an hour at a time I'd be able to work.

@Lane Anderson posted:

If I could stay awake more than an hour at a time I'd be able to work.

So, just like a regular work day? 

Thanks, Lane.

I need a good chuckle these days...

Midday today we decided to go for it and indulge in a Nooner and had hot.......................................chicken soup ~

Wow.....     Livin' it up in West Virginia, huh?

The CDC in this post Pre Omicron data https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volum...104e1.htm#contribAff

https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/113253

The bottom graph, indicates that vaccination is not as good as prior infection and recovery in providing long term protection. If you got Delta the robustness of your natural immunity is pretty long lasting, again a lot of those people got two doses as well after the fact so the lines shown overlap.  It suggests that natural immunity is superior and on going in providing protection,  but again many researchers say that you should have the vaccines to add to it.  IMO, this may not be totally correct as vaccination protection wanes, but it is the current mantra, and if you have multiple disease states and are at risk then you should consider vaccination protection.

Going forward with newer strains and variants we may be chasing the right vaccine as we do with the flu, but natural immunity is a lot longer lasting that some people believed.

Finally,  I personally wish a good old fashion protein vaccine was created and then submitted to a large randomised clinical trial.  Something that needed to be done from the get go by other vaccine makers.

Please elaborate on " Protein Vaccine "

It is a term used for an old fashion process of creating a vaccine where the whole virus is killed or inactivated, many methods,  and you then have the whole DNA of the virus for the immune system to react to and provide a broader spectrum, so to speak, or a better fuller more complete template for the body to create the maximum immunity to the virus thus getting better long lasting immunity with higher chances that there will be less viral shift/strains that develop.

A good vaccine, provides protection for you and for others.  If it does not provide any protection for others, which is now the case, and now vaccinated people are carriers then one has to asks is this a still a good vaccine?  What is left is protecting yourself.  

After two years and all the strains of the virus we are at a different place than in the first 90 days.

Great information here, learned some new stuff.  Like there could be another protein type vax that would actually work a lot better than the things we have now, but take a lot longer to develop and distribute.  Interesting.  Is anybody actually working that angle?

And FWIW I hear that if you run a mild case and go asymptomatic around five days, mask up for another five then are "good to go" at day 10 or so, not contagious, you can still throw a positive test for up to a few months.  And as stated: you can get it again.  and you can pass it along, again.   What it seems that you won't do is go to the H and then die.  So I'm counting that as a plus.

As to Lane enjoying his unplanned vacation on the couch: you're welcome.