Meet the covid super-dodgers (WAPO)

[pstokely]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/meet-covid-super-dodgers-143320652.html

Joe and Susannah Altman are serious poker players. Sometimes, when they play in tournaments, they'll place what's called a "Last Longer" bet with friends who see which of them can outlast the others. The pandemic kept the Altmans, both 58, away from the in-person tables for over a year - Susannah has lupus, and at the time, they were caring for a friend with cancer - but they came out of lockdown a little over a year ago, after getting vaccinated, and since then have had some close calls. The Las Vegas couple dined with friends who subsequently tested positive. Joe spent a day with their 25-year-old son, only to have that son be diagnosed with covid 48 hours later. Just last month, Susannah went to lunch with four friends, two of whom tested positive days later.

[viva la]

1. I just met an ER doctor

Who practices at a rural hospital in a county with 35% vax rate. 2 years of 5 shifts a week, and she hasn't gotten Covid. She credits the vaccine and very scrupulous masking...and good luck.

[dewsgirl]

2. I'm terrified to even voice this, I have wondered if there is a very

small part of the population that have immunities that keep them from catching the virus.
I know a few people (not friends or family, neighbors) that never took any precautions, also never had Covid, unless they were both asymptomatic.
I occasionally think about this and then think of how ridiculous the thought even is, maybe they are just lucky.🤷

[Zeitghost]

6. What you're describing are the asymptomatic cases

People who are exposed but fight it off naturally without developing symptoms.

[Quakerfriend]

3. I do think some small % of people may of

an unusual immunity to Covid.
No one in my immediate family got Covid until this past week when my youngest son tested positive .
But, we have had many near misses!

Prior to the availability of vaccines, I knew a family of 8 who were all hospitalized & in ICU with Covid. The matriarch and younger sister died. They were all blood relatives. Two who were married into the family, and took care of them when they were very sick at home, never got it.

[CottonBear]

4. My child's father & I have never had COVID19, but our child got it at school.

We were all fully vaccinated and masking up when our child got it last September.. They’d returned to in-person school at middle school after 16 months of virtual/online school.

Less than 30% of 12-17 year olds in Georgia were vaccinated at the time. (The vaccination rate is really low even now.)

Our son was probably already infected with COVID19 when he left for school on the morning of the day that he fell ill at school with a high fever and headache.

We masked up at home and put our child in their room with a fan blowing out an open window. We slept in separate rooms next to open windows. We have a really small house, but it’s 2 stories and we kept it well ventilated with fans and open windows.

Thankfully, since our child has asthma, they were able to get injections (ouch! It was four really big syringes.) of the monoclonal antibodies a few days after they tested positive. They were feeling almost completely better within 24-36 hours.

I drove him home from school when he fell ill, and I took him to the hospital to get the antibody injections. We both double masked and wore face shields at the hospital.

We never got sick, but we all stayed home for 10 days. His father and I took multiple PCR tests and were always negative. We have all since been double boosted. My son hasn’t gotten COVID19 again and we’ve never gotten it yet. We all mask up indoors, don’t eat out inside restaurants, and try to avoid big crowds.

We’ve been very careful and very lucky.

[Tree-Hugger]

5. Some people may just be immune

I am sure there are some people who ate just naturally resistant and we may never know why. It's the same with other viruses. You have folks who never get the flu or never get norovirus despite being constantly exposed. Sometimes, your immune systems just do cool and weird things. There are theories out there regarding blood type, which is also common with other viruses. I'm unsure of how they'd test and understand why super-dodgers are resistant if they're vaccinated.

The other factors is asymptomatic infection. Since the beginning, there have been plenty of reports of asymptomatic infections as well as infections that carry very low amoints of symptoms. So, you could have it and never know it or you could have such mikd symptoms and pass it off as brief allergies. I know so many folks who had required weekly (some daily) testing for their jobs and who would test positive and never see a symptom. Or some who had very mild allergy symptoms (sneezing, itchy ears and eyes, etc) that were easily dismissed as allergies yet came up positive for covid. Had they not been tested regularly, they would have continued to interact with the public, unaware that they were positive.

[Bayard]

7. The Stand

Natural immunity to Captain Trips.