Originally published at: "Ten reasons why the illness I have is totally not COVID" | Boing Boing
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“Because I went to Urgent Care and they tested and are certain it’s a sinus infection.” Which trust me, has been pretty awful on its own. I’ve had a cough for weeks now.
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I often wonder if I had COVID at some point and just wasn’t symptomatic. I test myself if I have so much as a throat tickle, and haven’t tested positive yet (knock on wood), and also haven’t been sick in the last few years except for feeling super shitty after getting COVID vaccines.
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My favourite that I’ve heard is “It’s not Covid, because Covid’s not a thing anymore, get over it already!”
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Covid is so last year. All the kids are bringing home RSV now! (seriously though, I didn’t get as sick as I did with Covid, but RSV lingers for like, 10 forevers, and I already still had long covid symptoms).
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Last time i get sick was juuuust before COVID started popping up in the US. I had gotten a flu after new years and was under the weather for a week or two. Which reminds me i really need to schedule my booster shot for the flu and COVID
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The more I read about the long-term effects of even ‘mild’ COVID cases, the more I am determined to continue masking and being careful.
Can I get an AMEN!
I’ll never understand not wanting to protect one’s self and others from a potentially life-long debilitating virus, but that’s just me, I guess!
Nope, not just you, nor me either, but it sure does seem like it much of the time.
I think a lot these days about things like “mass psychosis.”
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That’s only 5 reasons!
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It’s my granddaughter’s birthday party on Wednesday evening
I get tested for COVID a lot for personal and professional reasons but I legitimately thought something very close to this just last week. Then I realized I was being stupid and just checked myself so I didn’t infect a bunch of little kids.
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Just scheduled my shots for this friday, getting the Shingles vaccine as well. I had shingles earlier this year and the recommendation is to get the vaccine especially if you’ve had it. Was not a great experience 
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It’s certainly not “over” because hundreds of people are continuing to die from it every day, but that begs the question of when, or if, it will ever really be “over.” Plenty of public officials like Dr Fauci have changed their messaging to say that Covid is going to be around forever, we’re not ever going to be able to eradicate it, and the “new normal” will be “living with it at a low enough level that it doesn’t disrupt us,” which is an imprecise metric and clearly means different things to different people. Even if eventually only one person dies per month then Covid wouldn’t be “over” for those that fall victim to it.
So, I’m curious and will throw this question out there to the BBS-ers: Using objective, quantifiable metrics, when will you personally consider the pandemic to be “over” enough that you’re ready to go back to life as normal? Or do you ever expect that to happen?
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Right before COVID I got flu. They tested and everything, so it was definitely flu. It was awful and I’d been vaccinated, so things were less bad then they could have been. My big takeaway is why all the COVID deniers seem to LOVE the idea of having flu. Do they like being sick? Does having a temperature and feeling God Awful turn them on? Is it better to die of flu (34,000 in 2018/2019) than COVID? Inquiring Minds want to know.
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The wife and I both came down with an incredibly brutal flu just before the lockdown and were completely back to normal within 48 hours. Fast onset and fast recovery. Already have all my Covid and flu boosters for this year 
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Shingles is at the bottom of my fun things to have happen to my body again, even below a colonoscopy or the aforementioned flu. I had the most blinding ongoing migraine ever for several days until the Valtrex kicked in. I paid the fee for both shots this past year and am at full protection by now.
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Same, i recall getting the Flu, being terribly sick for a few days then recovery was generally quick but it did take a week or two to fully clear up. As far as shingles goes it was awful but thankfully it didn’t spread and stayed on only half of my right hand and some of my arm
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The “I have this, so I can’t have that”, is a fallacy. Your dog can have both ticks and fleas, and some people can have both flu and covid at the same time. Not common, but happens.
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FWIW I have tested myself several times when I felt sick and come up negative. I’ve tested myself when a co-worker came up sick, and the test was negative (then comes the issue of “do I test myself again tomorrow, and the next day, etc, to be absolutely certain?”) Several of my friends tested positive but had no symptoms. So there’s no easy answer here, COVID is proving to be a complicated mess even three years later.
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the biggest problem with the rapid antigen tests is that if they say you have COVID, you probably have COVID; and if they say you don’t have COVID, you still could have COVID. They have a higher rate of false negatives than false positives.
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Let’s not fight staying home when you are sick, I hate the ‘tough it out’ crew who are super spreaders of illness.
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“The more I read about the long-term effects of even ‘mild’ COVID cases, the more I am determined to continue masking and being careful. I’ll never understand not wanting to protect one’s self and others from a potentially life-long debilitating virus, but that’s just me, I guess!”>
I think the answer to your question is right here.
My personal feeling is that pandemics don’t ever really “end.” Not the way, say, a war might. It’s going to be a slow trickle over years. Jennifer may not understand now why some people aren’t protecting themselves on the same level she is, but maybe over time, she will. I think saying “I’ll never understand” isn’t taking into consideration all it takes to be that level of careful (esp. with kids).
For us, keeping up with vaccinations and keeping an eye on our kids is enough moving forward. For us, masks are for when we feel ill or suspect we might have a cold. We have covid tests for when we want to be extra cautious.
We were about as careful as Jennifer was until earlier this year, when we had decided we wanted some normalcy back (like most of the progressive community around us has). Some people may never do that (we have friends who still have themselves and their kids masking outdoors, for instance). Others will go through a bout of covid and then feel they’ve had enough.
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Well, that’s an answer to my question if she truly does plan to keep masking forever. And I’m not suggesting that she shouldn’t, if that’s what she feels is appropriate.
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