rona moved in: ilx0rs with the bug report on their progress

I'm going back to keeping my head down, not going into the office, masking a bit more, for the week or so before I go on my first trip abroad in 8 years. do NOT want any bug to spoil that if I can help it! also gonna filter-mask on the plane, maybe airport depending how long a wait.

I know a family of three that have had it 2x in the past 5 weeks. They've also had it like 6x at this point.

Do I need to mention that they were the most careful/cautious people we knew in 2020-2021? including one time they drove by our house and just threw a gift for us out the car window in the brief second that the window rolled down before speeding away lol....? I think I need to mention that, sorry.

(ack wrong thread, belongs in the plague thread)

Day three-ish, and the majority of my symptoms remain run of the mill. Mostly a modestly stuffy nose at this point, still no coughing or sneezing, but I will say that the one other consistent and most conspicuous symptom that's stuck around, and the one that made me test in the first place, is a relatively uncomfortable sore throat, whose return is usually a signal to me that my medicine has worn off. But other than that it has not been that bad (knock on wood). I haven't had a fever since Thursday, though it's hard to tell how much of that is the overlapping effectiveness of both the otc stuff I've been taking (ibuprofen, dayquil/nyquil), plus the Paxlovid.

When I had it in Jan, sore throat was unbearable. Everything else pretty much par for the course fever, aches etc. Solidarity, but sounds similar to my experience!

End of day four and I pretty much have no symptoms. Maybe the slightest of headaches and a little dizziness right now? But that could just be from either the Paxlovid or staring at a fucking screen all day while I'm locked away.

Tested for the first time since Wednesday afternoon, and I still have a very faint positive line. So that doesn't really count, right? (asked a friend of mine once.)

most experts I read said faint line = a line and still positive

unless the line appeared like, hours later as opposed to within the 15-30 minutes that it's supposed to

You have a good chance of not getting a positive result tomorrow, so give it another day.

Yeah, I was just kidding, I'm still locked away. The current CDC guidelines say five days of isolation, minimum, and then two negative tests 24 hours apart before I'm considered no longer infectious. So I figure that means at least a couple more days of reading and (too much) screen time. Though I did go for a pleasant walk today, crossing the street to avoid other people like it was summer 2020 again.

I was very good at Sidewalk Chicken back in '20. A viking, one might say.

First negative test, right on schedule. First positive was last Wednesday (day 0), today is day 6.

For those comparing stats: 48, healthy, most recently re-vaxxed as recommended back in September of 2022. Fever lasted about 24 hours, sore throat and mild congestion about 48 hours+, nothing but a little lingering congestion for days 3-5. Never sneezy, rarely coughed, barely needed to blow my nose more than once or twice. Maybe Paxlovid helped? No way to know.

(Fwiw, when I originally left a message for my primary care physician on day 1, they told me Paxlovid wasn't recommended, based on my demographic and symptoms. But I just got a teledoc appointment (via the same physicians/hospital group) instead, and they didn't hesitate to prescribe it.)

Kind of amazing to reach a point where, at least in my case, it was mild and easily manageable, more a modest inconvenience. Thank goodness for science (and the ability to quarantine). And fortunately no one else in my family got sick, either. Fingers crossed tomorrow is negative, too, and that I don't get a rebound.

Second negative test, but I am very confused by isolation guidelines. The CDC says I can be released and go mask free if I have had two negative tests 48 hours apart, which would mean tomorrow, day 8. But plenty of other guidance I have seen says two negative tests 24-48 hours apart (whatever that means). Some guidance says two negative tests just 24 hours apart (which is where I'm at). The guidance and recommendations, even now, in 2023, remains inconsistent and all over the place.

CDC: "After you have ended isolation, when you are feeling better (no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and symptoms improving), wear your mask through day 10. Or, if you have access to antigen tests, you should consider using them. With two sequential negative tests 48 hours apart, you may remove your mask sooner than day 10."

Yale: "Symptomatic individuals should not go to work or class until testing negative on a PCR test or having 2 sequential negative RA tests 24-48 hours apart."

California Department of Public Health: "Individuals ending isolation before D​ay 10 are still recommended to mask through Day 10. ​​However, persons who end isolation before Day 10 can remove their masks after two sequential negative tests at least one day apart."

University of Maryland: "If you are uncertain whether to return after 5 days of isolation, you may choose to use rapid antigen tests to help you decide. Two negative tests 24 hours apart are a good indication that it is safe to end isolation. Even if testing positive still after 10 days, if symptoms have improved and you are fever-free, it is probably safe to end isolation. You should, however, wear a mask indoors with others for another week or so in this case."

You are likely not contagious anymore.

Of that I am confident, the question is whether I am OK not just to end isolation but to end isolation without a mask.

there are a bunch of cases at our youngest's daycare but that's the least of our worries because there's a case of mpox at our eldest's pre-k.

Welp, I had a good run. Tired, warm, and achy, the test strip turned red immediately, gonna see about Paxlovid tommorrow. Pass the ibuprofen.

You can do it!

acetaminophen works too!

most recently re-vaxxed as recommended back in September of 2022

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, July 25, 2023

there was a second bivalent booster released this year, also recommended

Not recommended enough for the under-65's alas. I had to lie to get it in March.

there's a new recipe one coming in the fall

Yeah I had first and only infection in September, the dat before the first bivalent came out :(

Saw my PCP last week and he said don’t bother until latest brew in October-ish.

Paxlovid mouth is so gross. But, my fever is gone, the fatigue is still there but less than the previous two days. I never lost my sense of taste and only experienced mild congestion.

Now I am just plotting how I can test out of this and go back to being on vacation. I'm visiting family and like half of us tested positive in a 24hr span.

I posted all of the inconsistent guidelines upthread a bit, but I think the gist is that as long as you are testing positive and you have symptoms, you should stay locked away, but if you test negative and have no symptoms after five days, you can move about with a good mask. And after two negative tests 24 hours apart, you are more or less clear or no longer contagious.

My mom was in Antarctica a while back, and one person in the tour group tested positive for covid and had to spend a lot of their time locked away in their room. But each day one of the staff/crew/guides would get all hazmatted up and whatnot and essentially escorted that one person, from a safe distance, to see various sights and locations.

Back during a lull in the relative peak of things, I knew a couple of families that were stuck out of the country after someone tested positive, more or less doubling the length of the their trip. Which got me thinking of the practical vs. ethical considerations: if I tested positive the day before I was set to fly home from somewhere, what would I do? The on-paper answer is, of course, isolate until testing negative, but most people I imagine don't have that financial flexibility. Say you're in Paris. You'd have to cancel your flight, but you can't reschedule it yet, because you don't know what day you'll be clear. You have to find a last minute place to stay for (at least) another week. You'd have to find some way to feed yourself for another week+, and you couldn't even stock up on cold medicine without masking up and venturing out into the pharmacy, anyway. That's potentially thousands of dollars in expenses (and another week missed from home/work/family/whatever).

The alternative is getting the sturdiest mask you can find, taking whatever medicine you can get, getting on your flight and hoping for the best. And even then, do you tell the airline? Would they stop you from flying? Do you tell the person next to you? Do you ask the flight attendant if they can put you next to an empty seat?

Yeah I have been holed up in a room for two days, looking at three more, then will start testing.

The alternative is getting the sturdiest mask you can find, taking whatever medicine you can get, getting on your flight and hoping for the best. And even then, do you tell the airline? Would they stop you from flying? Do you tell the person next to you? Do you ask the flight attendant if they can put you next to an empty seat?

Seven million people died.

Are you, in this scenario, wanted by the French police, Josh?

C'est moi, Josh Valjean.

I have a friend who after testing positive just before he was to leave, was stuck in Portugal for an extra week, in a hotel room, getting food delivered, until the test came up negative. So yeah, that’s what you had to do.

Same story with a friend in 2021 but in Florence.

This is why if you're going overseas it's probably a good idea to already have that top notch mask, and you wear it on the plane, and you wear it indoors. It just seems the height of selfishness to choose even with a mask to fly on a plane when you know you have covid.

And honestly if you're going overseas, it's probably a good idea to plan in advance financially for the possibility that something like this might happen

Everyone I know masks on planes no matter the direction. We've all had too many experiences Before the Dark Times of colds caught.

If someone doesn't want to mask for specific reasons, and they definitely don't have covid, it's a defensible position. That's just a personal choice. They just have to accept the risks and if they get it, do the right thing.

Travel insurance will cover that.

Yeah, I mean frankly the idea of “the person is STUCK in ~lovely location~ because they have Covid” doesn’t get many tears from me.

Your point is well taken but my dad got COVID in Paris and therefore his experience of Paris was seeing a whole lot of the inside of his hotel room.

Like, one could go spend ten days inside a hotel room in Evanston, Illinois, and get the same experience.

My COVID experience has been lying around in my childhood bedroom and occasionally venturing into my patents' yard with a mask on to get fussed over by my mother, sister, and nieces.

parents not patents

the patented Yard

I'm flying abroad for the first time in years soon - I'm trying to essentially 'shield' for the week before (not going into office, public transport etc) and wearing a filter mask on the plane and in the airport because I'm so paranoid about getting anything (not just covid - kids' friends are getting stomach bugs at the moment) and spoiling this much-planned holiday!

Have got travel insurance too...

We never used to get travel insurance, but between covid and cancellations and all sorts of new normal travel headaches, we're converts. And it's already come in handy, too.

I just know everyone is waiting with bated breath, but one week later, I have tested clean.

I'd like to thank my family, for getting me sick in the first place and then caring for me. I'd also like to thank Paxlovid, FlowFlex tests, 7-Up, ibuprofen, and Wyld cannabis/cbd gummies.

I'd heard Paxlovid can interact with and potentiate cannabis/THC, any reports?

I didn't notice anything

But tbh I only took a gummy on my last day of Pax

having done lots of recent travels around europe i'd estimate mask wearing on planes here is at less than 1%.

I presently know one entire family w/covid and another friend who picked it up out and about somewhere, and two weeks in is still going through hell. Vaccinated, and otherwise a healthy fit guy btw!