One of the great mysteries that has emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic — and one that’s still being investigated by infectious disease specialists — is why some people catch Covid and others don’t, even when they’re equally exposed to the virus.
Many of us know entire households who caught Covid and had to isolate over the pandemic, but there are also multiple anecdotes of couples, families and colleagues where some people caught the virus — but not everyone.
Bless those people in the human challenge study! But the fact that only half of the participants deliberately exposed to covid actually got infected is mind-boggling. But also makes sense from a general illness standpoint. Flu, stomach bugs, etc. don't necessary rip through entire households either.
Reporting from the observation area after my Evusheld injection. It’s two shots, in the butt (one each hip). Burned a bit going it, it’s a decent amount they are putting in (ie, a full syringe, not just a little vaccine amount). Felt like a lidocaine shot going in. Observation period is an hour.
They had it scheduled as an infusion, and they took me back to an infusion room, complete with the recliner chair and everything. I settled in, rolled up my sleeve, and asked for a blanket, the nurse was a bit… ummm… err… they didn’t tell you?
I also mention to my nurse that friends in other states have to enter a lottery. She was surprised and said they are giving out a lot of it here. 🤷♀️
Reporting from the observation area after my Evusheld injection. It’s two shots, in the butt (one each hip). Burned a bit going it, it’s a decent amount they are putting in (ie, a full syringe, not just a little vaccine amount). Felt like a lidocaine shot going in. Observation period is an hour.
They had it scheduled as an infusion, and they took me back to an infusion room, complete with the recliner chair and everything. I settled in, rolled up my sleeve, and asked for a blanket, the nurse was a bit… ummm… err… they didn’t tell you?
I also mention to my nurse that friends in other states have to enter a lottery. She was surprised and said they are giving out a lot of it here. 🤷♀️
I'm doing extra work for the team that distributes the Evusheld, mAb, and oral therapeutics. It's scant here. On Wednesday we ran out of it for the entire week. It's entirely based on what is allocated by the state.
Reporting from the observation area after my Evusheld injection. It’s two shots, in the butt (one each hip). Burned a bit going it, it’s a decent amount they are putting in (ie, a full syringe, not just a little vaccine amount). Felt like a lidocaine shot going in. Observation period is an hour.
They had it scheduled as an infusion, and they took me back to an infusion room, complete with the recliner chair and everything. I settled in, rolled up my sleeve, and asked for a blanket, the nurse was a bit… ummm… err… they didn’t tell you?
I also mention to my nurse that friends in other states have to enter a lottery. She was surprised and said they are giving out a lot of it here. 🤷♀️
I'm doing extra work for the team that distributes the Evusheld, mAb, and oral therapeutics. It's scant here. On Wednesday we ran out of it for the entire week. It's entirely based on what is allocated by the state.
Yeah… I hear that. I wonder why it was so easy here. I mean, I asked my doctor about 4th shot, and he was like, nope. Do this instead. We can get you in next Friday. And there are 3 of us in the observation area. 🤷♀️
I will add that our governor had lymphoma while in office, and was treated at this hospital I’m at. Now, kind of wondering if that affected the prioritization. Like, I would bet if I was still with my old guy, who was in private practice, it wouldn’t be as easy to get. But, because I’m at an NCI cancer center, and the state university one…
I'm doing extra work for the team that distributes the Evusheld, mAb, and oral therapeutics. It's scant here. On Wednesday we ran out of it for the entire week. It's entirely based on what is allocated by the state.
Yeah… I hear that. I wonder why it was so easy here. I mean, I asked my doctor about 4th shot, and he was like, nope. Do this instead. We can get you in next Friday. And there are 3 of us in the observation area. 🤷♀️
I will add that our governor had lymphoma while in office, and was treated at this hospital I’m at. Now, kind of wondering if that affected the prioritization. Like, I would bet if I was still with my old guy, who was in private practice, it wouldn’t be as easy to get. But, because I’m at an NCI cancer center, and the state university one…
I'm sure it's population based. ND and MN are pretty small states comparatively. I also have no idea what the allocation looks like in the MN Twin Cities metro area, there's likely more product there.
We do have tons of vaccines though, since no one wants them! wahhhhhh
It is definitely time for “fully vaccinated” to mean a booster for those who are eligible. The distinction between “fully vaccinated” and “up to date on the vaccine” are meaningless to most people.
We are struggling with this wording now trying to prep to have people back on-campus for programming. The University requires boosters if you're eligible regardless of where you're coming from, so we've updated our attestation forms (we're not requiring they send us their vaxx cards, just attest). We had "primary series" language, which some people found confusing. We had "current on your vaccinations, including boosters if eligible" -somehow that was an issue, too. Right now, they attest to their primary series and booster separately, but now we're finding people who have gotten a medical exemption for the booster. The number of iterations this document has gone through is wild; at one point, I was time-stamping it so we knew if it was the morning or afternoon version.
One of the people on my team has been seriously ill all week. She is vaxxed and boostered, but she is also immune compromised. She was approved a few days ago for one of the treatments (I'm not sure which, I'm getting everything secondhand), but the hospitals around here keep running out. She's finally getting in today, thankfully. Meanwhile, I am getting FB bombarded with notices about fundraisers and articles about the (unvaccinated) guy I went to high school with who is still in the hospital on a vent. I have had to hide a lot of people this week, because while of course I want him to recover, I'm going to spend my energy worrying about someone who did everything she could to protect herself and still ended up here, thanks.
I’m 11 days past positive test and start of symptoms and I’m still positive on a rapid antigen test. H’s aunt and uncle are coming this weekend to visit and I don’t know wtf my test means. I feel fine.
Reporting from the observation area after my Evusheld injection. It’s two shots, in the butt (one each hip). Burned a bit going it, it’s a decent amount they are putting in (ie, a full syringe, not just a little vaccine amount). Felt like a lidocaine shot going in. Observation period is an hour.
They had it scheduled as an infusion, and they took me back to an infusion room, complete with the recliner chair and everything. I settled in, rolled up my sleeve, and asked for a blanket, the nurse was a bit… ummm… err… they didn’t tell you?
I also mention to my nurse that friends in other states have to enter a lottery. She was surprised and said they are giving out a lot of it here. 🤷♀️
I have been trying all week to get it and not a single person I’ve talked to at offices, hospitals, or even the state health department seems to know what I’m talking about. I called a pharmacy that got a distribution from the state of evusheld and they insist my PCP had to refer. My PCP says they aren’t allowed and don’t do it. My rheumatologist that prescribes my immune suppressants said my PCP has to do it and when I said they refused, they said they don’t do it either. I have called multiple hospitals that are on the HHS website showing thousands of distributed doses and they insist they have never heard of it. This is ridiculous! I’m glad you had an easy time but I cannot believe how useless everyone has been here.
Reporting from the observation area after my Evusheld injection. It’s two shots, in the butt (one each hip). Burned a bit going it, it’s a decent amount they are putting in (ie, a full syringe, not just a little vaccine amount). Felt like a lidocaine shot going in. Observation period is an hour.
They had it scheduled as an infusion, and they took me back to an infusion room, complete with the recliner chair and everything. I settled in, rolled up my sleeve, and asked for a blanket, the nurse was a bit… ummm… err… they didn’t tell you?
I also mention to my nurse that friends in other states have to enter a lottery. She was surprised and said they are giving out a lot of it here. 🤷♀️
I have been trying all week to get it and not a single person I’ve talked to at offices, hospitals, or even the state health department seems to know what I’m talking about. I called a pharmacy that got a distribution from the state of evusheld and they insist my PCP had to refer. My PCP says they aren’t allowed and don’t do it. My rheumatologist that prescribes my immune suppressants said my PCP has to do it and when I said they refused, they said they don’t do it either. I have called multiple hospitals that are on the HHS website showing thousands of distributed doses and they insist they have never heard of it. This is ridiculous! I’m glad you had an easy time but I cannot believe how useless everyone has been here.
Does your health system have a hotline? We have a covid treatment hotline. People leave a message, the research RNs call to determine eligibility, and place the referral. PCPs can place the referral which goes to the research RNs but in placing the referral you're attesting to certain conditions and many PCPs I've spoken with are uncomfortable with this attestation because it places their license on the line.
I have been trying all week to get it and not a single person I’ve talked to at offices, hospitals, or even the state health department seems to know what I’m talking about. I called a pharmacy that got a distribution from the state of evusheld and they insist my PCP had to refer. My PCP says they aren’t allowed and don’t do it. My rheumatologist that prescribes my immune suppressants said my PCP has to do it and when I said they refused, they said they don’t do it either. I have called multiple hospitals that are on the HHS website showing thousands of distributed doses and they insist they have never heard of it. This is ridiculous! I’m glad you had an easy time but I cannot believe how useless everyone has been here.
Does your health system have a hotline? We have a covid treatment hotline. People leave a message, the research RNs call to determine eligibility, and place the referral. PCPs can place the referral which goes to the research RNs but in placing the referral you're attesting to certain conditions and many PCPs I've spoken with are uncomfortable with this attestation because it places their license on the line.
I will look for this, thanks for the info. One system I talked to did have this type of thing (or it sounded like it) but the nurse said she really needed a PCP referral to allow her to do it.
I’m 11 days past positive test and start of symptoms and I’m still positive on a rapid antigen test. H’s aunt and uncle are coming this weekend to visit and I don’t know wtf my test means. I feel fine.
Laurel Bristow (on Instagram) has some slides in her stories today that discuss how boosted people are more likely to test positive for longer. NOT because they are more infectious or super spreaders… but because their immune system reacts stronger in the beginning of infection, making them have symptoms sooner and making them more likely to recognize the infection earlier.
Boosted people were 2-3 times more likely to test positive 5-10 days after symptom onset than non-boosted people.
Anecdotally, for our case in the house, it was bright positive the first day and still positive a week later (but very faint).
Reporting from the observation area after my Evusheld injection. It’s two shots, in the butt (one each hip). Burned a bit going it, it’s a decent amount they are putting in (ie, a full syringe, not just a little vaccine amount). Felt like a lidocaine shot going in. Observation period is an hour.
They had it scheduled as an infusion, and they took me back to an infusion room, complete with the recliner chair and everything. I settled in, rolled up my sleeve, and asked for a blanket, the nurse was a bit… ummm… err… they didn’t tell you?
I also mention to my nurse that friends in other states have to enter a lottery. She was surprised and said they are giving out a lot of it here. 🤷♀️
I have been trying all week to get it and not a single person I’ve talked to at offices, hospitals, or even the state health department seems to know what I’m talking about. I called a pharmacy that got a distribution from the state of evusheld and they insist my PCP had to refer. My PCP says they aren’t allowed and don’t do it. My rheumatologist that prescribes my immune suppressants said my PCP has to do it and when I said they refused, they said they don’t do it either. I have called multiple hospitals that are on the HHS website showing thousands of distributed doses and they insist they have never heard of it. This is ridiculous! I’m glad you had an easy time but I cannot believe how useless everyone has been here.
I’m with you on this! My PCP acted like he had never heard of it and was still confused after I sent him the literature. My immunologist was impossible to get through to and the residents who called me back instead were unhelpful. Finally saw my immunologist the other day and he said “there’s no way you are getting this for a long time” - here in MA it’s in incredibly short supply. The hospitals that do have it are doing a tiered system of highest risk patients and the tier 1 patients are then put into a lottery for it. It’s crazy.
It's 5 days from the time that he had symptoms. So Saturday would be day 0. Sunday day 1, Monday day 2, Tuesday day 3, Wednesday day 4, and Thursday day 5. So on Friday, if he is better he can go out to stores with a mask in terms of quarantining.
He has likely cleared most of the virus and that's why he is now negative, but the guidance is still 5 days. It doesn't shorten to a negative test. He was positive and had symptoms, so he 99% likely had Covid, and is now getting better. False positives are less than 1%.
mcppalmbeach, I think your dad was a false positive. PCR tests are the gold standard, so if his PCR test came back negative, then he was negative.
I had a negative PCR on a day I was as symptomatic as I got it. It was negative. I ignored it and assumed I was positive (I had very valid reasons for that). DH became symptomatic a couple days later, so I went ahead and rapid tested then and it was positive. I cannot figure out how the PCR test didn’t pick it up when I was actively symptomatic.
mcppalmbeach , I think your dad was a false positive. PCR tests are the gold standard, so if his PCR test came back negative, then he was negative.
I had a negative PCR on a day I was as symptomatic as I got it. It was negative. I ignored it and assumed I was positive (I had very valid reasons for that). DH became symptomatic a couple days later, so I went ahead and rapid tested then and it was positive. I cannot figure out how the PCR test didn’t pick it up when I was actively symptomatic.
I tested positive on a rapid and that same day tested negative on a PCR. I have mild symptoms and was exposed, so between that and false positives being so rare I'm assuming that I do have covid. I've looked for explanations online, but haven't seen much of anything. I hope that this doesn't become a thing! All of us who are trying to do he right thing are having enough trouble as it is.
A negative pcr while symptomatic could have just been a bad swab or error in processing. A family member had symptoms, a rapid positive and a negative pcr from the same day. Another pcr 3 days later was positive.
mcppalmbeach, I think your dad was a false positive. PCR tests are the gold standard, so if his PCR test came back negative, then he was negative.
I had a negative PCR on a day I was as symptomatic as I got it. It was negative. I ignored it and assumed I was positive (I had very valid reasons for that). DH became symptomatic a couple days later, so I went ahead and rapid tested then and it was positive. I cannot figure out how the PCR test didn’t pick it up when I was actively symptomatic.
This happened to DH last week. His PCR was negative despite a fever and a nasty cough. His rapid was positive almost instantly.
Also, my clinic notes posted, so I can now see that there are 3 tiers to qualify. Tier 1 was people who had car-t within 6 months , allogenic stem cell transplant within 6 months, active graft vs host disease, lymphoma, and a couple other things. Tier 2 was other blood cancers in active treatment. Tier 3 was other cancer in active treatment. I’m not in active treatment, but I guess my super rare lymphoma case got me in tier 1.
So, 😬 I guess I can see why doctors outside of oncology aren’t really familiar with it. If other states are using the same tiers, it’s only cancer patients. But, I could also be the tiers were editing in the paperwork I saw to just list the cancer treatments. 🤷♀️ Anyway, I really feel for those that want it and can’t get it. I hope supply becomes more plentiful! Trust, I’d rather not have my 2.5 rounds with cancer and just be “normal.”