Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

"I've already had covid"

155 replies

AverageContents · 23/12/2020 17:36

People who say this, thinking this means that they can't catch it again, are thickos?

They're up there with the nose sticking out above the mask types.

OP posts:
ErinTingey · 23/12/2020 19:03

Do they also say 'But Dominic Cummings did X Y Z?'

knackersknockersknickers · 23/12/2020 19:06

@lavenderlou

Totally anecdotal but DH's friend (teacher) had it in October and again in December. Tested positive both times. We are in an area that has high numbers of the mutant strain so I wonder if he had a different strain each time.
You can get a positive test up to 90 days after the original infection even though you're not ill or contagious.

I'm in an nhs routine testing programme and we can't be tested for 3 months after a positive test due to false positives.

Mollyboom · 23/12/2020 19:11

I've had it once with no symptoms so I'm really not scared even if I do get it a second time.

littledrummergirl · 23/12/2020 19:17

The only person I've heard say they aren't worried as they've had it is my dh.
Some random dick head jumped into the lift dh and I were in, I jumped out and when he asked what that was all about I said covid, social distancing. Dh stayed calm and told him he wasn't bothered- the ignorant twat left and told me I had an attitude problem.
He was wearing a chin warmer at the time.Confused

walksen · 23/12/2020 19:17

It must be possible for the government to document people who have had 2 positive tests from NHS records.

I am a bit wary as I think formally studied and documented reinfection might be rare but when you run into people in real life who have had the infection twice it does make you wonder if 28 worldwide cases is accurate.

After all in the summer lots of posters said there's not a single documented case of kids infecting adults and it is pretty clear now that it happens.

Similarly lots of people dismissed long covid as a typical post viral syndrome but an ons survey think showed 20% still had some symptoms 2 months later. I know lots of people still struggle Ng after getting covid but I've never met anyone with any other post viral syndrome.

I have some sympathy with people who have already had covid; what is the point of living like a hermit outside of work when your work condition are overwhelmingly likely to get you reinfected (if it is indeed possible)

MissSmiley · 23/12/2020 19:19

We all tested positive in October, one of my DS lost his sense of smell again last week, he had completely recovered in the meantime, we tested him (51 days after the first +) and he came back positive, no way of proving it but it's likely that he's still positive from his infection in October, we all isolated again of course but no one else has shown symptoms this time whereas first time everyone caught it in the household

Oodlesofnoodles20 · 23/12/2020 19:39

I’ve had Covid, had a positive test. It’s unlike any illness I’ve ever had before and no way could I mistake it. So that cold people had back in February...probably not Covid.
My OH keeps saying he has it again and I’m fed up of explaining that it’s the same one, it just hangs around for a while.

ChikiTIKI · 23/12/2020 19:43

YABU. My sister had covid a couple of months ago. Tested positive for antibodies a few days ago. She knows the risks, she's worked on ICU for most of the pandemic. She doesn't need to be worried for many reasons. She has antibodies, normal bmi, is young, etc etc. She still is careful though obviously.

Do you know how many people have caught it more than once? And how many survived?

20mum · 23/12/2020 19:44

The general public has little comprehension of the basis of scientific experiment, it appears. It is essential, repeat essential, to ensure that every single person in the country has been tested, and also to close the borders securely, before there is any way to know how many of them, at a given time, have a shared characteristic such as a particular infection.

Some countries did that. U.K. did, if anything, the opposite.

Two things are needed in order to have reliable figures on how many people from a meticulously tested population have been left immune, after asymptomatic infections as well as the others. First, of course, repeated whole-population testing. But also, exposing that population to sources of infection, to see if they resist or not. That would need a country first to eliminate the infection and then deliberately to flood it with infected people, with no measures to prevent transmission. That won't happen. Therefore, the true re-infection rate will never be known.

It would be possible to set up experiments with a statistically significant number of those who have tested positive, including those who were seriously ill and those who were picked up as positive by chance, on random testing. They could be introduced to a dose of new infection inserted into their noses or throats.

But it would be likely to be considered unethical, particularly because second infections were often worse, and even fatal, in those freakishly rare situations, where it is known for certain people have had one case, have become clear of infection, and afterwards had a second infection. These are rare because of the absence of whole-population testing and not, not, not because of their true rate.

Incidentally is is possible to check for certain that the new infection is a totally new one, even if shortly after the first, because the 'fingerprint' varies.

So no, having had it once gives no certainty of any protection whatsoever. And this disease is unusual in that the second infection is often worse, repeat worse, than the first. The injection is not even aimed at preventing infection. It merely is hoped to make an infection less severe, particularly in the extremely vulnerable groups.

The immunity such as it is may be fleeting, but it is hoped it will have had the secondary effect of giving the body's own defences a wake up call.

Now, with a far more easily transmitted second virus known to be sweeping through parts of U.K. and Europe, and an even more serious variant coming from South Africa, there is a lot to worry about.

People wearing masks under the nose or not at all, people believing the fantasy that having had it once has made them infection proof, and people believing the entire population can and will soon have a magic injection making them something akin to bullet-proof, are a risk to the lives of others.

In case there are still people thinking 'others' don't matter, because only children and young people count, please be aware that children and young people are apparently more likely to fall to the second variant and especially so with the third, the South African variant.

Shinylikeglass · 23/12/2020 19:54

It can't be an official public message that having it gives a good level if immunity becuase behaviours would change, leading to obvious problems, especially among those who are convinced they had it before testing was widely available.

TheoriginalLEM · 23/12/2020 20:01

I would have bet money that i had it in march. This did not mean i behaved like a thicko and dudnt wear appropriate ppe etc.

I took an antibody test couple weeks ago - negative

I now have covid, its fucking grim. What i had in march was an annoying cough, ive hardly had a cough this time but i feel fucking terrible.

Im actually not convinced i didnt have it back in march, i worked closely with two confirmed cases but what i have now is in a different league.

slipperywhensparticus · 23/12/2020 20:02

Can they still carry it or pass it on though?

Tal45 · 23/12/2020 20:13

There was a man in the US who had mild symptoms first time and then a couple of months later got it again and ended up hospitalised. I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. Who knows how many people may have had it twice and been asymptomatic both times or had it twice and been asymptomatic the first time and not realised they've already had it. The number who have had it twice could be far, far higher than that recorded.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54512034

MintyMabel · 23/12/2020 20:15

If it were that easy to catch it twice, we’d have had a much higher number of proven cases of it by now, ten months in.

TeenageMutantNinjaCovid · 23/12/2020 20:19

[quote Tal45]There was a man in the US who had mild symptoms first time and then a couple of months later got it again and ended up hospitalised. I don't think you're being unreasonable at all. Who knows how many people may have had it twice and been asymptomatic both times or had it twice and been asymptomatic the first time and not realised they've already had it. The number who have had it twice could be far, far higher than that recorded.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54512034[/quote]
So rare that he was in the news and you know all about him

marvelousmadmadammim · 23/12/2020 20:21

Just to say that after a positive test you can still test positive for up to 90 days. So some of those cases may not be reinfected just resurfaced?

Covidrelapse · 23/12/2020 20:23

The 2 I know had an initial positive test in March/April. Antibody year for 1 of those in September was negative (don’t know about the other person). Both positive again in November. Both were unwell the first time (not requiring hospital) and one was unwell the second time with the other having mild symptoms.

Lovemusic33 · 23/12/2020 20:26

@slipperywhensparticus

Can they still carry it or pass it on though?
I don’t think this is really known or proven but there is a chance that people who have had it and people who have had the vaccine could still carry it and pass it to others.
Ihatefish · 23/12/2020 20:28

@Shinylikeglass

It can't be an official public message that having it gives a good level if immunity becuase behaviours would change, leading to obvious problems, especially among those who are convinced they had it before testing was widely available.
And I fear this is precisely what will happen when people are vaccinated. Loads of asymptotic people wandering round spreading disease to those not yet vaccinated as they feel protected and therefore don’t follow the rules
LucilleBluth · 23/12/2020 20:46

I tested positive on December 10th. I didn’t have a temperature, Sore throat, stomach ache etc. I lost my sense of smell and taste then developed a mild cough.

I think that lots of people who had colds/flu earlier in the year are putting it down to COVID when it wasn’t. I don’t think the vast majority present with cold and flu type symptoms.

arevioletsreallyblue · 23/12/2020 20:50

@LucilleBluth

I tested positive on December 10th. I didn’t have a temperature, Sore throat, stomach ache etc. I lost my sense of smell and taste then developed a mild cough.

I think that lots of people who had colds/flu earlier in the year are putting it down to COVID when it wasn’t. I don’t think the vast majority present with cold and flu type symptoms.

I agree with this. You don't get to say 'I've had it' until you've had a positive test. Anyone who's relying on the fact that they've had it from there own self assessment rather than a positive test is as stupid (in my mind) and anyone who says there STI free (no symptoms) without having had a negative test (abstinence since last negative test aside). Far too many armchair diagnosis' going on.
thesebootsaremadeforawalking · 23/12/2020 20:55

it doesn't help when people "know" they had Covid without any test confirming it Hmm

weddingplanning15 · 23/12/2020 20:56

@TeenageMutantNinjaCovid

But many, many more on Mumsnet...

3 in 1 family last week
I was going to ask if they were being case studied by Imperial as they oddly justify a whole medical journal.

This made me LOL

AndcalloffChristmas · 23/12/2020 20:56

We had it at Easter and have ridden the wave of having two kids in school etc since then. Hoping it’s still pretty rare!

weddingplanning15 · 23/12/2020 20:59

@TeenageMutantNinjaCovid

My DH came back from working in Milan when Italy locked down in February. He was very ill the next week- was in hospital but wasn't tested for covid. I then got it from him, my DD from me and finally my son when he came home from Uni in March.

Sore throats, cough, colds, chest, fever etc. We thought we might have had it. Did antibody testing in July but negative.

We all got covid in October. Mild symptoms- much much less ill than in February but with hindsight very different symptoms. No cold type symptoms or chest infection.

A lot of people think they had it back in February. Chances are you didn't and it was just another illness, that will be why you had no antibodies.

Swipe left for the next trending thread