to wonder why you need to isolate from your own household

[ACupOfTeaSolvesEverything]

Just that really. If I come down with symptoms surely my DH and DS are inevitably already infected? We have a small house and have spent most of our waking hours together in the same small living area for the last few weeks. My son is always all over me, sitting on me, cuddles etc. I sleep with my DH. Advice is that if you get symptoms you should isolate from others on your household. Why? Not being an arse just wondering how this helps when we spend all our time in very close proximity.

You only need to keep away from other members of your household if they are vulnerable. That’s what the guidance says.

Best to also stay away if you'd rather not get a large dose of the virus.

I was ill. We are lucky enough to have a spare room and two bathrooms. I isolated in my bedroom and ensuite. No one else became ill. Everyone kept 2m away, handwashing after going into the room. I was amazed, but there we go. I was only mildly ill. I think the level of infection is important. I'm very glad we did isolate, I was worried about dh as men seem to get more ill and he is also a smoker.

There is a high risk that you will catch the virus if a member of your household is infected but it is not not impossible to avoid infection.

The main reason is viral load though. It takes several days for your immune system to recognise the virus and respond. During that time the virus is replicating. The more virus you are infected with at the start, the more greater the number by the time you have an immune response. The more virus there is (the higher the viral load), the more severe the infection.

The same way that the virus is spreading between people exponentially, the virus replicates exponentially until your immune system kicks in. So if you start with one strand of the virus that you caught from someone coughing 2m away, the viral load will be much lower at the point your immune systems starts fighting back than if you have been infected with millions from your partner repeatedly coughing in the same room, you touching items that they have touched etc. The virus replicates at the same rate however many you are infected with so 1 will become 2, which become 4 but in the same time 1 million will become 2 million, which will become 4 million. If you isolate within the household, the less virus you will be infected with, the less severe the infection.

@whatdayisitandotherquestions

I think that it’s just the common sense applied to other illnesses (I.e. flu etc) that applies here though isn’t it?

If I or my DH is sick, then the other one handles the food, deals with the kids etc, and the one who is ill keeps to themselves pretty much.

goingoverground Excellent explanation thank you!

We won't be able to isolate from each other as we live in a small one bed flat. I worry about infecting DH if it happened but unless one of us moves into the shed we can't avoid each other.