I’m ill, how?

[milkcartoncat]

It’s only a cold and sore throat, I don’t suffer from hay fever so it isn’t that.

I haven’t been outside these four walls for 18 days - even for a walk or in the garden and no one else has either. 18 days ago was my last walk in the fields outside. We had a shopping delivery the day after that and nothing since. Post falls into a plastic bag tied to the letter box and I leave it for 72 hours and then take it out, open it, throw it away and wash my hands. I’ve touched the bins I suppose, which thinking about it were at the bottom of the drive (about 10 meters) so I guess I’ve been out for that, but washed my hands immediately afterwards.
How is it possible?!

There's a lot of people having somatic symptoms IMO. Not saying the OP is but the amount of people I know who think they're having 'symptoms' is excessive. Especially in people who aren't leaving the house!

My frontline colleagues aren't immune to the effect either (understandably since they're exposed which causes psychological stress). At least half a dozen just this week tested, flu negative and COVID negative. Could be colds but 'symptoms' improve really rapidly once they have those negative results.

Hi, my sister has the same symptoms and has just been diagnosed with hay fever. She is in her fifties and has never had it before and has been self isolating. She has been keeping her windows open and there are a lot of trees close by so she assumes that it is tree pollen coming in.

There's a lot of people having somatic symptoms IMO. Not saying the OP is but the amount of people I know who think they're having 'symptoms' is excessive.

I agree with this. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case for a few posters on MN who haven't left their houses in weeks due to fear, anxiety and paranoia. Their mental health is likly suffering so it wouldn't be a surprise. Hopefully people like the OP can mentally feel better soon and get any support they need as to live like that is just not nice.

And 2/3 of the tests performed (presumably due to symptoms) are still negative.

@GreytExpectations

Of course. The human brain is astonishing and it can create 'seizures, blindness, paralysis, chronic pain' etc from a psychological and not physical cause, it's very easy for anxiety/stress to create 'symptoms' of COVID.

Especially when many people are very frightened and hyper-sensitive to anything they may think might mean COVID.

Like @Mustbetimeforachange says, the majority of people reporting 'symptoms' and tested are negative. Some will have hayfever, colds etc but a lot won't and it's somatic.

My dad thinks CV is blown about from place to place by the wind. He read this somewhere 🤭 not really right face for my reaction.

You say it’s not CV so this is not all that helpful. Sorry.

We're the same.
1 delivery which was cleaned and quarantine the post..
Dp got a sore throat about 4 days later. Now the rest of us have got it. Seems very unfair. Ours is obviously contagious as weve all got it.
I wonder is it from the air? Our garden sides the paths so card driving past could push the air about. The post. Most likely the delivery. He did not cough or sneeze and wasnt that close either.?!
And wash our hands after touching the bins.

Have you washed all your freezer stuff and hands after every time you get stuff out?
As CV can live in a freezer for a long time apparently.
Unfortunately i didnt realise that so didnt clean stuff in there thinking it would be ok.
But its something to think about that the elderly may never be safe - imagine you shield then go somewhere and someone cooks frozen food getting CV on their hands. Wouldnt matter if they are immune.

They think it can hang in the air 3hrs but that was supposedly only if generated which they said wouldnt happen without say doing something aerosol generating.

Does make you wonder though i mean it's light why would it go straight on the ground maybe a sneeze might generally but a cough or heavy breathing?

And 2/3 of the tests performed (presumably due to symptoms) are still negative.

Actually this may be misleading because nasal and throat swabs are not as accurate as sputum test, which is often not done. Also it seems there is a narrow window for testing after which you get a very large percentage of false negatives. By the time people are unwell enough to be in hospital and therefore tested, most will be out of the narrow window.

But I agree that symptoms don't mean Covid necessarily, all the other causes are still out there!

@Keepdistance I can't tell if you are being serious or not but if you are, are you OK? Your behaviour seems very concerning in terms of your mental health.

@Keepdistance

Have a think. Look at previous posts about somatic symptoms.

What's more likely? You quarantine post and washed your one shopping delivery and apparently are not going outside. If you do and touch the bins, you wash your hands.

So you think your household having a sore throat might be because of what?

COVID? Or something else? You think 'it' is contagious. What do you think 'it' is?

And now you're wondering if 'it' is in the air from cars driving by? Or maybe your one shopping delivery that you washed got coughed on by someone with COVID or ...something else?

How about, this is a high stress situation where illness and potential symptoms (which are very common anyway) is reported widely via the media so one person in the house reports a sore throat (not necessarily a symptom of anything at all) and then..lo and behold so does everyone living with them because that's a psychological response to being told you are at risk of illness, especially in these times.

How about, this is a high stress situation where illness and potential symptoms (which are very common anyway) is reported widely via the media so one person in the house reports a sore throat (not necessarily a symptom of anything at all) and then..lo and behold so does everyone living with them because that's a psychological response to being told you are at risk of illness, especially in these times.

My 1 year old has a persistent dry cough, bad throat and flaming pink cheeks. I don't think his symptoms are psychological...my whole house has locked down except for a couple click and collect orders for which we had no human contact

Agree 100% not psychological.
A 4 and 7 yo cannot respond to that. Not least with a runny nose...
Dp cough was really nasty too. (He would no way respond to any suggestion from me. He isnt a worrier anyway.)
But apparently some bugs do stay on surfaces up to 3m (adenoviruses), though i would think that if that were the case inside the house then it would have come from one of us 4 hence at least 1 would be immune. Though actually despite quarantining obviously it's possible that a bug that lives longer than covid on surfaces could have got past that...

I did read that other coronaviruses can lay dormant. But i wouldnt have thought i would get sick so soon after.
Anyway it's something to ponder.

The 7yo knows about the virus but doesnt see the news etc.

I dont think the chance of it being on the shopping is that low. Touched by at least 2 hands. Plus however many more people browsing in the shop. The q would be the likelihood of it surviving and of you touching exactly the same spot.
Even when they quaranted the cruise ships people were still getting it - air con? Or from the staff handling the food?

Is it possible that moulds could be causing symptoms? We are staying home more so much higher moisture from breathing and cooking more.

With the testing does it include where they are retesting to get a negative recovered person. I wouldnt have thought so but you never know so eg BJ testing negative now recovered.

Yes it does seem over the top. But im in vulnerable category and dont really fancy leaving 2 young kids without a parent. (Especially as obviously dp is my age too and GP and GPIL are 60-70). So realistically if we both ended up in hospital dc would go into care temporily as they would be contagious so GP cant have them. (Both parents in the numewspaper ,nurse etc who died they were both in hospital and child in a home i think. both my age...)

Aside from that having asthma i dont fancy making my lungs permanently worse even if i survive it. Nor worrying about reactivation etc.

Tree pollen is pretty bad, this year, as it's not normally this warm, this early so it's all bloomed at once with nothing to damp it diwn. It's not uncommon to have lying snow, right now, and very common for it to be constant drizzle but instead there's people out in shorts, even here in the northeast.

It's possible that it's:

• New onset hayfever because of a very high pollen count
• A cold that you caught from the post (some cold viruses might survive longer than 3 days on paper)
• Something you caught from another member of your household if you have family/flatmates OR from your garden/windows if you live very close to neighbours.
• That the bin had viral particles on it and you touched it and then accidentally touched something else.

Pollen count is very high today. So it could be that.

Rhinoviruses that cause colds are really tiny and can be airborne so you could have caought one like that?

Corona is 100 x bigger and generally only travels as far as droplets of spit/ cough.

Well OP, did you try an antihistamine yet?