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Original poster

When people say they have no idea how they got it...

202 replies

Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 22:09

I see this all the time on MN as well as on social media - people saying they have no idea how they could possibly have got covid because they haven't been anywhere or seen anyone. Then it turns out they have been to the supermarket/post office/for a hospital appointment/live with someone who works outside the home etc etc. Are people who genuinely haven't left the house other than for walks outside when they are socially distanced from others really testing positive? Or do people think "I haven't been anywhere or seen anyone" doesn't include the supermarket and so on?

BTW this is not me criticising anyone for going going the supermarket or whatever, I'm just struggling to comprehend the sheer number of people who are adamant they've caught it despite not leaving the house. I think I keep as safe as I can - I get all my food shopping delivered, I live in a busy area so I tend to wear a mask when outside, both DH and I wfh and our DS is not at school. However if I caught it I don't think I would be baffled - I was in the chemist the other day picking up some antibiotics, sometimes it is impossible for me to stay 2m away from people outside unless I walk into traffic...and so on.

I'm just wondering which it is: are people genuinely getting it when they haven't left the house and have only been for walks when they were SD the entire time, OR are people genuinely surprised they are getting it despite supermarket trips and so on because they think if masked and distanced you can't catch it?

OP posts:
Original poster
Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 23:22

Surely if it was thru touch nearly everyone would have it by now.

Am inclined to agree with you tbh

OP posts:
DigitalGhost · 29/01/2021 23:22

I only went to my midwife appointment in the week leading up to it. Pretty sure I caught it from the toilets in the GP surgery as they're absolutely disgusting.

LadyStarlight · 29/01/2021 23:23

@Kazzyhoward where I am it's been quite strict and we haven't had the restrictions lifted as much as other areas did. Our numbers are also still on the increase!

Nopreservatives · 29/01/2021 23:23

I have no idea how I got it. I work in school, so obviously there are a number of possibilities but I am very careful and don't have a close contact job. No one at work had to isolate as a result of my Covid, for example and no one else at work, staff or student, was ill at the same time.

I'd also been to the gym, but again, very careful with distancing and none of the people there at the same time (small gym, working a booking system) had it.

As far as I know, no one at all, outside of my household, caught it from me, but obviously I did get close enough to someone to catch it.

I do wonder if teen DS1 brought it home from work, asymptomatically, as he was the only one not to catch it during my isolation period, but he tested negative c. day 7

TryingNotToPanicOverCovid · 29/01/2021 23:24

Parted I think you're right about the post.

And also about the people who "only just did x" . I would have imagined I was going to catch it from school so am completely shocked I have it now.

If we werent broke Id be paying for tests and antibody tests in the way I did pregnancy tests to be sure when I was pregnant!

Original poster
Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 23:25

Nopreservatives

You work in a school, you go to the gym and you live with your DS who works outside the home

I don't think that's a big mystery, that's what I mean.

OP posts:
tatutata · 29/01/2021 23:26

@TryingNotToPanicOverCovid Fomites from a delivery seem far more likely than passing someone on a walk.

Nopreservatives · 29/01/2021 23:26

@Partedinsurprise

Nopreservatives

You work in a school, you go to the gym and you live with your DS who works outside the home

I don't think that's a big mystery, that's what I mean.

Yes, that's what I said, but I don't know anyone at those places who had it in the weeks before or after.
LadyStarlight · 29/01/2021 23:27

Also regarding going out - once a fortnight to the small local supermarket late in the evening. We must've been very unlucky if that is where we picked it up!

TryingNotToPanicOverCovid · 29/01/2021 23:27

Nopreservatices 1 in 3 people are asymptomatic so it could be literally anyone. If many have very mild symptoms they wont test either. Our school didnt make people test for colds with coughs...

So I imagine anyone at school or gym could have. I imagien a chain can spread quite fast if a couple in the chain are asymptomatic.

TryingNotToPanicOverCovid · 29/01/2021 23:28

Gosh OP I completely see your point and agree with you.

I dont see how anyone who has been indoors anywhere can say they "don't know how they could have got it."

Jenasaurus · 29/01/2021 23:30

I am assuming I am unlikely to get it, or if I do I will get it mildly as I had the AZ vaccine 11 days ago. However if I do get it, it will be from my DD who works at a nursery and lives with me, as I literally dont go anywhere, I work from home and have shopping delivered. Her BF also lives here with us and he works from home, but has popped to the corner shop for groceries occassionally (mainly chocolate!) the shop is small and often you are the only customer in there, and there is a screen for the shop keeper so I assume a very low risk of transmission, plus he is only 20 and healthy so unlikely to be too unwell with it if he gets it. I do worry about my DD though as she has a poor immune system, not currently diagnosed but been refferred for a scan following worrying blood test results. Working in a nursery with a poor immune system is not ideal. They are looking at several causes one of which is Hodgkins Lymphoma which is really worrying us all. So whilst she is young, I do consider her working environment to be a risk to her for transmission.

Nopreservatives · 29/01/2021 23:30

I know there are plenty of possibilities but I don't know "how" I got it and I didn't pass it on to anyone, so that must show I was pretty good with the distancing etc.

Original poster
Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 23:30

Yes, that's what I said, but I don't know anyone at those places who had it in the weeks before or after

More people who have it are asymptomatic than not, so again that doesn't mean an awful lot really.

OP posts:
JanuaryChill · 29/01/2021 23:30

It's not very relevant to say "but no one else at work/school/the gym was ill or tested positive around the time I caught it!"

Asymptomatic infection, anyone?

Original poster
Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 23:31

I know there are plenty of possibilities but I don't know "how" I got it and I didn't pass it on to anyone

Again not a criticism, but you don't know that as you could have and they might just have been asymptomatic.

OP posts:
Annabell80 · 29/01/2021 23:31

I'm still not sure how my husband and youngest daughter caught it in first lockdown. My husband and I were both off work due to my pregnancy and the children weren't at school and we didn't go out at all (got food and medicine delivered). Somehow they both caught it.
Now I think I have caught it, (waiting for test results) along with my eldest but my husband and I are back at work, the children are at school and nursery and I work in a supermarket so it's understandable.
First time round is a mystery.

JanuaryChill · 29/01/2021 23:32

@Nopreservatives

I know there are plenty of possibilities but I don't know "how" I got it and I didn't pass it on to anyone, so that must show I was pretty good with the distancing etc.
Sorry but you cannot be sure you didn't pass it onto anyone, they could have been asymptomatic.
Original poster
Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 23:32

Fomites from a delivery seem far more likely than passing someone on a walk

I actually don't think either are very likely. Both must be very rare.

OP posts:
alienspiderbee · 29/01/2021 23:34

I've heard people say "We've been so careful I dont know how we got it" then in the next sentence reveal they have children in school.

Original poster
Partedinsurprise · 29/01/2021 23:34

We must've been very unlucky if that is where we picked it up!

I dont think what you describe is as low risk as you think it is, unless there was literally no one else in the shop

I often think as well that those small local supermarkets must be a bigger risk than the big ones, as there is no room to SD.

OP posts:
TryingNotToPanicOverCovid · 29/01/2021 23:35

If you google the main articles say there is no evidence of fomite transmission. This is what changed our mind about washing groceries last summer. Its thought to be aerosol based.

So in my case I think I must have been unfortunate and caught a sneeze or a cough as I was near someone outdoors.
Which I think must also be quite unusual.

LadyStarlight · 29/01/2021 23:36

@Partedinsurprise I've never seen more than half a dozen people when I'm shopping and everyone is social distancing because they pretty much have the shop to themselves!

TryingNotToPanicOverCovid · 29/01/2021 23:38

Im not convinced social distance makes much differencd once in a supermarket. Not if you're inside for a while. If you look at airflow (early study in a restaurant showed it spread in direction of air con. Similar on a plane and an office).

Hence why we "didn't do indoors. "

CazM2012 · 29/01/2021 23:38

My DS tested positive last Saturday during a routine test for the national survey. The rest of us are negative as is my DM who is in our bubble, he hasn’t been inside a shop and had no contact with any other person since December, walks in the park but nowhere near anybody. Still not sure how!

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