Someone please explain this?

[CrazyFoxLady]

DD was picked at random through the post to volunteer to take an antibody test. It was one of the tests that you prick your finger and put a blood sample in, and if another line appears, it means you are positive. Anyway, she gets a faint line that means she has long lasting antibodies.

By now I'm intrigued as none of us have been unwell. So off I went to the government website to apply for one. DD applied for another one as these ones involved posting off to a lab for someone else to check, plus she still wasn't convinced her result was right!

So we did the tests on Tuesday - results came back yesterday. DD is positive and I'm negative! How can this be? We live together and are a very close family, sociable, share meals etc.

My question is this. If this bloody virus is so transmissible that we can't go near another single person, why haven't I got Covid from DD?

I've now ordered the whole household to apply for tests, as this is really bothering me in a fascinated yet annoyed kinda way

Why are some people so so ill, yet others don't even know they've had it? And why hasn't someone with it given it to the whole household? Bloody hell, in my next life I'm going to work harder at school and study science.

Sorry that went on a bit. I guess I just want to let people know it's not just all the doom and gloom that the media portray it is.

I know loads of people where one person in house has covid and no one else got it.

Equally now loads of families where it’s ripped through the whole household within days

So in conclusion I have no idea!!!

I'm intrigued. Where is the government website where you can order antibody tests for anyone in your family???

I've only seen these available privately.

Why are some people so so ill, yet others don't even know they've had it?

I guess we don’t know the exact reasons.

But I guess those who suffer more have underlying health issues, obesity, diabetes, lung damage, maybe vit D deficient, etc

@bobbiester google antibody tests and use the government website. You do have to meet certain criteria though - not just anyone can apply for them. I'm an NHS worker and DD is also an essential key worker. There is a questionnaire to complete, and if you're successful, they send you an invitation by text.

Thinking back, DD had a bit of a cough last September, but nowhere near bad enough to warrant a test 🤔

my dd (14) had it over Christmas. (positive pcr test)Her only symptom was loss of smell. It was few days before she even told us so we had all been mixing as a family from 23rd(when her symptoms started) dec to 26th before her test. We had been together a lot, becasue it was christmas. Meals, family games, snuggled on the sofa watching films etc... Out of 7 people in the house she was the only one to get it, or at least to have any symptoms. I am also doing twice weekly lateral flow tetsts which remained negative throughout. It is mystery to me how I didnt get it. She was literally snuggled next to me on the sofa with her head on my shoulder for several hours over those day! also know I havent had it before as have previously had negative antibody tests)

It's all down to the dispersal factor of the virus. The following applies to the original variant but may not apply to the newer, more transmissible ones.

Covid has an R0 of about 3 which means that on average without mitigation an infected person will infect 3 other people. The problem with averages is that they often don't reflect the data in a meaningful way and we see this with Covid. What actually happens is that the vast majority (70-80%) don't pass the virus on to anybody (this falls to about 50% for household members), about 20% of people only pass it on to one other person and the remaining 10% of people are responsible for the vast majority of the spread (with some people infecting hundreds of others).

One of the factors that affects how likely you are to spread Covid is how much virus you are shedding into the environment which is related to how much virus you have in your body (viral load). If your daughter never even had symptoms then it is likely she had a low viral load and so wasn't shedding much virus (a distinction should be made here between asymptomatic and presymptomatic - viral load is often highest at around the time of symptom onset as symptoms are generally caused by the immune response).

DD had a bit of a cough last September, but nowhere near bad enough to warrant a test yes a lot of people were saying things like 'shes got a cough but it isn't really persistent so I won't get a test' whilst others of us said 'get a test for any new cough'....

In answer to your question:

• In home transmission is about 50/50
• You may also have had it but not have antibodies anymore

Also based on immune response and serum antibody levels.

You may have had it asymptomatically much earlier, and all your antibodies have now dissipated - hence negative test, or you may have both had it at around the same time and for a whole host of reasons may have had fewer antibodies to begin with, or cleared them more quickly than your daughter.

My husband had it (a mildish flu) and no one else in our house did. He caught it from my sister and also some shared friends caught it from them but me and the kids were fine. This was early and his was detected later by an antibody test, though the friend had hers confirmed as COVID. Therefore me and the kids aren't 100% sure we didn't have it, but certainly weren't at all unwell.

[quote CrazyFoxLady]@bobbiester google antibody tests and use the government website. You do have to meet certain criteria though - not just anyone can apply for them. I'm an NHS worker and DD is also an essential key worker. There is a questionnaire to complete, and if you're successful, they send you an invitation by text.

Thinking back, DD had a bit of a cough last September, but nowhere near bad enough to warrant a test 🤔[/quote]
Did she cough more than 3 times in 24 hours? If she did then of course she should have been tested. They never said that it had to be a bad cough, just new.

You may not have got it but how many other people did she spread it to?

OP, you've probably read about vitamin D in relation to Covid. There haven't been trials in this country, but there have in others, that having a good level of vitamin D helps prevent catching Covid (or prevents a serious response). Perhaps that will turn out to be true and proven in trials (not far-fetched as vitamin D is connected to our immune response).
So it may be that you and your family have decent levels and your daughter was exposed to a small viral load.

In house transmission rate to non-spouse is < 40% from people with symptoms & < 5% from people without symptoms.JAMA.

Everyone in my workplace had Covid about 45 people and less than half of us transmitted to our families..about 40%.

My friend was positive from work. She sleeps in the same bed as her husband, who was shielding, but he didn’t get it. Neither did their daughter who lives in the same house.

Thinking back, DD had a bit of a cough last September, but nowhere near bad enough to warrant a test 🤔

Well there you go!! She had a new cough 🙄

OP I haven't read the whole thread.

But I wanted to give you my experience of DH and all 22 of his 23 colleagues contracting Covid in December. They had been extremely careful with huge amounts of supposed Covid safe procedures in place.

Out of the 22, only 8 passed it onto family members (at the time 2 household members could take a drive through test also, plus DH's work provided lateral flow tests for families so that's how we know).

It's all very confusing.

I have worked throughout the pandemic in an open plan office. Multiple people in the office have tested positive. I have had a long conversation with one person whilst they were infectious although we both wore masks.

My husband tested positive, we share a bed etc.

I still do not have antibodies (tested June and December).

My mother who only leaves the house to walk, has covid.

It makes no sense to me at all.

Op it is just the u predictability of any infectious disease. Some households all get it, some none.

'Thinking back, DD had a bit of a cough last September, but nowhere near bad enough to warrant a test '

It never needed to be 'bad' to get a test. Just a new cough. Wonder how many she spread it to if she's an essential key worker 🙄.

It’s just all so fascinating. We’re jumping in bushes to avoid people outdoors. Constant social distancing. Yet people can live in the same house and share the same bed and not pick it up.

There’s so much we don’t know. I read somewhere some people have natural immunity, maybe from a recent similar coronavirus which wasn’t COVID but may have generated a t-cell response that stops you getting COVID.

Part of me wonders of this is why some Asian countries haven’t been hit as hard. Maybe SARS
T-cells (found to still be effective 15 years later) can help with protection? I know there are other reasons too.

We’re told it’s highly contagious and highly transmissible so there must be a reason.

Viral load also key. So I guess asymptomatic spread it much less?

Thanks for your replies folks, some very knowledgeable peeps on here.

Please can I say though her 'bit of a cough' in September really was just that. No way would I have wasted a test when the guidelines clearly state: a new and persistent cough, high, temp, loss of taste and/or smell. She had a bit of a tickle which is probably pollen related as she gets it often due to mild allergies in the family

I do take vitamin D supplements though, so that could be spot on.

So interested in this right now, signing up for every app/ trial going. Oh, I wish I was clever 😂

'a new and persistent cough, high, temp, loss of taste and/or smell. '

One of those things op not all. Anyway too late now but how anyone would presume a cough is pollen (in September) and not actually a virus where the symptoms are a cough probably explains why infection rates have been so high.

They’re very clear that it’s to be a ‘persistent’ cough, don’t go all jumping on the op- if everyone had gone for a test because they coughed 3 times, we’d have caused much bigger issues- ridiculous!

It wasn't new or persistent. Just a little cough. Blimey if everyone got tested who just coughed, we would have run of tests by now! I'm always coughing, usually when I down my gin too quickly

@GetOffYourHighHorse I know it's one of the symptoms, not all And perfectly logical to have a reaction to pollen any time of year. My DH has hay fever most of the year where I want to kill him for sneezing so
bloody much

It really really surprises me that people are so confused about the fact that some people get very ill and others are absolutely fine. That's the case with literally every other known infection - some people come into contact with bacteria or a virus and have little or no illness while others are very ill and die. Many many people carry at type of bacteria that causes meningitis in their throat, for example, but bacterial meningitis is relatively rare. The vast majority of people will carry the bacteria their whole lives and have no issues, some will get ill but recover and a proportion will die. Equally, you can have measles and feel absolutely fine, feel a bit rough for a few days recover fully, feel horrendous for weeks/months and suffer terrible after effects (including blindness and brain damage) or it can kill you.

It's not a new thing - so why are people acting like it is? It's so weird.