Do the measures work, or is it luck that you haven’t caught Covid?

[Alexapourmewine]

Just that really...

Do the masks, distancing, ventilation all really work?

Is it just pure luck that you haven’t caught it, or is it that you haven’t actually been In contact with a positive case.

SO many people I know who have tested positive, swear they don’t know how they caught it.
Swear that they’ve distanced, worn a mask, washed hands etc, but still caught Covid.

So do the measures actually work?

It raises the question, is Covid in the air? Or do you have to have been around a positive person?

It’s not in the air in the sense of blowing around in the wind.
But if a positive person went into a confined space with little ventilation and then came out and you went in just after you could catch it without touching anything or being near the person.
The rules help but they don’t guarantee anything.

Many scientists believe it’s transmitted by aerosols, although officials deny it because they don’t want to scare people. Masks, distancing and ventilation help but don’t prevent transmission entirely.

www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/02/1009235/this-scientist-made-a-google-doc-to-educate-the-public-about-airborne-coronavirus-transmission/amp/

I'd say so. I havent had a single cold or any lurgy in a year.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

It’s not in the air in the sense of blowing around in the wind. But if a positive person went into a confined space with little ventilation and then came out and you went in just after you could catch it without touching anything or being near the person. The rules help but they don’t guarantee anything.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

So for instance supermarkets are super spreaders then?

I work in a large senior school and we weren’t allowed to wear masks in class but nothing occurred 🤔 must just be luck of the draw.

I think it's pure luck. But then I have no proof I haven't had it. Maybe that migraine I had in late February was it. Maybe not. I'm extremely careful in that I go to great lengths to avoid it and wear a pretty thick face mask with filter while out. But then DH is just too forgetful to be as careful as me and he hasn't had it either. (He had an antibody test)

I had an antibody test too and I haven’t had it either

Every single person I know who's had it either caught it in a nursing home, hospital or factory.

I don't believe it's necessarily luck, more just I've been able to avoid those places.

Taken overall (rather than analysing one particular situation) I'd say measures 20% at most, luck 80%. Mainly because you never know when you're in the same location as a positive person, or whether they're a superspreader etc. There are probably more scientific ways of expressing this!

My husband caught it, no idea where from. Myself and our two children’s and him all isolated for 14 days and we continued sharing a bed. The children and I didn’t catch it and I was tested twice.

I was working in Westminster for all of 2020, daily on the tube and around lots of people. I never caught it.

Supermarkets are mostly high ceilinged and well ventilated and people don’t stand around in the same place in them for long so I don’t know either way. I certainly wouldn’t rule out someone catching it at the supermarket but it must be pretty unusual to breathe a lot of the same person’s air the way you might in a tiny unventilated room.

I know loads of people who have had it and the rest of their family didn’t get it, despite living very closely together.

DD had it, caught from nursery but none of the rest of us had it and I was tested twice during the period she had it.

I was surprised to have not have caught it given that many at work have had it and we have had to care for residents that have had it so been constantly surrounded by it and difficult to socially distance (work in mh)

Antibody test has returned back positive. I’m not surprised.

And regularly tested so not quite sure when I would have had it

Little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

I’ve worked throughout (now ex-NHS back office). We had an outbreak at work at the beginning of January.

On a floor of 20-40 people depending on rotas including consultants/registrars who run the covid wards, 12 people tested positive. Open plan, not particularly ventilated (hot/cold argument that goes on in every office) with no break space so everyone removes their mask for eating and drinking purposes but worn at all other times. I’m pretty certain masks prevented some potential infections.

Pure speculation but I’m pretty convinced I can track a pattern in general relationships/attitude to distancing etc. Well that and I’m certain that someone attended the office when they should have been waiting for a PCR result.

I think I had it in February last year no drama few days off work all fine.

I think it's luck. I haven't had Covid and I work in a factory. About 20% of people at work have had it. I was in an unventilated room with 3 positive people and didn't catch it. I know I didn't catch it because I had a test done and it was negative.

@IAmADancer

My husband caught it, no idea where from. Myself and our two children’s and him all isolated for 14 days and we continued sharing a bed. The children and I didn’t catch it and I was tested twice.

I was working in Westminster for all of 2020, daily on the tube and around lots of people. I never caught it.

Check his phone.

There is an element of luck... If no one around you has it, you can't catch it off them,no matter how close you are or how many people there are around you.

The measures help reduce the chances of getting it if you are unlucky enough to come across someone with it.

I should say that I haven’t had covid. M

I do have a theory that the chilled and freezer sections of supermarkets are where people are more vulnerable to infection. My theory is based on zero scientific experience or education and nothing more than the virus is thought to survive better in low temperatures and the outbreaks in food factories.

Fuck knows. I work in front line medical care and was working right up till the start of lock down with PPE that is now not considered adequate. I didn’t get it. DH got it. I didn’t get it. I spent time with a friend who had a positive test 2 days later. I didn’t get it. I’m back at work with all the PPE, no sign of it. Though fir some procedures I’m in basic (pre pandemic) PPE leaning over people’s faces. Never had a positive test, never had any symptoms. I must have had it with no or very minor symptoms.

So do the measures actually work?

Do you think it has all been a big practical joke then? Of course the measures work. The rates would have been ballistic without them.

I don't understand, really, why people are asking this stuff a year in. It's obvious you are more likely to catch something the closer you are to someone and the longer you spend with them.

Not caught it - but have been working from home for almost a year, not met up with anyone inside except my parents (who were in a bubble with us), not been in shops. Kids have been at school though. Have been in to three different covid wards (parents caught it and in hospital)- but in full PPE. Also cleaned my parents house after they went into hospital, but well ventilated and wearing a mask and gloves.

Guess I have been both lucky and very careful.

I work in a college. Quite a few people in our Staffroom have had it - one close colleague. Feel quite lucky not to have caught it.