How many times can you be exposed and not get it? Does being a exposed make your immune system stronger

[Autumngoldleaf]

Dd had it, and we avoided it, now dd 2 has it with stronger symptoms but.. She is older and has been staying in her room more.

Will being exposed help shore up immune system or does it mean they vaccine working or we are just not catching it.

However I work on a site with lots of young people so I will get more and more exposure is it just a case of luck if I do or don't get it?

Some people seem to not catch it despite living with a household member who has it but can go on to catch it a few months later. It’s so bizarre.

Our two daughters went down with - eldest tested positive first, then youngest a day afterwards. Husband tested positive almost two weeks after eldest (having been feeling unwell but repeated negative lateral flows and PCRs for a week), and I tested positive yesterday, three weeks in, having had a negative PCR and two negative lateral flows after husband tested positive.

I thought when I didn't catch it off either of the children that the vaccine must be doing its job. And perhaps it warded it off for a while? I don't know. Both my husband and I felt iffy for a few days (husband did three negative PCRs before his positive one though, I did 1 negative PCR and 2 negative lateral flows) before we got positive tests.

If you are exposed to the virus, one of two things happens: your immune system clears it from your body, or it kills you.

How long it takes for your body to clear it and how much the virus manages to replicate before your body clears it, along with your personal vulnerabilities, determines whether you are seriously ill, mildly ill or totally asymptomatic. If your body clears it very quickly, you may never have enough virus in your system to test positive, in which case you will never know that you were infected.

But every exposure has the potential to boost your immune response.

You’ve probably had it and didn’t know.
Unless you were doing a PCR daily for the whole duration when your DD has symptoms you will never know for sure

I wonder this too. My DD had it and I caught it on day 9 of her isolation. I’m on day 6 and as yet DH and two DS are yet to catch it. DH double vaxxed but DSs aren’t. Genuinely surprised they haven’t caught it.

Harlan and how badly did you get covid? @HarlanPepper

@Autumngoldleaf it's the day after I tested positive so hard to say yet. I don't feel too bad at the moment - just like a head cold with a side order of fatigue and slight breathlessness on exertion. I'm double vaccinated so I'm hoping it's not too bad. But my husband was in bed for a week pretty much and still isn't 100% now.

I work in a secondary school and just last week I was chatting to DH about how lucky I was never too have caught it even though I've been exposed so many times.

I developed symptoms Thursday/Friday last week and tested positive on Friday. I have felt very, very ill for just over a week now. Never quite bad enough to need medical help, but worse than any illness I've had in a long time. Double jabbed, so this is me with a milder case than I might have had without the jabs.

Hope you feel better soon @MsAwesomeDragon .

Ds had it in May when I'd only had one vaccine. No one else in house caught it. But dh had it two weeks ago and me and another ds caught it. The one that had it in may didn't, and dd didn't, despite her cuddling and kissing me every day and sleeping with me most nights! Hard to believe.

My elderly, immunocompromised mother was worried her jab didn't work so she paid for an antibody test. Her vaccine antibody levels were about 2300 ug (for reference, 2500 is considered optimal). I also did the test and my levels were crap compared to hers, only about 700ug and just 3 months out from my vaccine, and confirmed ZERO natural antibodies so I've never been infected.

Why am I telling you this? Because I cared for 2 kids and my husband and nursed them all through covid with them coughing in my face the entire time, my toddler sharing my drink etc. Rubbish levels of antibodies, morbidly obese and yet I STILL didn't get it. I did however get lots of symptoms - sore throat, headache, joint aches, too hot then too cold. I felt quite uplifted that even though my PCRs were all negative that my body must have been rallying the troops to fight it off and at the very least it would have given me a nice boost of my pre existing vaccine antibodies. But as my levels after were really low then that's clearly not the case. I can't explain why I had symptoms but based on my tests I don't believe that encountering covid gives you any boost of immunity unless you actually get a confirmed infection.

I think it's just a case of either getting it or not getting it, and some people for unknown reasons are just really hard to infect. I guess I must be one of tthem

Day bath again how strange and interesting! And lucky for you.

Maybe your the type of case the scientists need to be looking at? You were, must have been heavily exposed and yet nothing?

Yes Autumngoldleaf, it's crazy how determined my kids were to infect me. Raspberries in my face so I could feel the spit droplets, licking my ice lolly, sloppy mouth kisses from my toddler. Gross little monsters! My husband was more careful but when he was asleep it was a different story, full on coughs right in my face then carried on snoring while I wiped the mist off my mouth...ugh. I've been a close contact of my covid positive niece and I still haven't caught it, I'm the last one standing.

On paper I should be dead, my odds are shit. That's life I guess, nothing is predictable.

Bizarrely, we’ve never knowingly had it in our family, despite the kids being massively exposed on many occasions at school.

However I’m one of those who thinks they had it before it was even here, back in late Oct/early Nov 2019. DD and I had the nastiest virus with breathing difficulties, spent on eve in A&E with little one on a nebuliser. I spent one night sleeping sitting up but slumped forwards on pillows and many others totally on my front. It seemed like everyone else was at hospital for the same thing. Once we’d both recovered, I remember feeling like I’d won a battle and thinking that virus was like nothing I’d ever had before.

I had covid moderately in the beginning when it was doing rounds last March.
Have not caught it again.
Have had 2 children now who have had it separately last couple of months. I slept in their bed etc, they coughed all over me.
Interestingly, I developed mild version of the symptoms I had with Covid last year but never tested positive. I genuinely think I was having an immune reaction. Almost like what some people get when they get vaccinated.

Same with me. DD is positive now but I've not caught it and we've been sleeping in the same bee, not been separated. The day before symptoms she was with her dad, brother, great nan, grandad and none have tested positive and was in school. We've all found this confusing as well.

None of my family have had it. I've worked as a childminder throughout with keyworker families.

Kids school years repeatedly put on isolation with close friends affected. Spent 5 days in hospital last April as dad was end of life.

Never hand sanitized, washed my shopping, stayed in during lockdown.

Baby I looked after and entire family had it.

I don't know if we are extremely lucky but I
am immensely grateful.

Oh and before I get jumped on I can't sanitise as I have hand dermatitis which is immensely painful when you add sanitiser and I had to go out during lockdown to look after my highly vulnerable newly bereaved mother.

Have so far managed to avoid it touch wood.
I work in hospitality, have worked with various members of staff who went on to test positive (was working quite closely with them). My son is at school.
It's odd. I definitely felt a bit weird before we went into lockdown (bit of a temp, headache), maybe I had it then. Who knows! Am unvaccinated.

Does severity of reaction to the vaccination have any indication of strength of immunity?

As far as I understand it, @Catawaul, severity of reaction to the vaccine is to do with our innate immune response, which is the sort of non-specific first line response to infection. Vaccines target our adaptive immune response - where antibodies are produced against specific pathogens. So I don't think there is a correlation but I am not an immunologist.

My husband dealt with exposure in our house for 3 weeks and he didn’t catch it. We slept together before I knew I had it. He’s since had antibody testing which shows none. It’s mad

SoOverhis

So maybe that's was I felt two weeks ago and I had watery eyes, mild gastric issues and so on.

Dd 2 is now on day 7 and I was stuck in a car day her day - 1. Before she showed symptoms.

If anti bodies aren't the only measure of reposnse what else can be measured I wonder?

Shouldn't zoe, scientists etc be asking for people with loads of exposure to come forward so they can work out why they didn't get it?

@JS87

Some people seem to not catch it despite living with a household member who has it but can go on to catch it a few months later. It’s so bizarre.

Yep this happened to quite a few people I know. One's DH caught it at Christmas. She didn't catch it then, but caught it two weeks ago, months after double pfizer jab, with no idea how she caught it. He didn't catch it off her and she was dying with fever and exhaustion for 2 weeks. Another had asymptomatic covid (well it was asymptomatic until she was hospitalised with a stroke on day 3) and spread it to no one in her household. Another two couples had one partner get sick and the other not catch it (weirdly in both cases the healthcare worker partner had no evidence of catching it but the non-HCW partner got really ill with no idea how they got it).