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Original poster

Household transmission being weird

34 replies

applejumble · 03/02/2022 09:14

DH tested positive on Saturday. So far no one else in the house has caught it. We haven’t been isolating from him at all. (Small house). I’m treble jabbed and have had booster. Three kids too young to be vaccinated. What’s going on? We saw DH parents and siblings the night before he tested positive and non of them have it either.

OP posts:
DrWhoNowww · 03/02/2022 09:32

Household transmission was weird here as well.

Two people had it, two people didn’t - zero distancing as not possible given the size of the house.

Have you seen that study that’s been published recently where they attempted to give 36 people covid? Less than half were actually infected even though they’d had live virus shot up their nose.

So it’s not a given you’ll get it.

CagneyNYPD1 · 03/02/2022 09:38

Same here. DS13 is double jabbed. 3/4 of his form have tested positive in thr past 10 days, including him. It has ripped through years 7-9 in his school as well as the teachers. School have moved to remote learning. So highly infectious.

DH, DD and I are still testing negative (Day 8). DS did not isolate, we continued as normal fully expecting that at least one of us would get it. But not so far.

Original poster
applejumble · 03/02/2022 09:56

How many days does household keep testing for? Is it 7 or 10?

OP posts:
Whitefire · 03/02/2022 10:17

Household testing for 7 days.

DD1 tested positive last Thursday, DH on last day of testing today has tested positive, so far dd2 and myself are clear.

DH and I are both double jabbed and boosted. dd1 first jab only, dd2 no jabs. DS had his 2nd last Friday, but we don't talk about Bruno him.

dementedpixie · 03/02/2022 10:19

Dh had it. Noone else in the household (me + 2 kids) caught it

CrunchyCarrot · 03/02/2022 10:23

Not everyone transmits.

Original poster
applejumble · 03/02/2022 10:54

I suppose they don’t @CrunchyCarrot. DH has had very strong positives on LF tests which I always thought was about how contagious you are - but maybe he just isn’t transmitting it.

OP posts:
LifesTooShortYOLO · 03/02/2022 11:19

Exactly same situation here.
Day 9 today since DS tested positive and me and DH still testing negative 🤷🏻‍♀️
Like you Op we've carried on in the house as normal and even had DS in bed with us it's weird.
We had our boosters 6 weeks ago.
Household testing is 7 days but I've done today day 9 and still negative.
Interested to hear of everyone's outcome as the days go on.

Blubells · 03/02/2022 12:30

Exactly the same here.

Despite 2 other household members being positive and I had close contact for several days (including sharing a bed), I never tested positive.

But I'm triple jabbed!

Blubells · 03/02/2022 12:31

but maybe he just isn’t transmitting it.

He likely is transmitting the virus, but your immune system is fighting it off successfully! You're vaccinated too, right?

chesirecat99 · 03/02/2022 13:13

It's not that weird. It's far weirder that people manage to become infected from a chance encounter in the street or by being in a room several hours after an infectiuos person, if you think about it.

Even if you take immunity out of the picture, think about the basic R number of approx. 3 of the original SARS-CoV-2 variant when there was no immunity and no social distancing. That means that each infectious person infects 3 people on average. That's not very many if you think how many people a person has contact with over the infectious period. Then compare that to how quickly it spreads from 1 person > 3 > 9 > 27 > 81 > 243 > 729 > 2187. When it comes down to it, "highly infectious" diseases are only transmitted to a small percentage of an infectious person's contacts.

I guess a good analogy is to think of it a bit like trying to conceive. All those millions of sperm yet it can take months/years to get pregnant (without any specific fertility issues), even when you are actively trying, monitoring ovulation etc yet some people get pregnant when they are taking precautions or have serious fertilty issues and have been told it is impossible to conceive.

Crunchymum · 03/02/2022 13:51

Household transmission has been weird for us too.

Several households met up 22nd January (approx 15 people, 8 of whom are kids. All adults LTF before and are triple jabbed)

Household 1. One DC tested positive on 23rd (headache) and no-one else did.

Household 2: one DC tested positive on 24th. Two other members (adult and child) tested positive 7 days later (the original DC who had it was clear on day 5 and 6)

Household 3: one adult tested positive on 25th, another adult tested positive yesterday (so again 7 days after first positive in the house. The first person to have it in this household was testing negative on day 5 and 6 too)

Household 4 - no-one got it. They all tested negative for 7 days.

Most odd.

No-one particularly distanced. Household 3 used separate bedrooms / first person to have it stayed mostly on one floor.

Crunchymum · 03/02/2022 13:55

So the people with Covid weren't testing + on day 5 and 6 but on day 7 another member of the household came down with it.

People who came down with it on day 7 were testing everyday and were negative on day 5 and 6 of the first household case.

Day 7 the first household cases were 'free but the second lot then had to isolate.

JudyGemstone · 03/02/2022 13:57

All my family have had it now except me, all at different times and not much isolating happening.

samyeagar · 03/02/2022 14:08

It is weird in the sense that it on the surface seems counter-intuitive, especially given the way early information was presented.

In reality, the hit or miss nature, even in close contact households has been the overwhelming norm, so in practice, what is described here in this thread is not actually weird at all. It would be far more weird if the entire household was positive.

Lindy2 · 03/02/2022 14:22

Hopefully you'll all avoid it. I know households where everyone has got it and some where only the original person had it and it didn't spread.

Fingers crossed that you will all stay clear but don't let your guard down yet.

If he tested positive on Saturday though it has only been 5 days since the positive result. It can take upto 10 days to incubate in some people and lateral flows may take a day or 2 to show a positive result in someone who has Covid.

TulipsGarden · 03/02/2022 14:47

My son had it three weeks ago. DP and I didn't get it (tested every day, and no symptoms). We'd had our boosters five weeks before, so I assume they did their job and fought off the virus without us feeling the effects.

It's also been proven that some people just don't spread it very much, and some spread it a lot.

Cameleongirl · 03/02/2022 14:50

Same when DS tested positive a couple of weeks ago. No one else in the household got it. He was asymptomatic, perhaps that made a difference.

DottyHarmer · 03/02/2022 14:51

Just like the common cold, then. I believe they shut down the Common Cold Research place near Salisbury, but they spent years studying transmission and were still none the wiser. People could go for a two-week holiday there and have cold viruses shot up their nose or pumped into their rooms. Some people never succumbed… but apparently many found romance!

ThirdElephant · 03/02/2022 14:54

I had it. No one else has.

ThirdElephant · 03/02/2022 14:55

@ThirdElephant

I had it. No one else has.
No one else in my household has, that ought to say.
AiryFairy1 · 03/02/2022 14:58

Similar here - 2 pos kids and husband, I’m testing neg every day and feeling a bit fed up of caring for the sickies, tbh Grin

I get a bit of a scratchy throat and nose, but then it goes quite quickly … think my body is fighting the germ 🦠 💪

Mepop · 03/02/2022 16:27

Same happened here. My Primary School aged DD is on day 10, feint positive today but dark instant positive yesterday. My DS who is secondary school aged with 1 vaccine dose 12 weeks ago, myself and DH (boosted back in December) all tested negative on LFD throughout including today.

SandrasAnnoyingFriend · 03/02/2022 20:02

It's my day 10 tomorrow. Neither OH nor DS have it.
Haven't been isolating but have been limiting physical contact with DS. OH and I still sharing a bed and have been pretty intimate at times 😳

CeeceeBloomingdale · 03/02/2022 20:05

We are a family of four. Three have had covid, all at separate times. No one else in the household caught it at the same time. We have been in various states of unvaccinated, partly vaccinated and fully vaccinated.