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Covid

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Original poster

Why have I never tested positive?

73 replies

Thingsaregonnachange · 07/06/2022 09:05

Been around many people with covid including my own household twice and never tested positive or became ill with it. I even had my daughter cough directly in my face because I wanted to get it over and done with.
We have just been away to America and were all poorly over there. I am 99% sure it was covid but again didn't test positive. When we had returned and were feeling much better, I checked I was still negative & we went to see my parents. Within 3 days they had both tested positive for covid and are now poorly with it. Seems very coincidental as they don't really go anywhere. If they had caught it from elsewhere I was around them for that day when they would have been contagious. I've tested every day since seeing them, it's now 10 days later and nothing . I'm triple vaxed. Anyone else never tested positive but think that they have had it?

OP posts:

Fifi0102 · 22/06/2022 19:43

Me never blown positive had a chest infection at very beginning of pandemic. I work in healthcare, people with dementia and brain injury they can't really social distance we have had COVID on the ward numerous times and I've never caught it.

Iknowthis1 · 23/06/2022 10:55

It sounds like you're pretty sure you were positive but it just didnt show on the test. Maybe the nasal swab wasnt reaching the right spot. I kept testing negative on the nasal swab but when i tried doing it in my throat instead it came back positive.

riesenrad · 23/06/2022 14:10

I don't think any of us have had it (me DH and DS) and I have friends who've not had it either. Maybe we have but had no symptoms or the odd cough or sniffle was the extent of our symptoms so we didn't really notice.

Madhairday · 24/06/2022 09:32

Another here. I've been exposed multiple times now including DH breathing and coughing in my face all night before he tested positive. He isolated as soon as he did as I am CEV. Every one of my family have had it and most of my friends. I've hugged positive people, chatted to them for hours etc yet never tested positive. I had a flu thing and was convinced it was it but never positive. Got convinced I must be doing the tests wrong but DH also had that flu and was negative, then tested positive a few weeks later, so I don't think it is about technique and I've studied all the videos etc! It's so weird because I usually pick up everything going.

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat · 24/06/2022 12:51

Spoke too soon!! I now have it, although apart from feeling like I have a mild cold and feeling permanently tired I don't feel too bad with it

StanleyBostitch · 24/06/2022 14:16

My husband and eldest son cannot catch it for love or money. My youngest son coughed and sneezed everywhere when he had it, no one else in the house got it. When I had it recently my husband kept forgetting to not kiss me, we also shared a bed, and he still didn't get it. I don't wonder if he's had it, but he tests whenever someone in the house gets it and he's never tested positive. Neither has our eldest son. Weird.

StanleyBostitch · 24/06/2022 14:17

I do wonder if he's had it

LovinglifeAF · 24/06/2022 17:10

Hmm I did think that especially when I had had bugs with similar symptoms. Either that I wasn’t testing properly or reading the test properly or that I was somehow someone who just wouldn’t test positive.

However I had it 2 weeks ago and the line popped up with about 2seconds before the control line did and all I had done was tickle my nostril

based on that I’ve got a lot more faith in the tests to pick up a positive case

MayISuggestSomeThickCutSteakChipsToGoWithThat · 25/06/2022 02:19

LovinglifeAF · 24/06/2022 17:10

However I had it 2 weeks ago and the line popped up with about 2seconds before the control line did and all I had done was tickle my nostril

based on that I’ve got a lot more faith in the tests to pick up a positive case

Yeah I was the same. I was convinced I either was doing the test properly, cos I was testing negative even with most of the symptoms. Xmas Eve couldn't taste a thing, felt like shit did a test, negative. OH had it a while back. Long distance but over my way delivering. Didn't feel 100% but he just presumed he was feeling off cos of low blood sugar and felt better after something to eat and drink. In close contact for well over an hour in a non ventilated space no face masks. Kissed and cuddled I never got it. I tested regularly for work plus PCR'd too. All tests negative. Couple of days later he came down with it. Catch it off someone at work last week both of us wearing masks. Thought my hay fever was getting worse so upped my tablets. Tested negative 3 times. Still no change in symptoms so decided to test again just to be on the safe side before going to work the following day and the positive pinged up straight away. Only thing I did different that time was briefly swab my throat. Did another one the next morning just swabbing my nose and that was positive too. If we didn't need to test regularly for work I wouldn't even have given it a second thought. Start of it for me on day 1 Mine just felt like the start of a mild cold where you get that slight irritation in your throat which isn't quite a sore throat but feels different to normal and might feel a little stuffy and sniffly but nothing that stops you from doing anything. Day 5 or second day of testing positive headache that was a lot worse on standing, aching legs and very tired, yesterday headache and slight loss of taste and very tired. Today full loss of taste but loads of energy. Oh and a blocked but mega runny nose every day. I seem to permanently have bog roll shoved under my nose! The loss of taste is the worst part for me. Was going to order a takeout but then decided there was no point cos I'd not be able to taste it or enjoy it. I can sort of decipher very sweet or very salty and can feel something hot like ginger on my tongue but if I didn't know what it was I couldn't tell you what it was I was eating. I did joke a while back that if I got it I'd make the most of not having any taste and I'd eat loads of fruit and veg I wouldn't normally eat to kick start my weight loss. I've barely managed more than a few mouthfuls since I've had it. Not betting on losing much weight though

PinkStarAtNight · 25/06/2022 03:29

I have been wondering about this myself! Both myself and boyfriend were really ill in January 2020 - what we thought was a bad bout of flu, but we felt considerably worse than we had with flu in a while, and we both remember having a tight chest. That was back when Covid was just another sideline news item and just something that was happening in China. I remember reading that ONE person had tested positive in the UK, but we weren't worried because we thought it would be contained. Crazy how a few weeks later we were in lockdown.

Anyway, sorry that's not the point! You just made me think about how crazy its all been...

I've never once tested positive and after the first six months of panic and fear, me and boyfriend and my parents started mixing with a select few people, then increased it gradually to the point of hugging and freely socialising, even during times they were telling us to still be careful. Boyfriend's family have all tested positive, but never him, never me, never my DM (DF has never bothered with testing).

We have all occasionally had cold like symptoms (nothing major) and done the test, but always negative...I have wondered how this can be, when I know lots of people who have tested positive at least once, and once the first six months were over I was fairly liberal in my approach to socialising.

I am double vaccinated but was late to get them because of phobia of needles, and haven't yet been able to psych myself up for a booster (my second covid jab was awful, I nearly passed out) so I'm not even fully protected. Very strange!

GlitterSparkley · 25/06/2022 06:11

Same here too! DD came down with it, coughed in my face, snotty covidy mucus filled tissues left everywhere. I came down with something hideous 5 days later - flu like, temperature, cough, the full works. 4 PCR tests later - all negative. All lateral flows - negative. So strange!

generalh · 14/07/2022 06:21

It has finally got me. Tested positive this morning after 3 negative tests. Felt under the weather Tuesday and thought I may have a summer cold. Nearly got to the end of term too.

Confusedteatowel · 14/07/2022 06:35

I read that some people have a quality to their saliva/snot that confuses the tests and causes false negatives (too acid/ alkaline maybe)

(Sorry if someone has mentioned this before - nrtft)

ArcticSkewer · 14/07/2022 06:39

Probably how you are doing the tests. Did you always do throat plus nose, did it make you gag, right amount of time etc.

Keladrythesaviour · 14/07/2022 06:42

Yeah I'm the same. Had my whole team go down with it at work, had all the same symptoms, negative every test. Another time I'm the only link between positive people and yet nothing...

Sniffypete · 14/07/2022 06:48

Thingsaregonnachange · 07/06/2022 09:27

I do think that I have had it on more than one occasion. But I think for some reason I don't show as positive on tests? It's very wierd

My partner is like this too. He's spent time with infected people, then been ill but never once tested positive!

Delatron · 14/07/2022 15:26

I think the constant low level exposure is a thing.

There was an interesting study showing health care workers had higher levels of protective t-cells (related to Covid) despite never testing positive.

On these threads it’s often health care workers, teachers, people who have worked throughout the pandemic who appear to have swerved it. Not those that have hidden away.

Maybe by getting some low viral load exposure frequently boosts immunity. In some people. It’s all very interesting.

Delatron · 14/07/2022 15:30

I think if people have been ill with symptoms then that will have been Covid. The tests aren’t definitive and can often be inaccurate. Or people test at the wrong time. They may clear the infection quickly so unless they are constantly testing will miss that small window where they were positive.

My positive test on Sunday was completely negative by Tuesday - so if I’d waited until then to test…

blackgreywhite · 15/07/2022 00:27

I think if I have remembered correctly that 10% of people in the Uk haven't had it yet.
I was one of those until last week when it finally got me. Most people I know have had it, some several times, but I know loads that haven't.

RockinStroll · 15/07/2022 00:39

I've had it 3 times
DH twice
DD once
DS has never tested positive and yet the time that myself, DH and DD all had it at once DS had the worst symptoms.

WanderingFruitWonderer · 15/07/2022 10:23

I tested positive for the first time this week. But funnily enough, I had pretty much exactly the same symptoms at least twice since the start of the pandemic. So, I don't know! Faulty tests the other times? Who knows?

WanderingFruitWonderer · 15/07/2022 10:24

I meant that I tested negative the other times

generalh · 15/07/2022 13:44

I tested positive yesterday but negative Wednesday night. Therefore Day 1 was yesterday and day 5 is Monday. I have been told to isolate for 5 days. Therefore if I test negative on Tuesday morning I can go to work, yes? I have asked work for more clarification but radio silence at the moment.

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