A question about immunity

[AWomaWithZeroFsTGive]

For the record, I believe it is now established Covid19 was in the UK long before the official cases were recorded, perhaps in November 2019 and the 'flu' which floored most of our colleagues and family around Christmas/New Year 2019/20. My family and I were all affected.

I was very fortunate in that I was able to work from home since March 2020 and was able to keep myself fairly isolated, which brought its own issues.

I tested whenever I thought I had any form of symptom but it was always negative until December 2022. I have taken every vaccination and booster since they became available as an over 50 year old which meant my last booster was October 2022. A weekend in London in December 2022 was followed by a positive test which eventually tested negative on day seven.

I have just recently been away with my partner who tested strongly positive four days into our trip. I felt for sure it would only be a matter of time until I tested positive also as we had been close.

We both tested every other day from then on in and despite his further strongly positive test and us not isolating from one another, I continuously tested negative.

If there is anyone out there who can shed any light upon this, I would be grateful. Is my immunity increased by being around somebody testing strongly positive or is this just a reflection of my current immunity and has no bearing on future immunity?

I appreciate this is not an easy question as I have asked many in RL and still have no answers. In fact, I do not really know what the question is accurately, but hope somebody can understand and provide something of an answer,

My partner caught COVID on new years eve, he tested positive for 14 days and I was baffled that I never caught it from him in all that time, yet fast forward to 5th Feb and some brief exposure to someone's COVID on a flight back from Mexico and I caught it - I have no clue how this virus works, it moves in very mysterious ways.

Catching a virus is a probability, not a certainty. You are more likely to catch it with close and prolonged exposure, but still not guaranteed. It may be immunity, it may just be one of those things. All viruses are like this, with some more likely to be passed on than others, it’s not covid being mysterious, it’s just how probabilities work.

Exactly. There’s a huge element of chance and it’s very random.

I work with microbiologists & lab people. One of them is in charge of mice care & breeding, he had to come to work daily to look after the animals. He tested faithfully twice every week for covid, for 2.5 years. First he got free PCR offered by the Uni, later lateral flows. His kids, wife, friends, car fulls of mates he spent hours with all kept testing positive. Meanwhile, colleague Never tested positive.

Until he did test positive. And felt quite rough with it. Just seems to happen that way for some.

He's a total conspiracy theorist too.

Thank you so much for your thoughts, I really appreciate it.

It is just so random...I am always looking for ways to reassure myself. The first time I officially tested positive in December 2022 it really took the fear of it out of me; I was one of those hermetically sealed in folk when the pandemic took a hold in the UK out of complete fear! (job well done government behavioural specialists)

As the evidence began to grow that it was in the UK before official records and I became convinced we had had it, the fear subsided somewhat.

The probability argument works best for me but I am always looking for ways to reassure myself that my immunity must be robust if I did not catch it this time despite being in very close proximity and wondering if this boosted my immunity...

I am so grateful to hear your responses, thank you.