My vaccinations are completely up to date, as are other family members. (Up to date for younger daughter is fewer shots than for us over 70). I developed symptoms Sunday, tested, and was clearly positive. I began Paxlovid Monday afternoon.
Fortunately we can stay isolated within the house pretty well. Everyone is minimizing time in common areas, especially me and another member at the same time. I’m mainly staying in my office or master bedroom. Younger daughter is mainly in her bedroom and her work-from-home office. Wife is mainly in older daughter’s bedroom (older daughter no longer lives here).
Given those, is there any benefit for me being masked in my isolated space? And, while probably a good idea, is it important for the doors to my isolated space be closed while I’m in them, even if no one is in the adjacent common space?
way back in the heyday of the pandemic, there was a doctor on a zoom call solitary in his office but he was still wearing a mask. People on the internet laughed at him but his reasoning was that the invisible enemy could possibly travel through the ductwork.
I read an article just recently that we’re getting closer and closer to treating this as if it’s just a cold. Once you’re symptom free, you are free to move about the world.
I believe this…
…is the latest advice from the CDC.
The recommendations suggest returning to normal activities when, for at least 24 hours, symptoms are improving overall, and if a fever was present, it has been gone without use of a fever-reducing medication.
So, I think you’re talking the correct precautions right now, but, keep in mind, I’m just an actuary on the internet.
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You are correct but you may still want to shove some fluorescent light bulbs up your nose just for good measure. What have you got to lose?!??!?
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FWIW, when COVID hit our house, the sick person was maskless in the room they isolated in (door closed, window open when feasible) and had an air purifier running in that room, masked only when coming out, and did this until testing negative. We had no transmission within the house.
When I had COVID but my wife did not, I slept in the spare bedroom with the door closed and no mask. When I was out in shared common areas, I masked up. Fortunately the weather was nice then so I spent most of my time out on the screened porch unmasked, except for when my wife came out there to hang out with me. Wife did not catch it when I did this.
When we each got COVID separately, I was masked inside my office because this was 2020 pre-vaccine and with less understanding of things. We slept separately, used separate bathrooms (otherwise would have had a jug of sanitary wipes to wipe all surfaces), the well person made meals for the other and took dishes (washing thoroughly after touching). Partner didn’t mask privately when they contracted it in 2022 because we were both vaccinated and I’d already contracted it, but otherwise did the same things.
We have a combined “great room” of a living room + kitchen and would angle the TV so the sick person could sit and eat next to a screen door and window and watch Netflix with the well person who was 25 feet away and also by some open windows. But once eating was done, mask went back on and we remained at maximum distance.
Unless you plan to mask 24/7 probably no benefit to do so.
Had COVID last week, symptoms were not much more than a dry throat and mildly runny nose, and once I started Paxlovid I felt back to normal, but still tested positive 3 days in. Finally tested negative after 5 days. Brought me back to the old days of online workouts and services.
I remember hearing during peak Covid about it spreading through HVAC systems. However, a lot of the data since then seemed to suggest that infection risk was a function of particle exposure. If you had a HEPA filter or perhaps a fan and an open window, this would be a decent alternative? Maybe you could close the vents or tape a filter over top of them?
Despite testing negative on some rapid tests that turned out to have poor reliability, I’m pretty sure I had Covid over Christmas. Multiple coworkers at the same party came down with colds over Christmas and tested positive. I felt incredibly lousy from Dec. 22nd to around the 30th and wasn’t ready to do full days of work til about 2 weeks into January.
The impact of Covid seems to vary dramatically depending on which variant you get and probably how up to date you are on your vaccinations.
First timers? It made its way to everyone the first time in spite of vaccinations. Second and third times only the kid who brought it home from school had it. Never bothered much with precautions any of the times.
I recently had covid, shortly after this advice was published. I had a lot of tests, and tested most days to follow the course of my illness. The day the CDC told me i was good to go was the day i had the highest viral load. (The test was insta-red, the moment the dampness reached the indicator strip.) I get that it’s burdensome to distinguish which respiratory virus you have, but that advice is terrible. It’s probably okay for flu, which is most infectious earlier in the course of the disease.
