Well… it finally happened. After 27 months of the pandemic, COVID finally caught up with me and my family. My wife and daughter got it first. I quarantined away from them in the basement, but the damage had already been done. A couple of days after Mary’s positive test, I had symptoms. I didn’t test positive right away, though.
Delayed Positive Test
I was exposed on Monday, July 4th. I tested negative on Monday night, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, started having symptoms on Wednesday evening, but I still tested negative on Thursday morning. I stayed home anyway because the new symptoms were a high likelihood that I had it. Finally, on Friday morning, I tested positive.
This is an example of why context is important to interpreting a COVID test, or any other test for that matter. It’s also an example of a challenge we face regarding the Omicron variants. Often, it takes 48 hours of symptoms before you will test positive when you have an Omicron variant.
The Source
We don’t know who exactly was “patient zero” in our mini-outbreak, but we do know where we all go it. We had a birthday party for my daughter, and about 80% of us who attended ended up with it. Of course, none of us were wearing masks, but all of the adults were vaccinated.
What went wrong?
Well, it’s never just one thing. We’ve been getting together as a family since the vaccines came out. Often we have moved activities outside whenever possible to increase airflow and reduce the chance of spreading COVID. We have also worn masks. This time, however, it started raining during the party, which kept activities inside. We’ve also stopped wearing masks like we used to.
Why Now?
I have constantly been around COVID since the pandemic began. Mary works in a community pharmacy and is constantly exposed. I spent the first 1.5 years of the pandemic in the inpatient hospital setting, face to face with COVID patients frequently. In the last year I have done COVID tests and treatment, and I have not gotten it until now. The main difference, in my opinion, was masking. I have been exposed to COVID hundreds of times… but always with a mask on. This was the FIRST TIME I was exposed without a mask on, and it’s the FIRST AND ONLY TIME I’ve actually gotten COVID. I can’t stress that enough. PPE works. Masks work. It’s my own fault for not using one.
I have been exposed to COVID hundreds of times… but always with a mask on. This was the FIRST TIME I was exposed without a mask on, and it’s the FIRST AND ONLY TIME I’ve actually gotten COVID. I can’t stress that enough. PPE works. Masks work. It’s my own fault for not using one.
Bad Timing
Not that there would ever be a good time to get COVID, but for my kids, it’s unfortunate to make this far and get it now, just days before we planned to get them vaccinated with the recently authorized version of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years. We will still take them to get vaccinated after the full isolation period is over. Nevertheless, it would have been nice to have had the chance to give them that extra protection.
The Bright Side
The good news is that so far none of us have gotten very sick. Amelia, the birthday girl, developed a barking cough, but that cleared up pretty quickly with some dexamethasone. None of us took any additional medications other than antihistamines and fever reducers to help control the symptoms. This for two reasons: one, all of the adults were vaccinated, and two, Omicron is often milder than past strains of the virus.
Vaccine Failure?
A main criticism these days from people still hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine (despite the fact that the primary series is now fully FDA approved for adults) is that it “doesn’t keep you from getting COVID”. As someone who is vaccinated and boosted (granted I had my booster in October 2021, so it’s been a while), I can appreciate this viewpoint. I didn’t want to get COVID period. Until recently I’ve been very cautious. I wish my vaccine could have prevented me from getting it at all.
So why didn’t it? Well the biggest reason is this: the currently circulating strains of Omicron have dozens of mutations. Omicron is almost a different virus from the original SARS-COV-2 bug that appeared back in December of 2021. The vaccines were designed against the original virus, and they worked very well against it and against early variants. But with every new variant, vaccine efficacy has dropped. The original vaccine was well designed, but it’s out of date. It’s kind of like trying to use dial-up internet to watch Youtube. It’s just not designed for that.
Thankfully, the immunity conferred by the vaccine is so strong that it carries over to these other strains and significantly reduces the severity of the disease. We’re very lucky that the vaccines continue to work as well as they do. Influenza vaccines have similar challenges, in that they constantly have to change the target every year in order to try to keep up with what is circulating. Some years they have efficacies as low as 30%.
Time for an Omicron booster
What we’ve needed for quite some time is a booster or vaccine targeted toward the omicron variant, especially for those at highest risk. We’re now in a world where other disease control methods (masks, social distancing, etc) are being phased out entirely, so the only protection that most people have is vaccination. They are working on reformulating for this fall, but no word yet on if or when that will be approved.
Strange Feeling
As someone who is around COVID everyday at work, I was worried that I was the asymptomatic carrier who brought it home to everyone in the family. It was a small relief in a way when I tested positive a few days after everyone else, because that meant I wasn’t the source. Not that it is any one person’s fault, but bringing it home to my family has been something I’ve been worried about for 2.5 years. I’m just thankful that it looks like we’re going to get by without any long term adverse effects. Still, it’s exhausting emotionally to deal with this. The pandemic has been a disaster from the start. We’re all learning to live with it, but I would still much prefer to live with it far far away from me. I think we can all agree on that.
