I had asked at one point if there was a test (early on) that could tell me whether or not I have ever had covid. That's when I was told no, because the positive results of a test like that can't distinguish between antibodies from an infection, or from the vaccine. I do not know if what I was told was the truth or not.
So even though there are those two distinct kinds of covid antibodies, you're saying there is no test (or at least not one easily obtainable) that can distinguish between them?
Also, do antibodies last longer than immunity? I know immunity (from both infection and from vaccine) wanes after a few months. Do antibodies also wane over time?
But for me, I'm seriously doubting I've ever had it. You have to go around people. lol I have not had 1 single person inside my house since Covid, I refuse to go around people unmasked, indoors or out, and avoid indoor spaces where others have been. I won't even go to my mother's house without it (which drives her nuts) and I stopped eating Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with her because, well, you can't eat with a mask on. I won't bore you with all the other things I do making it highly likely I'm still a Novid. lol
I have been cautious compared to most folks, but not nearly as much as you have. How have you not needed repair people etc in your home in four, approaching five years?
I kept just about everyone out for the first year or two, but I remember having two plumbers in relatively early to replace a leaking pipe, and feeling very nervous but too embarrassed to mask in my own home in front of folks who obviously didn't think it was a big deal.
Eventually I felt ok with a few selective largely hermitish friends coming inside for brief visits. When it's pleasant weather, I have a covered part of my porch that makes a nice visiting spot, but when it's well below freezing, or 90°F even in the shade, that's hard to ask of friends, nearly all of whom are well older than me.
Eventually I bought a HEPA filter air purifier and have used that when someone needed to be inside for more than a few minutes (side benefit -- it also pulls smoke from the air, so on days like today when my skies are socked in smoke from a distant wildfire, I've been running it and smell no smoke indoors).
Last year I twice had in a bodyworker who was trying to help me with some muscle issues. She usually worked out of a local salon but the massage room there isn't ventilated well, and when she said she had a portable table and would make home visits, I opted for that. I had the HEPA filter running the whole time. After we were done talking, when I was going to be lying on the table with her standing near my head to work on my neck muscles, I put on a mask in my own home. She did considerately ask if I wanted her to mask, but I told her it was not necessary.
Similarly, I recently had a medical procedure (colonscopy and upper GI scope) for which I needed to be anesthetized. This meant I needed someone to drive me the half hour each way to and from. (I have mostly avoided being in a shared vehicle since covid). I asked a good friend who agreed, and when I put my mask on as I got into her car, she put one on also. I know she did this only to honor my preferences, so I really appreciated it.
Once in the hospital. I kept my mask on until the last possible moment when they were ready to anesthetize me. When I woke up an hour later, my mask was back on -- the surgical crew had put it back on me once it was possible to do so. Also done from respect rather than from actual caution, as I don't think any of the crew was masked themselves during my procedures!
There are one or two friends whose homes I will visit unmasked (somewhat ironically, including the friend I described in the previous post -- I and one other friend had dinner together at her house just a few weeks ago. The last time I went to her house for dinner was well before covid, and the other times I've been inside her house since covid have been just for errands that only took a minute or two.
I consistently mask in medical offices, the drugstore and large grocery store in the nearby town, and anyplace crowded or where I will be inside for some time.
My town recently had an art gallery showing I wanted to see. The gallery is tiny and I knew it would be crowded and I would know pretty much everyone and so there would be hugging and mingling. So I wore a mask, was the only one who did. And I was in and out in maybe 20 minutes, not for covid reasons only but because I'm just not a crowd person, and honestly not much for most art either, though in this case a friend's photographs were featured and I wanted to support her and to see her photos.
My mom was in a care facility for years before covid hit, and once they allowed visitors again, I always masked there even after the requirement was eventually dropped. I do have some friends I want to visit who live at the local skilled nursing facility, and I would never consider not masking there, but I do wonder if it will be awkward since again I will be the only one masked. One of those friends has dementia and I might need to lower my mask for a moment so he can see my face and hopefully recognize me. Sigh.
As I've mentioned before, when I go to the local grocery, or the post office, or any other nonmedical office where I won't be long, I haven't been masking for the last year or maybe more. With this current spike I may resume, but maybe not.
I've even been attending the local "senior lunch" once or twice a week, and my comfort threshold is about eight or ten regulars (in a big room). If I see a bigger crowd, or several new people, I'll skip it or get my meal to go and eat at home. If I eventually get covid, these lunches are a likely source for me as it's the most nonmasked exposure I get. Yet it's one of the few social things I do. It's not even all that important to me, but it's a habit I would have to consciously break and I do enjoy the small bit of socializing that happens there. Another tradeoff. Another sigh.
I know, and we've discussed on this thread, that the aerosol nature of covid means that even in an empty store there is a risk of breathing in airborne virus from someone who was there hours earlier. But always masking indoors everywhere when no one else is, that's just a level of precaution that feels too hard to sustain for me personally, without becoming some sort of pariah. But as the spike continues and my awareness of risk increases, my willingness changes.
