Are you a "unicorn" too?

[telephone89]

My husband for sure, and I think me. I did get wicked sick after flying back from vacation this March, but it never tested as covid. I'm still not sure though. I started to feel off (swollen lymphnodes, a common first sign of sickness for me) after a 16h leg, drank tea non-stop in the lounge on layover, and was then sick for basically a month. There was a lot going on incl a friend who'd passed away and general stress too, so it was just a shitty grieving unhealthy month.

My husband is one of the ones who thought he may have gotten it before it blew up though. He rarely rarely gets sick and was told he had the flu in Nov or Dec 2019. It was definitely the sickest he's ever been.

 

[LightBright]

My mom was highly vaccinated and never got COVID symptoms. For example when my Dad had COVID, my mom had a PCR positive but no symptoms. I also found a Tweet where a woman tested her antibodies after exposure to people who had COVID, and her antibodies would rise exponentially if she was exposed, even if she didn’t “catch COVID”.

So it’s possible that SOME people never had symptoms, not that somehow they weren’t exposed. Their antibodies somehow worked. And other people like our family actually managed to avoid exposure until we sent the kids back to school or camp, then we all got sick at once.

 

[TooPatient]

My grandmother. My aunt and her two kids plus her husband all live there and were unvaccinated for a long while (two still are) at the same time as taking no precautions and frequenting crowded places. They all got sick with covid twice yet my medically frail grandmother stayed healthy.

 

[nala]

The term unicorn has the connotation that the person is highly desirable and rare—that is the context that I am accustomed to, lol. I don’t consider never contracting covid as a rare or desirable phenomenon but rather, the result of proactive prevention measures some people take. Some people still wear masks, avoid social outings, get booster shots, etc. so if you have never gotten covid it is probably due to your extreme measures to prevent it. I consider these extreme at this point, tbh. I finally got covid last June, at a wedding, exactly how I had predicted it would happen—bc I chose not to wear a mask in a highly dense environment. Thanks to the vaccine and booster, I had very little side effects and it felt like a mild cold. I am grateful for vaccines but also for getting covid bc I have lived a carefree life since. I don’t live in fear of covid, tho if I am being honest, I didn’t after the first vaccine.

 

[kenny]

My wearing a mask has nothing to do with fear.

Wearing masks and avoiding contacts just lowers the odds.
Logic and math is not fear.

 

[nala]

My wearing a mask has nothing to do with fear.

Wearing masks and avoiding contacts just lowers the odds.
Logic and math is not fear.

Nobody said you did. I said that I DID NOT.

 

[HGar]

Haven’t worn a mask since July 2022 - that was when we were visiting Washington DC and the sheer number of people visiting the sites did cause a bit of a panic. However we returned home to Australia, unscathed. Visited the US many more times since and I’m still amazed that the number of times for exposure hasn’t gotten us yet.

 

[jordyonbass]

My little family are unicorns and everyone around us has gotten it at least once. Good immune systems obviously!

 

[starbrite]

My wearing a mask has nothing to do with fear.

Wearing masks and avoiding contacts just lowers the odds.
Logic and math is not fear.

I fully agree. My husband and I are also unicorns. Knock on wood. Double knock on wood!!!
.
COVID is not the flu. How it effects each person is different. Although most people don't experience things as badly as in the early days of the pandemic, we have a couple of close friends whose lives have been totally destroyed by LONG COVID acquired in 2023. This is sobering. Death is not the only danger from this virus.

In 2022, anyone who hadn't caught COVID yet were called "virgins." That was about 25% of the USA population at the end of last year. But with the newer, more contagious variants & with testing (plus reporting most positive tests) now falling to the wayside, it is difficult to now calculate a percentage of the population who haven't had COVID by August 2023.

Those of us who haven't gotten COVID yet really do seem to be becoming as "rare" as Unicorns. Thus, the new & fitting label. With a lack of testing, a lot of people (with less severe illnesses) may have had COVID and thought it was just a cold or allergies.

My husband (older and in the vulnerable category) works for a hospital. We still take precautions. He is 5x vaxed because he got a Spring booster. Plus, we both still test if there is any question at all. So, I'm 99.9% sure that the two of us can legitimately be called "unicorns."

Where we live, COVID hospitalizations are currently going up. Ditto wastewater surveillance for the virus. This may be the start of a mini wave. So, masking up around strangers indoors (and avoiding large crowds) might not be unwise... Especially, for those in the more vulnerable category who could be hard hit by the virus.

If the next person doesn't wish to do anything special to avoid COVID (a disease that still has many long-term unknowns), that is up to them. But I prefer to stay a unicorn if I possibly can. Triple knock on wood!!!

We also have a fair number of friends who are COVID unicorns. In some cases, one spouse got the virus, but early testing (and isolation) saved the other one from getting it. A lot of the old precautions still work.

 

[MeowMeow]

We haven't had it yet that we know of either. We have vaxxed every single time we have been allowed to. We had a few times last year where we were SURE we had it or were gunna get it because my husband got sick. But he tested every single time and always negative. I'm sure we will eventually get it though.