You Can Get COVID Twice

Time for fresh new COVID-19 updates, the most important of which is:

ANYONE CAN GET COVID-19 AT LEAST TWICE

This means the only way to get that “herd immunity” that everyone keeps talking about is for the majority of us to get vaccinated.

Alas, the same confused souls who were running around infecting each other for fun and profit are the same people who are going to refuse to get their shots.

I have no idea what to do about this, or what to suggest, other than that we simply shun people who refuse their shots and 100% refuse to socialize with them. Family included. (Gives side-eye; You Know Who You Are...) But this obviously isn’t going to work because even the threat of imminent death won’t keep us apart from each other.

Bunny suits it is...

All right, what do we know about COVID-19 that we didn’t know when I had it back in April 2020?

Reinfection is possible. This sucks. What sucks even more is that it may be more severe - or fatal - the second go-round.

There’s something else I’ve been thinking about, though I haven’t really seen any reporting that makes the same connection I am making.

Even back in March and April of 2020, when the first confirmed case of COVID entering the United States was January 21, a lot of people were claiming that they must have already had it. This was seriously problematic, because it meant a lot of people might have shrugged and assumed they were immune, when we now know they couldn’t be.

Problematic for two reasons: because they might spread the sickness to their friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors, but also because of their own health risk.

Now it’s starting to look like community spread in the US and other countries started earlier than authorities were aware. Maybe a few of those people who thought they had COVID before January 21, 2020 were right.

(Theoretically it might be possible to confirm that hypothesis by testing these claimants for antibodies, but it looks like not everyone has the same immune response, so the results might be inconclusive).

Okay, we now have four problems:

1. People who believe they already had COVID, but did not, and who might think they have immunity when they’ve never actually been exposed.
2. People who believe they already had COVID, and they’re right, but who might get it a second time and have a more severe case.
3. People who didn’t know they had COVID the first time, and if they get it again it might put them in the hospital.
4. People who had COVID before, did not realize it, and get a second asymptomatic case. This type of person might go on to “catch and release” COVID many times, never realizing they have become a sort of infection fire hose.

The first three types are in more danger than they realize. That third situation may already have been happening more than we knew. We should probably try harder to convince the fourth type that it matters what happens to other people.

Something like 80% of the spread of the coronavirus is driven by about 20% of infected people. One asymptomatic person was documented to be shedding infectious COVID-19 particles for over two months.

People don’t seem to find it very convincing that this virus has killed a million and a half people in under a year. That’s why I think we should start focusing on the other effects.

For instance, I know a couple of people who were exposed at work and had to quarantine. Fortunately, they didn’t get sick. Their companies are still in business, they’re still employed, and they got paid.

On the other hand:

Have you been in this situation yet? Where someone really important to your team has to quarantine?

How much is it costing the company? How much is that going to impact whether they can afford to stay in business?

Personally I think it’s a very strange idea that employers have to cover health insurance. It’s far too expensive for them, and it’s also dangerous for anyone who gets laid off and then has no coverage. How does it make sense *cough* anyway. Back to what happens when COVID doesn’t kill someone.

It can make your teeth fall out months later, so that’s new. Normal, healthy teeth.

It can also make your hair fall out.

Skin problems, too, including my adorable case of chest acne that is still with me six months later.

A friend of mine had a mild case of COVID. Splitting, never-ending headache for seven days. Any of you fellow migraine sufferers, I hope you are convinced by that. My personal record is four days and that was plenty.

There have been cases of COVID causing hearing loss, seizures, amputations, coma, and miscarriage.

Is it weird to say that any of these things might give someone more pause than the knowledge that it could also kill them?

My work buddy who had COVID in February was chatting with me today. We were talking about how close we are now to getting a vaccine. What about the people who are going to get sick and die the week before the vaccine is available?

Going to the afterlife and talking to the other ghosts:

“What did you die of?”
“Irony”

We’re in the home stretch now, and it’s more dangerous than ever. People seem to have shrugged themselves into complete nihilism. Maybe they think, if they’re going to get it and die anyway, might as well go on one last trip through a major international airport and try as hard as possible to take out their entire family as they go.

Ask yourself, ask your family, are you Team Virus or are you Team Humans?

There is no immunity, not without the vaccine. The only thing that can happen from running around socializing with no mask and no distancing is that more people get sick. Tell everyone you know that you can get COVID twice.