Originally Posted by
Calsun
A lot of assumptions based on what is convenient and not the current reality. I have neighbors with the wife in her sizties and her husband in his eighties and both have been vaccinated twice and they managed to get infected twice when taking part in what were for them essential gatherings.
The studies that come up with numbers like 58% are inherently flawed with poor methodology and small study groups and not controls. Stating 58% are asymptomatic assumes that a large population has been tracked and tested and monitored and this is not being done anywhere in the United States. Even basic tracking has been avoided by our politicians who think that it is better to keep the public in the dark.
When xrays of post Covid people have been examined there is permanent scaring of the tissue in the lungs. This is not something I would want to have occur if I had a way to avoid exposure. Miners and bakers and concrete workers and ex-military often develop scaring and emphysema that does not go away - ever. The idea that one can get back in shape after a Covid infection is wishful thinking.
Eh?
For sure, being vaccinated does not prevent infection ... at least not with the variants today. How is that relevant to whether someone infected only a few weeks ago and since recovered is likely immune to that same variant? Back in 2021, immune persistence existed even 1 year after exposure. Omicron has changed that to a lesser figure, but I have read nothing that indicates it is less than 12 weeks.
Here is a link to the study about asymptomatic infections ... you are correct in that the number of participants is small, but even with that small a number, it is clear that many infections involve asymptomatic disease:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...tm_term=081722
Unless you've had an antibody test, you might be surprised to learn that even you were infected at some point. Its not really controversial ... it has been known for a long time that a very large proportion of infections are asymptomatic. My 94 year old mother tested positive and had no symptoms whatsoever.
At this point, I think we all know people who have had COVID and have fully recovered. I certainly do. Lots.
COVID is no joke and with the risk of long term damage and long COVID, it makes sense to avoid infection if reasonably possible. But as infectious as it is, that may not be possible for a lot of people ... at least not if they live their lives as they want to. Everything I have read indicates that just about everyone will become infected at some point, and many who think they have never been infected probably have.
And that was the point of my post really. I wasn't suggesting anyone follow my example (we all get to make our own choices) ... just musing that perhaps I already have been infected and did not know it.