Quarantine Life

Honestly, these self-isolation rules completely backfired. Take Person A, for example—they’re stuck at home because they were exposed, but they've got a spouse and kids to look after. While Person A is sidelined, the rest of the family still has to head out to work or school. It's a mess, and then we act surprised when our stats look the worst in the West.

So, here’s the situation—someone in my household is currently down with COVID. They're stuck in isolation at home, and the rest of us haven't had any real exposure to them; it was purely by chance that they fell ill over the weekend while the rest of us were out running errands and going about our business. We only had one brief interaction—we're talking less than five minutes—and even then, we were wearing masks. I actually spoke with a doctor at the local clinic, and their verdict? None of us need to quarantine. According to them, since the contact was under fifteen minutes, we can head back to work and go about our lives as usual. All we have to do is keep an eye on our temperatures and watch for any symptoms that might pop up, and that's basically it.

Nicholas Reed9 said:So, here’s the situation—someone in my household is currently down with COVID. They're stuck in isolation at home, and the rest of us haven't had any real exposure to them; it was purely by chance that they fell ill over the weekend while the rest of us were out running errands and going about our business. We only had one brief interaction—we're talking less than five minutes—and even then, we were wearing masks. I actually spoke with a doctor at the local clinic, and their verdict? None of us need to quarantine. According to them, since the contact was under fifteen minutes, we can head back to work and go about our lives as usual. All we have to do is keep an eye on our temperatures and watch for any symptoms that might pop up, and that's basically it.

Wait, how exactly do you isolate "inside" a house? Like, what happens when they need to use the bathroom or grab a snack???

Alexander Morgan33 said:Are you absolutely sure, though? They actually showed symptoms?

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My husband has been dealing with this cold for two weeks now—his doctor put him on Folco. Though, honestly, he catches a cold at least once every single winter. My little one had a virus for about a week back in November, though there was no fever involved.
The doctor just kept saying—every single time, really—that we should just focus on treating the symptoms.
Then again, I’ve seen quite a few people at my office test positive for antibodies, so it's clear. It seems like a lot of adults are asymptomatic. Just a rough estimate, I guess—maybe more women than men, but it's happening across all age groups.

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Megan Thomas5 said:Wait, how exactly do you isolate "inside" a house? Like, what happens when they need to use the bathroom or grab a snack???

Are you actually kidding me right now🤔
Seriously, does it really not occur to you how it works?

Long story short:
you stay holed up in your room with your laptop, your phone, some books...
food and drinks get left on a chair outside your door,
you chat, hang out, and coordinate everything virtually—over text, calls, whatever.
When you have to hit the bathroom, you throw on a mask and clean up after yourself properly
(or, if you're feeling like absolute garbage and don't have the strength to scrub the toilet even with a mask and gloves, then the people you live with handle it)😉

Obviously, to pull off ten days of this, you need to be a mentally toughmatureadult. You can't exactly expect a kid to isolate like that.
Some people just decide they're gonna keep living their lives normally without bothering to quarantine from everyone else in the house,

but if we’re actually being responsible citizens, that kind of choice should only be made by people who actually have the option to go into full isolation (even if there isn't an official government mandate against them),
instead of just hanging around in close contact with someone potentially infected. And since they say you're contagious even before the symptoms kick in, you end up becoming a walking risk too, while you're still out there acting like everything is totally fine.

So, are you really going to distance yourself from a small child just because they tested positive? Is that where we're at now? Do you even have kids of your own?

Dude, you clearly aren't reading what's right in front of you: obviously you can't just isolate a kid😉 whether they've got the flu or some other nasty bug.

Back when we were dealing with those lockdown orders, if a parent was staying home to look after a sick kid, they had every right to be there—but common sense says if you're skipping work to nurse a little one, you shouldn't be out hitting up Target or wandering through malls either. It’s just being a responsible citizen, ya know?
Now, the latest CDC guidelines are basically saying even siblings shouldn't be heading into school or daycare if their brother or sister is under quarantine,
even though on paper, nobody has officially flagged them as "close contacts" yet.

Alright, I missed that point—but honestly, once you have kids in the picture, all those isolation rules go right out the window. You aren't just going to lock your own mother away. Personally? I’d much rather be at the office. There’s nobody there anyway, and the building is huge and fully climate-controlled—meaning the air is constantly being cycled through. But no, I have to stay home. I actually ordered a rapid test hoping it comes back positive. If it doesn't, I'll just get the antibody test done later. My oldest was practically crawling all over me while he was infectious before we even realized he had tested positive by pure chance. And he was definitely more clingy during this bout. 😬 which means he was crawling all over both me and Mom.

So, yeah—all that nonsense about self-isolating at home only really works if you don't have children. By the time you realize a kid is positive, you've already been exposed. And if you haven't been infected yet, you likely won't be because you're already immune. Besides, most families have kids. The only exception might be when visiting grandparents, though they've both already recovered from it.

mellowskipper said:My husband has been dealing with this cold for two weeks now—his doctor put him on Folco. Though, honestly, he catches a cold at least once every single winter. My little one had a virus for about a week back in November, though there was no fever involved.
The doctor just kept saying—every single time, really—that we should just focus on treating the symptoms.
Then again, I’ve seen quite a few people at my office test positive for antibodies, so it's clear. It seems like a lot of adults are asymptomatic. Just a rough estimate, I guess—maybe more women than men, but it's happening across all age groups.

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I had a confirmed case of COVID-19. Up until the day my symptoms showed up, I was sharing a bed with my boyfriend. We’ve been sleeping in separate rooms since then. We didn't go overboard disinfecting everything constantly. His antibody test came back negative.

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A lot of people seem to possess immunity driven primarily by T cells—it’s a different mechanism entirely. In these cases, the virus simply fails to trigger a severe enough reaction for the body to bother producing antibodies. Essentially, cytotoxic T cells step in and wipe out the infected cells before the virus even gets a chance to replicate effectively.
They’ll likely end up testing positive on a PCR test, sure, but they almost never actually show symptoms. Most people who experience those mild, nagging symptoms don't even develop antibodies. It’s usually the ones with moderate issues who do, and then you have the severe cases—those folks almost always produce them.

Andrew Booth29 said:Alright, I missed that point—but honestly, once you have kids in the picture, all those isolation rules go right out the window. You aren't just going to lock your own mother away. Personally? I’d much rather be at the office. There’s nobody there anyway, and the building is huge and fully climate-controlled—meaning the air is constantly being cycled through. But no, I have to stay home. I actually ordered a rapid test hoping it comes back positive. If it doesn't, I'll just get the antibody test done later. My oldest was practically crawling all over me while he was infectious before we even realized he had tested positive by pure chance. And he was definitely more clingy during this bout. 😬 which means he was crawling all over both me and Mom.

So, yeah—all that nonsense about self-isolating at home only really works if you don't have children. By the time you realize a kid is positive, you've already been exposed. And if you haven't been infected yet, you likely won't be because you're already immune. Besides, most families have kids. The only exception might be when visiting grandparents, though they've both already recovered from it.

Look, if your kid tests positive, you're officially stuck in isolation too—you aren't going anywhere.😉

The real headache starts when the kid is in isolation but hasn't shown any symptoms yet.
If you live together, you can't just isolate yourself from your own child—that would be straight-up psychological abuse! Like, imagine a kid running up to give you a hug and you just shove them away👎 or lock them in a room,
and the kid might have unfortunately caught COVID-19 from a close contact, so it's just a matter of days before they start feeling sick.
At that point, you're making a conscious choice to take the risk of being near them. It's your kid, you love them, and there's no other way to handle it.

A lot of people just don't get it. They see a kid in isolation who might develop symptoms in a few days,
but they act like they aren't a close contact to a potentially infectious person. Because they haven't been "officially" told they're a contact, they think it's totally fine to head out to the grocery store or the bakery...

Honestly, I think those kids have brought enough viruses and bacteria through our front door over the last decade to make me practically immune. This thing doesn't stand a chance against my system. 😬
Not seeing any symptoms at all... 🙂

Alexander Morgan33 said:I had a confirmed case of COVID-19. Up until the day my symptoms showed up, I was sharing a bed with my boyfriend. We’ve been sleeping in separate rooms since then. We didn't go overboard disinfecting everything constantly. His antibody test came back negative.

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Either you guys managed to isolate yourselves well enough that he didn't catch it—or maybe his immune system is just incredibly strong.

Andrew Booth29 said:A lot of people seem to possess immunity driven primarily by T cells—it’s a different mechanism entirely. In these cases, the virus simply fails to trigger a severe enough reaction for the body to bother producing antibodies. Essentially, cytotoxic T cells step in and wipe out the infected cells before the virus even gets a chance to replicate effectively.
They’ll likely end up testing positive on a PCR test, sure, but they almost never actually show symptoms. Most people who experience those mild, nagging symptoms don't even develop antibodies. It’s usually the ones with moderate issues who do, and then you have the severe cases—those folks almost always produce them.

Personally, I’ve seen plenty of live examples of this, so I guess the only rule is that there aren't any rules.
I just lost my sense of smell and taste, but I do have antibodies.
A colleague of mine from my office—totally asymptomatic—has three times the antibodies I do.
Then there's a younger colleague who just had a headache and some fatigue for two days. Yet, he has enough antibodies to look like he survived a ventilator.
Another young female colleague spent four days with her husband before it turned out he had COVID-19, so they split up. She didn't catch it, and she doesn't have antibodies.

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mellowskipper said:Either you guys managed to isolate yourselves well enough that he didn't catch it—or maybe his immune system is just incredibly strong.

Personally, I’ve seen plenty of live examples of this, so I guess the only rule is that there aren't any rules.
I just lost my sense of smell and taste, but I do have antibodies.
A colleague of mine from my office—totally asymptomatic—has three times the antibodies I do.
Then there's a younger colleague who just had a headache and some fatigue for two days. Yet, he has enough antibodies to look like he survived a ventilator.
Another young female colleague spent four days with her husband before it turned out he had COVID-19, so they split up. She didn't catch it, and she doesn't have antibodies.

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That is all anecdotal evidence. However—and I think you're underestimating the loss of taste and smell—that is a neurological symptom. It's a sign that the virus has breached the nasal mucosa (your first line of defense) and potentially reached the brain via the nerves connecting the nose to the skull. In that scenario, we are talking about a systemic variant of the disease.
You can technically be asymptomatic while the virus spreads to your heart and blood vessels, where it can cause severe damage. With a systemic form of the illness, you'll trigger a massive immune response—one you might not even realize is happening.

Andrew Booth29 said:That is all anecdotal evidence. However—and I think you're underestimating the loss of taste and smell—that is a neurological symptom. It's a sign that the virus has breached the nasal mucosa (your first line of defense) and potentially reached the brain via the nerves connecting the nose to the skull. In that scenario, we are talking about a systemic variant of the disease.
You can technically be asymptomatic while the virus spreads to your heart and blood vessels, where it can cause severe damage. With a systemic form of the illness, you'll trigger a massive immune response—one you might not even realize is happening.

I didn't underestimate it. I am fully aware that it's a neurological symptom. I actually mentioned this a few days ago—saying I plan to get a brain MRI in about two years—and some people actually mocked me for it.

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mellowskipper said:Either you guys managed to isolate yourselves well enough that he didn't catch it—or maybe his immune system is just incredibly strong.

Personally, I’ve seen plenty of live examples of this, so I guess the only rule is that there aren't any rules.
I just lost my sense of smell and taste, but I do have antibodies.
A colleague of mine from my office—totally asymptomatic—has three times the antibodies I do.
Then there's a younger colleague who just had a headache and some fatigue for two days. Yet, he has enough antibodies to look like he survived a ventilator.
Another young female colleague spent four days with her husband before it turned out he had COVID-19, so they split up. She didn't catch it, and she doesn't have antibodies.

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What exactly does "three times more antibodies" even mean? Where is that documented?
On our lab results, it just says:

CDC positive
FDA positive

Matthew Garcia2 said:What exactly does "three times more antibodies" even mean? Where is that documented?
On our lab results, it just says:

CDC positive
FDA positive

Well, I guess it depends on the specific testing method used—there are probably about ten different ways to do it. We all had ours done at New York, where they provide both the terminology and the numerical values. For instance, one person might be at 5, another at 20, maybe someone else is at 50 or even 90. Generally speaking, anything under 1 is considered negative, while anything above that is positive.

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mellowskipper said:Well, I guess it depends on the specific testing method used—there are probably about ten different ways to do it. We all had ours done at New York, where they provide both the terminology and the numerical values. For instance, one person might be at 5, another at 20, maybe someone else is at 50 or even 90. Generally speaking, anything under 1 is considered negative, while anything above that is positive.

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It specifically mentions the ICA method.

Matthew Garcia2 said:It specifically mentions the ICA method.

In New York, they measure signal values and then compare them against a cut-off index—that's the method. Then they express everything numerically. The price is $78.

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mellowskipper said:In New York, they measure signal values and then compare them against a cut-off index—that's the method. Then they express everything numerically. The price is $78.

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Reddit thanks