I was a NOVID — until I wasn’t

I believed I’d by no means get COVID-19. I’ve been vaccinated six instances — so many who I ran out of house on my vaccination card. I’m the individual nonetheless carrying a masks at Ralphs, Dealer Joe’s and CVS. (I don’t know what folks in these shops have been as much as.) I went to a movie show solely as soon as prior to now three years — and it was to rejoice a former colleague’s documentary at a movie pageant.

Final December, as COVID surged, I shivered with mates within the out of doors seating of a restaurant. The proprietor got here out to greet us and requested, “What are you doing sitting out right here?” Not getting COVID, I believed.

One after the other, my (vaccinated) mates acquired it. My niece, nephew and their mom all acquired it at totally different instances. Thankfully, nobody had a extreme case or ended up hospitalized.

Solely two of my shut mates had by no means contracted COVID — despite the fact that every had lived in properties with individuals who did. And certainly one of them has gotten every part else — RSV, bronchitis and various colds. By the autumn, simply the three of us remained on our island of COVID evaders. We marveled at our more and more uncommon standing within the biosphere. We have been the vaunted “NOVIDs.”

Then I acquired kicked off the island.

On Friday, Oct. 13 — precisely three years and 7 months for the reason that Friday the thirteenth in March when a nationwide emergency was declared — I walked into my highschool reunion in Chicago and spent the subsequent 5 hours with my cherished schoolmates from my all-girls Catholic highschool. We drank and ate. We hugged and laughed and talked in one another’s faces and scrunched collectively for a category photograph.

I acquired off the airplane again to L.A. Monday night and examined after I acquired residence. For the primary time, I used to be staring in disbelief — despite the fact that I wasn’t feeling properly — at a brilliant pink line on a COVID take a look at. I used to be dejected and irritated. And I used to be sick — by the next day I had a fever, a cough, a river of a runny nostril and fatigue. My internist informed me it was exceptional I had gone this lengthy with out getting it.

So why did I final as long as a NOVID? And why did I lastly succumb?

“That’s a very good query,” says Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious illness doctor on the College of California San Francisco. “A number of elements made it simpler to transmit proper now.” The most important of these is the rising HV.1 variant of omicron, he says. “These subvariants have gotten an increasing number of transmissible. … HV.1 was fairly absent on the finish of July after which it began taking off. Individuals suppose it is perhaps the variant of the winter. One purpose it took off is that it’s very simple to get.”

There is also a collective drop in immunity, he says. “Lots of people acquired contaminated in California and across the nation within the spring of 2023. If you add six months to that, some immunity and antibodies drop. If everybody drops on the identical time, it’s simpler to unfold.”

And I didn’t have the total immunity my new vaccination would give me as a result of I acquired it lower than two weeks earlier than I went to the reunion.

We don’t know for positive the place I acquired contaminated (or if I used to be the one who introduced it to the reunion). It might have been the airport or the airplane, though I used to be masked on the airplane. However contemplating the dimensions of the reunion and different elements, it’s conceivable I walked into an ideal brew of circumstances to get COVID.

Chin-Hong is aware of how I really feel. He acquired COVID for the primary (and solely) time final Thanksgiving from a visiting relative. “I felt like I used to be a failure. Right here I’m being essentially the most cautious individual,” he stated.

He estimates possibly lower than 10% of the inhabitants nationally has by no means gotten COVID.

Barbara Ferrer, the director of the Los Angeles County Division of Public Well being, is certainly one of them. She has by no means gotten COVID. “I do know there are a major quantity of people that haven’t gotten COVID. However I’m not likely satisfied for all of these of us it’s as a result of we’re by no means going to get it.”

Ferrer has a member of the family who has had it 4 instances. “I’ve been with this individual and haven’t gotten contaminated. However she didn’t infect anybody. There are individuals who get contaminated and don’t infect that simply. It’s a brand new virus and there’s nonetheless lots to find out about it,” she stated.

She takes most of the identical precautions I do. She masks in locations that don’t look like properly ventilated. She avoids crowded eating places and hasn’t been in any bars since earlier than the pandemic. However she goes to out of doors live shows and baseball video games. And she or he assessments twice every week.

In my case, she stated, I in all probability acquired a very intense publicity.

Of the estimated 134 ladies attending the reunion, seven of us acquired COVID, one of many reunion organizers informed me. (I sat subsequent to one of many seven at a brunch that Saturday morning.)

“These are in all probability the tip of the iceberg,” Chin-Hong stated. Likelihood is extra of my former classmates in all probability acquired it however didn’t take a look at or had very minor signs.

Seven days after I acquired sick, certainly one of my mates nonetheless on the COVID island instantly examined constructive. “I doubt you gave it to me over the cellphone,” she texted.

One good factor: Between my newest vaccination and my bout of COVID I might have immunity that lasts by the winter, Chin-Hong says.

He does consider there could also be a small group of individuals with some pure immunity. “You have been a NOVID,” he tells me. “Possibly on the finish of this winter, the true NOVIDS shall be left standing.”