Yeah people are confusing subclinical disease with not ever having it. Outside of total extreme isolation you had it at some point. You didn't know you had it. You were in denial about having it. But you had it.

Tests are not 100 percent sensitive. Or many people just chose not to test themselves. But if you were interacting with the general population in the past 3 years you have had covid.

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Whats extreme isolation to you? The person at the grocery store still wearing a mask and cleaning with hand sanitizer at the car?

[–] sub_ubi@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

I don't think my entire family that spans from toddler to elderly would all be asymptomatic and show false negatives on RATs, but I guess it's possible.

[–] Terces@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But also is cross-immunisation. So...one could have had something other than Covid-19 and still be immune to it. Then there are also the genetic outliers that are just naturally immune to the attack-vector of the virus.

[–] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

This is just multiple ways of saying what I said. Outside of some extreme outliers every person has come in contact with the virus. But that doesn't always translate to extreme illness or even mild illness. As you said some people are naturally resistant or have other means of a defense that doesn't lead to a significant illness after exposure.

So really the more accurate thing to say is that you never got sick from your covid exposure. Again you have to divide this further into those who genuinely have never had cold like symptoms since 2023 and those who are just in denial about it. I've come across a few people who proudly claim they've never had it but have shown up to work coughing and hacking. Lol sure you haven't.

[–] Seasm0ke@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see this assertion all the time and while there is a fair bit of underreporting this line is just plain wrong but said with 100% conviction every time.

Estimates using late 2022 data assumes about 25% of Americans 16 or older have not caught COVID. 50+% believe they have not caught COVID, so unless I'm missing something drastic then if you are like me and lived as a hermit for 3+ years, followed all the reasonable precautions, and never had symptoms there is more like a ~50% chance you caught it and were asymptomatic.

[–] RaincoatsGeorge@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago

It's only an estimate. It's closer to only 20 percent not producing antibodies. Some percentage of that is people having immuno compromise and not developing humeral immunity even though they've likely been exposed. Then there's testing failure. None of these tests are 100 percent sensitive.

I do believe though like what. Ten to fifteen percent of people have isolated for three years and not gotten it. I'd buy that for sure. And there are a lot of places where you just don't encounter people often. People that naturally were distanced from others just sort of...kept doing what they were doing.

[–] IzzyData@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think that depends on what you mean by "having it". Does having any amount of the covid-19 virus flowing through your body automatically mean you have it? Because the amount of the virus you have been exposed to is an important factor in whether or not you are impacted by it. Also if you aren't impacted at all, but had what basically amounts to a microdose of the virus did you have covid?

It would be good to know what the medical definition is for this. I don't actually know personally.