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Crosscat's avatar

When we had suspected covid in December’19 we all thought we were a bit better by 12-14 days but then all felt like we’d got it all over again ( just milder). Of particular note was my 14 year old son who initially missed 4 days of school with high fever and headache ( and cough) and then went back to school, playing tennis etc and then exactly 14 days from the initial onset was off school again with high temperature and headache and cough again. My husband and I just assumed we hadn’t cleared it because we were older!

When covid broke out in March’20, I followed lots of doctors on Twitter to try and find out what the symptoms and disease course was, and I particularly remember noticing a few saying they had it ( tested negative) got better then got it again 2 weeks later ( tested positive). We had omicron in Dec’21 and felt like a mild relapse after 2 weeks again.

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Peter's avatar

Fascinating topic. I am however skeptic on whether rebound is common. For PAXLOVID we have (thanks to Brian) a theoretical mechanism, but for natural infection it seems odd, considering for other illnesses that doesn't work this way. Or at least we assume it doesn't.

My main problem is that we don't seem to define rebound very well. I mean, using symptoms is one step up from just 'testing positive', but apart from countless studies demonstrating how unreliable we humans are in reporting symptoms, covid symptoms are shared with countless other common illnesses each of us get multiple times a year.

(In fact the nasal obstruction/discharge reports suggest they do not have, or not just have, covid, considering pre-omicron that was not a common symptom of covid.)

In fact it seems that even the 'Team Reality' side forgets that covid isn't unique in being widespread. Every one of us gets infected multiple times a year, and also frequently has co-infections. So how do you know a rebound is not just another new illness? It would be great if one could also do some PCR testing with actual rounds reporting, other test confirming a rebound is accompanied with an actual rising presence of covid. And if it is a rebound, was it in part caused/accompanied by another co-infection flaring up?

And if we are really going to be serious, one would need to sequence them to see if we are talking rebound or re-infection/re-exposure. I'm personally even more skeptical on short term re-infection, but let any data prove me wrong.

Currently we seem to have a lot of people on social media bragging that they are testing positive again. Considering they are testing and posting, that already shows they are a subgroup of our population. I have three young kids, and if I was testing every time I got a cough, I'd be racking up more tests than Fauci. None of my friends, coworkers and family bothers to test as well. We just cough like it is 2019 again.

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