I don’t know why this woman took the actions she did.

My take is this: many people are just “over” COVID in the sense that they now feel that the worst is LONG over, and that anything they catch today will be no worse than a cold or a flu. COVID is not longer perceived as a threat (even if it is, and even if people are in the hospital), because they trust their vaccines.

A secondary reason, I think, is that now – 2–3 years later – feel that the threat was overblown (it wasn’t) and that their lifestyles were overly affected by an invisible threat.

I’m not saying they’re right, but only that’s a fairly common view in 2023.

Every cold is now potentially COVID. I have been exposed more times than I can count and never had it that I am aware of, never tested positive. I’m tempted not to follow protocol myself but I still do. People just have COVID fatigue now that it’s generally weaker, less of a threat and not in your face as much. That’s all there is to it.

This particular woman did feel compelled to let people know they might have been exposed to covid for a prolonged time, so it’s not that she thinks it was or is overblown.

When my parents caught covid I had to push them to test. They believed it was just a cold. Their symptoms were very covid to me. I was right, they had it. I think in the case of my parents, my dad was sure he would get deathly ill from covid, and his case wasn’t very bad, so it was like his paranoia caused him to dismiss typical cold symptoms. He did have a mild fever also for a day. My mom developed some laryngitis, which two of my friends had just had with covid.

I think there are a host of possible reasons why this woman thinks the way she does, and does what she did. We’ll never know if she minimizes it, or thinks it’s not an issue that her husband is sick, or is doesn’t want it to stop her from doing things, or what. I think we (you) have two choices: number one thought is confront her to discuss/have the leader of the group confront her to discuss, which I know sometimes people don’t want to have confrontations because they can get icky, nobody wants to fight, people don’t want to “start trouble,” people may not want to lose a friend, or my second thought (number two) is try not to be so anxious about it, which I know is easy to say, and maybe easier to say than to do, but Covid is all around us, and is not going away any time soon. I just came home from a plane/bus tour where ¼ of the people (10 out of 40) came home with Covid. The Covid was at the end, and I found out about it after it was over, but we were all aware that Covid numbers are up (the trip was August 2023) and we all knew that every place we went, there was the possibility of getting it. Being anxious wouldn’t have helped, and we always would have had the choice to stay home, but we all gamble every day that we won’t get into a car accident or get sick with Covid or a host of other bad things won’t befall us, and we try to get through life just hoping for the best and controlling what we can (drive carefully, wear a mask if you feel the need,, etc.).

@jca2 I’m the leader. Every once in a while I just put a reminder on an email telling people if they feel unwell to skip class. I don’t go on about spouses or how many days to stay away. Almost everyone in this group took covid seriously, maybe everyone.

I’m not anxious about it (although my BP was 160/91 this morning). I really feel since she tested negative and feels ok, she’s probably not contagious. I was just at Disney, probably one of the germiest places in the country. :)

I will skip seeing my friend who is coming home tomorrow, because her mom is 96 and we do our best not to expose her. I’ll just wait a few days.

People are people. No one is constant in all things all the time.

Most of us try to comply with the appropriate actions during the appropriate times and places.

The SARS-COV-2 virus has mutated to a far less virulent form since 2019. The Federal COVID-19 public health emergency (“COVID-19 pandemic) ended on May 11, 2023. Very few people now wear a face mask in public and face masks are no longer required to wear in many health care facilities including hospitals (at least the hospitals in my area of Tacoma).

People still die from catching the flu virus (Influenza Virus A, B, C, D) and even die from complications of a cold virus (Rhinovirus, Coronavirus and Respiratory Syncytial Virus).

The act of navigating life is dangerous. Nothing you do is without risk. The act of driving your car is very dangerous with all the distracted, impaired and bad attitude drivers on the roads.

Even your mask and vaccinations will not protect you from the SARS-COV-2 virus. Get real. Most people wear face masks (most are flimsy and ineffective at best) that are worn ineffectively with huge gaps or their nose hanging out. Who are those people trying to fool? They might as well ditch the mask.

I’ve had a total of 5 vaccinations to the SARS-COV-2 virus and wear a face mask when medical expert tell me it is appropriate. Since 2019 I’ve caught two mild colds that I quickly recovered from (no COVID-19 symptoms). I’ve never had COVID-19 symptoms and have always test negative for that disease.

Interesting that a man on my canoe paddling team tested positive for COVID-19 last Wednesday (9–20-23) and he has mild symptoms (just a cough, no headache, no fever). I sat next to him during a 3 hour canoe workout last Sunday (9–17-23) and sat next to him during another 3 hour workout last Tuesday (9–19-23) and afterwards sat next to him at lunch afterwards. Also during our workouts I shared my water bottle with him (I won’t be doing that ever again). I have no symptoms and continue to feel terrific.

Let’s be kind to each other and continue to try to live full and healthy lives the best that we can.

Aloha.

I think the question has several things all lumped together that very, very few people actually did. It also puts thoughts in the head of these people that may not have been in their head at all. Example: People wouldn’t wear a mask or take Covid seriously. I am one that spoke frequently about the foolishness of masks. It had nothing to do with taking a disease seriously, it had to do with scientific studies that showed they were useless. It had to do with common sense when it comes to the size of the mesh of the common cloth mask (that many were wearing and that the government said they should) and the size of the virus. My view was that taking useless actions would likely help spread the disease than not taking them. Many people that jumped on the mask bandwagon felt they were “safe” to other doing that. More confidence, less caution.

Another thing that started showing up during the year of Covid-scare is that it started becoming clear that many cases of flu were likely being called Covid-19. I say this because each year in the USA we historically have millions and millions of cases of flu. Yet in the 2020–21 year that amount dropped to next to zero. Magically. Flu just stopped spreading in that year.

The OP seems upset that people dared to question the government and the “news” outlets. We are finding more and more evidence that both those groups lied about Covid.

If you are afraid of catching a cold, stay home. Life goes on with colds.

@seawulf575 I didn’t question the news in my opening statement, I am questioning the behavior and rationale of individuals. You’re way off base. I am not talking about someone like you, I’m talking about people who understood covid can be mild to severe and now seem to have forgotten that.

Your example of flu proves that the measure taken for covid cut down infectious disease transmission. It’s no surprise flu numbers were low 20–21, the country was distancing, masking, more hand washing, and fewer gatherings.

@SnipSnip Who said afraid? More like annoyed.

@JLeslie No, you didn’t question the news in your question. You used the news as the gospel that those that weren’t doing what you liked were ignoring. As for me, I understand that Covid came in all levels of impact. I understood that to start with. Just like with Flu.

As for the flu, you are making an unsubstantiated jump that efforts to combat Covid blocked the flu too. They didn’t block Covid so why would they block flu? The masks have now been proven to be useless all over again. So they were never useful in blocking the disease so they were useless in blocking flu as well. The 6’ distancing was likewise proven to be a made up thing that was not based in science. Even the vaccines didn’t work at stopping the spread nor does it keep you from getting the disease.

HAND WASHING is one that actually does help prevent the spread of these things, but that has been around for decades and we had flu during all those decades.

@seawulf575 Nope. I’m just trying to understand people who seem to have amnesia.

My Q is primarily about SYMPTOMS. People who think covid won’t be like a cold, but they understood three years ago symptoms could run the gamut.

You don’t have to understand them. Everyone has an opinion. Don’t be annoyed.

@JLeslie There are a number of reasons someone might be like that. Covid-burnout is the most likely. Maybe there are more facts out there now than there were back in the day. Maybe they actually had the disease (likely) and they realized that while it can kill you, it doesn’t most times. It might be because the media pushed so hard back in the day to make Covid seem like a death sentence that they believe it. I saw a video where they asked random people what they thought the mortality rate of Covid was and these people had it at 10%, 30%, even 50%. It was actually closer to 1%. And they believed that the majority of people that got it ended up in the hospital. That is the power of propaganda.

@seawulf575 The real news never said the death rate was that high, I always knew it was around 1%, but it doesn’t surprise me that people blew it up in their head, or had the wrong information. Where I live the hospitalization rate was close to 20%, which is pretty bad, but we are almost all older here. Our death rate was more than 1% also, I don’t remember the exact number, but it wasn’t anything close to the numbers you cited, maybe it was 2%.

The people and media playing down covid in the first year also were propagandists, you see that don’t you?

I think burn-out would account for not reacting with a panic, but not understanding that cold symptoms can be covid is something else.

I think you know an entirely different demographic of people than I do, @JLeslie. Everyone I know who gets cold symptoms immediately tests for Covid.
Everyone.

@JLeslie No, it wasn’t put out that it was that high. But when everything is put in a “do-or-die” view, people start believing whatever their minds put out. Unless you are reinforcing that it is only around 1%, people will believe every case leads to hospitalization or death. The same thing goes if you ask a bunch of random people how many people are killed with AR-15s every year. It is a very small number but people believe there are 100,000 or more.

As for the people playing down Covid (such as myself) in the first year were not propagandists. They couldn’t be. There was no propaganda out there. They were nay-sayers for sure. But the MSM was definitely beating the drum to whatever narrative was coming out of DC.