Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
So... here's something a little alarming.
My parents got the vaccine in mid-January, then got their second shot in mid-February. They waited the required time for it to be fully effective, then took a trip to Jamaica. They had been itching to travel all of this time, but they were obviously not going to take any chances at this age, but felt safe after being fully vaccinated. I was happy for them, and they enjoyed the trip.
They came to visit me the day after they got back from Jamaica. This was on Saturday. I considered asking them to wait a week or so before seeing me, because of their high level of exposure on the trip, but I decided that was being overly paranoid. After all, studies out of Israel showed that you're not very likely to transmit COVID after being fully vaccinated. Also, they were required to take a COVID test the day before leaving Jamaica, and that came back negative.
Yesterday (3 days after they visited), my girlfriend indicated that she had a sore throat and "felt sick". At the time, I felt fine. She has been practicing avoidance regarding COVID as much as I have.
Last night, I also got a sore throat, and started to feel fatigue. Late at night, the sore throat worsened, and I also got some chest-area soreness, though I didn't have any problem breathing.
I had no fever, and my heart rate was normal (around 60, which is my typical heart rate). My oxygen level was also normal.
I slept a long time (about 10.5 hours), though part of this was because I only slept 4 hours the day before. I woke up with an improvement to the sore throat, but the chest soreness was worse, and I had more aches and pains in my body. I also have moderate fatigue. Still no fever, and heart/oxygen rates are normal.
Girlfriend also has the weird chest soreness, and her sore throat is slightly improved.
It is possible this is environmental (carbon monoxide, or something like that), and also possible we both caught a cold through groceries I brought home (since colds CAN easily transmit on surfaces, unlike COVID).
I will say that so far this is more cold-like than COVID-like, though both of us have this weird chest pain, which I don't usually get from colds. My parents are not sick and don't have a cold, and colds don't tend to transmit from those who are asymptomatic.
This will be so frustrating if we caught COVID from my parents this way, after being so careful for a year.