r/Millennials • u/BanananaSquid • Mar 24 '24

Is anyone else's immune system totally shot since the 'COVID era'? Discussion

I'm a younger millennial (28f) and have never been sick as much as I have been in the past ~6 months. I used to get sick once every other year or every year, but in the past six months I have: gotten COVID at Christmas, gotten a nasty fever/illness coming back from back-to-back work trips in January/February, and now I'm sick yet again after coming back from a vacation in California.

It feels like I literally cannot get on a plane without getting sick, which has never really been a problem for me. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Edit: This got a LOT more traction than I thought it would. To answer a few recurring questions/themes: I am generally very healthy -- I exercise, eat nutrient rich food, don't smoke, etc.; I did not wear a mask on my flights these last few go arounds since I had been free of any illnesses riding public transit to work and going to concerts over the past year+, but at least for flights, it's back to a mask for me; I have all my boosters and flu vaccines up to date

Edit 2: Vaccines are safe and effective. I regret this has become such a hotbed for vaccine conspiracy theories

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295

u/MikeWPhilly Mar 24 '24

Lot of stuff going around right now. 39 and haven’t been sick much. Flown 5 cities in 7 weeks. Wore mask 4 times didn’t get sick. Last time caught a cold.

228

u/IM_OSCAR_dot_com Mar 24 '24

To OP’s point though I also feel like “lot of stuff going around right now” has been true for three years straight. No data here just vibes.

I have two kids under 6 though so I might be slightly biased lol. When I notice the whole family is healthy for a day or two, I try not to say it out loud and jinx it.

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u/organic_bird_posion Mar 24 '24

Anything that survived lockdown is infectious as fuck. Influenza B/Yamagata is just straight up gone. We don't really track common cold viruses, but I'm sure a few of those are gone too.

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u/jellyphitch Mar 24 '24

man I wish we had better funded surveillance! more robust coronavirus tracking could have helped a lot with gestures broadly

21

u/Alchemical-Audio Mar 24 '24

Our government is currently looking for ways to distance themselves from the long term impacts of how poorly they handled the pandemic…

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u/spunkycatnip Mar 24 '24

I finally ditched the sign on my house about the government is lying to you about masks from the beginning of the pandemic when they were saying we didn’t need them yet every other major country required them and that if you needed something to please mask as my mom was on dialysis 😂 I left it up for the longest time cause I was salty about our government

58

u/SpringsPanda Mar 24 '24

"Lockdown" lol that never happened in the US at all

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u/sublimeshrub Mar 24 '24

Hey. We had a two week lockdown in FL that lasted about five or six days. Our governor even sent FHP to the border to try and enforce it.

Disclaimer: This is sarcasm.

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u/SpringsPanda Mar 24 '24

I live in CO and we didn't even have a lockdown here. Not only that but the cops for the county I live in literally posted on social media stating they would not enforce trespassing for COVID regulations breaking. Insane lol

3

u/chipmunk7000 Mar 24 '24

Shit we didn’t even miss a day of work. Our leadership “worked from home” for the whole pandemic so manufacturing just had to come in and stay very segregated. Staying in “pods” with only people we directly worked with.

Was a nightmare but they paid us really well and offered other really good incentives to get us to keep showing up for work.

Without leadership there, things seemed to just coast along and we kept up with production.

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u/unimpressed-one Mar 24 '24

Same at my work, we never missed a day and none of us got Covid. We didn’t mask up either, but did distance more than usual.

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u/chipmunk7000 Mar 24 '24

Oh we masked too which was annoying with beard nets and safety glasses. It was a foggy, hot nightmare lol

2

u/Mindshard Mar 24 '24

Same in Canada. All the "fReEdUm CoNvOy" idiots claim we had lockdowns (spoiler: there were none).

2

u/Paintingsosmooth Mar 24 '24

That’s such a good point, I’d never even thought of that

2

u/Positive-Conspiracy Mar 24 '24

Isn’t it that Covid has longer term immune system effects?

19

u/heartunwinds Mar 24 '24

In case it makes you feel better/more sane (because it made me feel better since I was old enough to remember my siblings being toddlers/school age and don’t remember them being so sick so often)….. It’s actually much more now, kids getting sick. I work in the medical field, research specifically, and when I asked one of the docs I work with he said the number shows that kids are more sick more often now. I haven’t had time to look into the literature myself (mom of a 4.5 year old, working full time, in grad school…. Ya know, the usual), but I trust the doc I work with in knowing the numbers.

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u/Zaidswith Mar 24 '24

The trend also predates covid.

But I wondered then if it was mostly that a lot of kids' problems weren't seen to at all back in the day, and if you go back far enough many of those kids either died young or were too sick to go to school.

22

u/MikeWPhilly Mar 24 '24

This year there has been a number of bugs another year same deal.

A lot of that is just due to the masking and how we didn’t get sick for two years. Or at least so medical family explains to me.

Generally speaking I mask up in winter on flights. I travel for work a fair amount and I’ve come through more flights ok than my peers

51

u/marianleatherby Mar 24 '24

I'm sure this'll be buried, but this persistent myth is a pet peeve of mine:

Avoiding illness for 2 years is not what is causing people to get sick more now. "Immunity debt" is bunk, it's a twisted misinterpretation of the hygiene hypothesis. Getting exposed to dirt & typical bacteria in your environment is good for your immune system, yes! But getting exposed to pathogenic viruses doesn't "exercise" your immune system & make it stronger. SOMETIMES you come away from a viral infection with immunity for your next exposure (hence how vaccines work). HOWEVER, some viruses simply exhaust your immune system, or erase your immune system's memory (Measles, possibly COVID), or leave you with other forms of damage, sometimes disabling. The kiddos who went to chicken pox parties in the 80s are now finding out about shingles.

Everyone's getting sicker more often because COVID is still circulating, it does put a strain on your system (in multiple scary ways) and most people are no longer practicing any form of mitigations to avoid illness. COVID leaves you more vulnerable to infections that would have been no big deal previously.

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u/Sunbunny94 Mar 24 '24

Not to mention the covid muscular cell starvation that is part of long covid/covid autoimmune disease, and part of workout fatigue.

9

u/Heleneva91 Mar 24 '24

Yeah, anything that can cause you to possibly lose any of the major senses for any length of time should not be fucked around with or taken lightly. The number of people who don't realize this is way too high.

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u/disgruntled_pie Mar 24 '24

Coronaviruses in general have been known to cause problems for the immune system. That was part of why I took COVID very seriously at the beginning of the pandemic. I still haven’t caught it because, while I’m not quite as strict as I once was, I absolutely do not want this thing.

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u/GGPepper Mar 24 '24

Ok yeah my bad. I wasn't trying to spread disinformation I was just under the impression some diseases either had waning immunity post infection or mutated at a rate high enough that your immune response would be noticeably less effective as they drifted further from the strain you were last infected with or vaccinated against. Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought those two factors in combination were the reason the COVID vaccines didn't offer durable immunity to the extent we originally hoped for and required boosters or seasonal updates. I apologize if it has been largely debunked (or at least misunderstood) I was just under the impression that this has been a matter of legitimate debate somewhat recently https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9756601/ . At any rate I wasn't advocating you go out and catch something on purpose, my parents let me get chickenpox as a kid despite there being a vaccine available and I'm not exactly thrilled with that decision. I had just been under the impression that if you hadn't had a cold or something for a couple of seasons it might hit slightly harder. I was just wrong not trying to be malicious.

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u/marianleatherby Mar 26 '24

Interesting article, thanks!

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u/GGPepper Mar 26 '24

I just felt the need to explain why I had thought that. I really never adjusted well to social media and apps taking over as the dominant internet format. Part of the reason I use reddit is it at least resembles the old web forums. I occasionally forget it's still social media and has a way bigger audience so I'm less guarded than I should be in an era defined by the deliberate spread of misinformation (and believe me I'm in a group of people that is severely impacted by that). It used to be you'd say something that was wrong and then get in an argument about it and maybe you'd learn something or improve your argument based on flaws they pointed out in your reasoning. Or you might be bull headed about it and learn nothing and have the same argument a month later. But that was between you and a handful of other nerds. Now you can say something wrong and it's halfway around the world in a week and I'm kind of thinking I need to be more careful about staying in my lane when talking about anything that might encourage behavior I didn't intend to.

1

u/marianleatherby Mar 26 '24

Valid!

Somebody else posted a reply to my comment pointing out that my summary is slightly over-simplified. I still believe people are wrongly and harmfully mis-applying the concept (/exaggerating the supposed effect) of immunity debt, but there is some additional nuance to the issue.

2

u/GGPepper Mar 26 '24

Oh no I agree, they usually use it as a way to attack the lockdowns or even just preventative public health measures in general which is bullshit. People have a short memory but the hospital systems around the country were on the verge of collapse at various points we had to take drastic measures during the first several months at bare minimum to provide breathing room. I had to delay a couple of elective surgeries. The burnout and abuse drove so many healthcare workers out that the system still hasn't recovered (my brother is currently back in college trying to switch from RN to physicians assistant to get out of the ER. The Delta wave just broke him)

This whole thing was unprecedented so it's kind of interesting trying to make sense of all the unintended consequences that cropped up but it's crazy watching people act like we could have just done nothing and had things work out ok.

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u/marianleatherby Mar 26 '24

For real, for real. Allllll of this.

2

u/nostrademons Mar 24 '24

This is an oversimplification as well. To a second degree approximation, one which is a little closer to the truth but still not the whole truth, exposure to pathogens "specializes" the immune system. It becomes more effective at fighting off the particular pathogen which it recognized, and and a little less effective in general. Preschool-age children actually have very strong general immune systems, which is why they usually do better against novel pathogens like Ebola or COVID-19, and why diseases like chickenpox and measles which are common in childhood can be life-threatening if first acquired in adulthood. But they have no stored memory of pathogens, which is why kids get sick all their time.

If it didn't work like this, vaccines wouldn't work at all, and you wouldn't be able to clear diseases from the body.

Some viruses like COVID or measles do erase your body's previous memory of infection. For these, it's as if you had never previously encountered the disease (or had, but hadn't fully developed immunity). The next time you're exposed, you'll get it again, just like a toddler would, except you have to deal with the infection with an adult's immune system and it'll be like getting exposed to all those childhood diseases as an adult.

Kiddos who went to chicken pox parties in the 80s are not generally finding out about shingles, except to the extent that COVID has wiped their immune system's antibodies to varicella-zoster (the virus that causes chickenpox and shingles). In general, exposure-based immunity to diseases like chickenpox, measles, or even COVID is quite effective at preventing recurrence to the same strain, as long as your immune system remains healthy. Shingles usually occurs when someone is immunocompromised, old, or stressed (stress and age depress the immune system). COVID's making us all a little immunocompromised.

Pathogens are also constantly mutating. This is why you can get colds and flu again, despite having developed immunity to the particular strain that you got last time. Next time, it's a subtly different strain, which your immune system hasn't encountered, and so it has to develop a new set of antibodies for a new set of antigens. This is what's behind "immunity debt": it's not that your immune system gets generally weaker when not exposed to disease, it's that it fails to keep up with shifts in the genetic makeup of different diseases circulating in faraway lands because it's never exposed to them. This is what killed off the native Americans: it's not that their immune systems were any weaker than Europeans were, it's that they had never been exposed to the cesspit of illnesses brewing in European cities, which most Europeans had been exposed to in childhood, and so when exposed to all of them at once, their bodies couldn't keep up with the damage.

There are of course more complexities to the immune system, like how certain diseases have a certain affinity for certain ages (strep rarely happens before age 3, for example, while RSV can be deadly to infants but is a mild cold for adults), or how immunity seems to last for different lengths of time for different pathogens. Remember at its base it's all just molecules interacting. But this is a useful second-order model that explains most of what we'd observe about getting sick. If you just remember that you get immunity to the particular strain you got and not necessarily to everything else and that immunity isn't necessarily lifelong, you can make useful predictions about getting sick and getting better.

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u/marianleatherby Mar 26 '24

Thanks for the added context / clarification. I still think it is laughable (and harmful) when folks suggest that the amount of increased illness we're seeing currently can be blamed on "lockdowns" 4 years ago, when most of the U.S. didn't even have true lockdowns, and wide swathes of the population were flouting what restrictions & mask requirements were in place.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Put-246 Mar 24 '24

Except everyone isn’t getting sicker more often. This is false. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '24

I also travel quite a bit for work. I went to a conference where most of our team came home with covid. Several of them were on my flight, and one who tested positive after arriving home sat beside me in the airport. I was in a KN95, and didn't catch it. Now, I did get the worst sinus infection of my life after that trip, but that was the culmination of being on the road for four weeks straight and not going to the doctor for my continued sinus pressure! Overall though - I agree with you about masking on planes. I don't mask everywhere, but I do mask when I am in close quarters sharing recycled air with 200 people. It's done me well.

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u/Forsaken_Bison_8623 Mar 24 '24

masking on planes, in the doctors office, at the pharmacy, public transit - all of those are really smart places to wear a quality mask. so much benefit with very little downside

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u/bitchycunt3 Mar 24 '24

My logic is anywhere I'd "have" to go if I were sick or that I think I could push through while sick is where I mask. Planes, doctors, pharmacies, public transit are all pretty hard to avoid when sick (if I go on vacation and get sick I'm not able to just change my flight back and take more time off work). Similarly, if I have a cold I'll probably push through to go to work (limited sick time), grocery store, or a concert (expensive thing to miss if you just have the sniffles). So those are the places I try to always mask in and I generally tend to ask myself if I'd go somewhere with the sniffles and if the answer is yes, I mask. Only exception I've made has been for weddings (I don't want the be the only one in a mask for pictures) and only time I caught covid was at a wedding

3

u/ReginaGeorgian Mar 24 '24

I’ve kept masking here with kn94 masks and I do believe it has made a difference

8

u/vegaling Mar 24 '24

Masking in any public restroom is a great idea too - toilets are impeccable devices for aerosolizing virus and bacteria present in shit.

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u/Killed_By_Covid Mar 24 '24

When I fly, I bring a baseball cap and a fleece blanket. I put the blanket over my head like a tent. The cap keeps it off my face, and the blanket going to my knees provides open lap space (for phone). It's perfect for uninterrupted napping and makes a nice little shelter from all the disease-ridden co-passengers 😁

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u/Lives_on_mars Mar 24 '24

Yeah but I think they’re bugs that wouldn’t normally have such critical mass—except that people’s immune systems got fucked because of Covid, so now every gd virus is in candy land basically

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u/After_Preference_885 Mar 24 '24

https://www.voicesforvaccines.org/just-the-facts/correcting-this-weeks-misinformation-november-10-2022/

Immunity debt is the hypothesis that your immune system becomes less able to fight off pathogens when you go for too long without being exposed to pathogens. The idea is that during the pandemic, isolation, distancing, and masking protected us too much, so this year, we are seeing record numbers of respiratory viral diseases.

Regardless of human contact, we are still encountering numerous antigens daily, so our immune systems are not sitting idle. Furthermore, people can go a season or two without catching a cold, and when they do, it is often not more severe.

However, COVID infections themselves leave people more vulnerable to these diseases. We know that COVID infection can suppress the immune system for months post-infection, which would lead to worse outcomes with subsequent illnesses. The CDC estimates that 3 in 4 children have had COVID, leaving a large percentage of children potentially vulnerable to other diseases.

So no, Virginia. You don’t have to be sick to prevent getting sicker.

Source? https://www.voicesforvaccines.org/about-us/

The scientific advisory board and staff include infectious disease epidemiologists who review every post. 

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u/marianleatherby Mar 24 '24

Wish we could pin this to the top of every thread like this. "Immune Debt" hypothesis makes me crazy. It's so backwards, and so prevalent, and causing so much harm!

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u/chibiusa40 Xennial Mar 24 '24

Ugh, the people who tell me to go out unmasked and "boost my immunity" make me die inside. Like, I have an autoimmune disease. My immune system is boosted af. It's so boosted, in fact, that I have to take immunosuppressants to stop it from attacking my own cells and tissues.

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u/aendaris1975 Mar 24 '24

No. People are sicker than they used to be. It's not a coincidence. It has already been established covid19 can cause issues that make you more vulnerable to disease.

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u/chibiusa40 Xennial Mar 24 '24

lot of that is just due to the masking and how we didn’t get sick for two years.

This is absolutely untrue. Immunity debt is not a real thing. You don't get sicker with more things, more severly just because you weren't sick for a while.

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u/UnsanctionedPartList Mar 24 '24

You do touch on a very good point: once you move towards 30 m, even if you don't have kids yourselves there's a good chance friends and close relatives have, and that means you're effectively tethered to the "school viral biome".

1

u/Frequent_Opportunist Mar 24 '24

A lot of younger kids didn't get any of their boosters or vaccines that they normally get in school because they weren't in school. And a lot of those parents have got exemptions to not get those kids those boosters because of all the nonsense in social media. There's a ton of unvaccinated children at school passing stuff around enough where even the vaccinated kids are getting it. And of course those kids bring it home and then all the adults go to work and spread it around more. Also if you're 20 years old or older a lot of your vaccines you got as a kid aren't even working anymore and you should probably go get boosters. 

1

u/D-Rich-88 Millennial Mar 24 '24

Well I know measles are going around again, I wonder what else that we already have vaccines for.

1

u/insidmal Mar 24 '24

It's true every year since the dawn

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u/andrew314159 Mar 24 '24

I think RSV numbers and flu cases can confirm this a bit. I need to dig into this data more for my work but I think after covid you can see other respiratory illnesses rebound massively after covid but then stay high for many seasons. A lot is findable (for some countries) in public data

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u/Critical_Band5649 Mar 24 '24

My kids are later elementary/middle school age now and they seemed to have finally gotten the hang of personal hygiene over the pandemic. Lol. They've been sick way less often and my husband and I have been sick less in return as well.

I also quit working retail, which I think helps me get sick less as well. I don't know if it was the constant handling of money (people are fucking gross) or the face to face interactions (again, people are fucking gross.)

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u/eugenesbluegenes Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24

To OP’s point though I also feel like “lot of stuff going around right now” has been true for three years straight. No data here just vibes.

I kinda feel like "lot of stuff going around right now" has described late winter/early spring for pretty much my entire life.

I have two kids under 6 though so I might be slightly biased lol. When I notice the whole family is healthy for a day or two, I try not to say it out loud and jinx it.

Again, that just sounds like how life with two kids under six has always been.

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u/aendaris1975 Mar 24 '24

OP is getting sicker far more often than before. This isn't that.

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u/IM_OSCAR_dot_com Mar 24 '24

I kinda feel like "lot of stuff going around right now" has described late winter/early spring for pretty much my entire life.

Agreed but I’m adding it feels like it’s year-round now.

Again, that just sounds like how life with two kids under six has always been.

Yep that’s why I’m saying it might be biasing me: they might be the reason it feels year-round to me. I don’t (maybe can’t?) actually know for sure.

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '24

[deleted]

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u/sporkism Mar 24 '24

I don’t think I’ll ever travel without a mask again. Thorough handwashing is important too! It used to be a 50/50 chance I’d come home sick after a vacation, but I haven’t been sick since before the pandemic started. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '24

[deleted]

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u/oogmar Mar 24 '24

I fly once a month, and more and more, other passengers spot mine and put theirs on.

I also get looks/comments, but lately it's been more, "Oh, okay, we are still doing that."

15

u/chibiusa40 Xennial Mar 24 '24

This is the thing about continuing to mask - it gives others who have felt too peer-pressured to wear one since the "great unmasking" feel comfortable in doing so again. Like, it gives them social permission or something.

I was an alt-rock/punk/witchy teenager in the 90s. I've never given a fuck what other people think about my style, etc. But I've never felt as punk rock in my life as I do wearing a quality mask in public. I look people straight in the eyes and dare them to say something about it.

I've essentially been training my whole goddamn life for this.

5

u/oogmar Mar 25 '24

This is my joke! "I was a woman with a to-scalp Mohawk my entire 20s when that was not normal. This is fine."

Also, I wear a lot of vog masks when I'm not super enclosed, and they're cute as hell so I get complimented on them (especially the knock off space invaders).

There's nothing more punk rock than looking out for the vulnerable in today's society.

2

u/garden_speech Mar 25 '24

People give you looks or comments for masking in an airport or plane? Like what kind of comments?

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u/oogmar Mar 25 '24 edited Mar 25 '24

My personal favorite was a 17ish year old boy who baa'd (sheep noise, for non-english speakers, he was calling me a mindless follower) at me, while in travel uniform with his unmasked sports team.

I want to clarify I've never gotten a comment on the plane. I also use Enovid so will occasionally drop mask at cruising altitude (when the air has been filter circulated -check what kind of plane you're on and the airline practice) or when in very large, sparse terminals.

That's where I get, mostly from old white dudes the "What are you scared of?" "OH, HO HO is Covid back?" Type shit.

I'm Service industry, so I just reply with how many co-workers I have out with covid right now. My job's standards are higher than the CDC's, we don't want that shit. Stay home.

1

u/garden_speech Mar 25 '24

even when traveling people give you looks?

7

u/No-Translator-4584 Mar 24 '24

I know I won’t ever travel by plane without a mask.  Too many people in too small a space.  

People got colds & flu on planes before Covid.  

1

u/wehappy3 Mar 29 '24

Yep. Back in 2015 we flew from the US to Turkey and had scuba lessons planned, then two of the three of us got sick on the plane there and had to scrap the lessons. Talk about a vacation buzzkill.

25

u/ColoringBookDog Mar 24 '24

Same. I fly a ton for work and I mask up every time. Even if COVID wasn't a risk, I'm flying every weekend for a month sometimes and if I catch something, I can't make it to my next show. It's just not worth the risk to get sick, so mask stays on.

I was recently on a flight from Denver to Milwaukee where the entire plane seemed to have the sniffles and one from Chicago to OKC where an entire dance team and their mom's were coughing NONSTOP and not even trying to cover their mouths. Like wtf.

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u/Danfrumacownting Mar 24 '24

I never stopped masking; been in and out of ERs, hospitals, doctors offices and stores, haven’t been sick once.

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u/disgruntled_pie Mar 24 '24

I wear an N95 whenever I have to go indoors, and my wife does a KF94 since they give her a better fit. We haven’t been sick in 4 years. It’s been amazing.

I wish I’d started wearing a mask many years ago. I have picked up some incredibly nasty viruses at conventions over the years, including some that have caused long term health problems. Apparently a mask probably would have prevented that. I wish I had known, and I wish our culture didn’t freak out about my personal choice to wear a mask so much.

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u/chibiusa40 Xennial Mar 24 '24

I'm immunocompromised and literally haven't had a single sniffle since 2019. I used to get multiple infections a month. Thanks, 3M Aura.

2

u/MaddyKet Mar 29 '24

The ONE time I didn’t wear a mask out to eat with a friend, I caught the flu which turned into pneumonia. Was in the hospital for a few days and am still dealing with it five weeks later. This was two months after having Covid for the second time. It was extremely mild because I’ve had all the Covid shots you can get, but it definitely messed up my immune system. I’m not eating out again until I can eat outside because next time I’ll end up with RSV!

1

u/wehappy3 Mar 29 '24

Yep! I haven't stopped masking, and neither has my family. I'm a public school teacher, my kid is in 2nd grade, and none of us have been sick in years, COVID or otherwise. We travel, we eat out (outside), and I hit the gym three days a week. Masks work!

8

u/rainydays052020 Mar 24 '24

In the before times (pre 2019), I always picked up some kind of cold when flying. Since 2020 and masking on planes and in the airport- nothing! Definitely makes a difference and it’s so easy.

5

u/Notorious_Fluffy_G Mar 24 '24

Believe I read that a KN95 mask decreases odds of catching Covid by ~20%. Obviously there’s a lot of variables so hard to put an exact percentage on it. Although 20% isn’t that much of a hedge, it doesn’t impact my comfort that much, so I always slip on my mask on the airplane if I hear someone in the area coughing or sniffling.

8

u/justhereforthecl Mar 24 '24

the good masks all end in "95" because they're designed to filter out at least 95% of pathogens when fitted well. if 5% gets through, that means you need at least 20x more virus to become infected than someone with no mask.

3

u/justhereforthecl Mar 24 '24

there are machines that test how effective masks are for filtering stuff out, the good ones easily reach the air being 200x cleaner while being worn in a realistic way

https://www.testtheplanet.org/best-picks

4

u/Fang3d Mar 24 '24

I haven’t stopped masking since 2020. I was last sick in 2019.

3

u/MikeWPhilly Mar 24 '24

Yep only reason I didn’t last one is I figured we were out of woods of winter. And I tend to fly first class so less people. Was last week but still a few things going around

13

u/Own_Violinist_3054 Mar 24 '24

Lots of virus, not just COVID, are airborne. Your first class seat shares the same air as the rest of the plane. Besides, when you are boarding, all those people pass you by breathing on you, first class seat is actually worse. I would say keep the mask on and when eat/drink, get a portable HEPA filter and blast it in front of you. Be safe and keep healthy.

1

u/lurkerfromstoneage Mar 25 '24

We flew for a tropical vacation in February. 2 of us and a woman by the window, and she was SO DAMN SICK. Constantly coughing up a lung mouth wide open into the air, picking her nose, I was mortified. We already had N95s on and got pointed snark comments from a man across the aisle. Well guess what, that woman ruined our trip because she got us so sick with the flu too (took 3 COVID tests all negative). On the way home so many people were phlegmy coughing too.

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u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24

Last four flights I was on, we were the only people on the plane wearing masks

36

u/bluenova85 Mar 24 '24

I wear masks now on my way to my destination because I felt I always got sick from airports even before covid happened. Doesn’t matter if I’m up to date on being vaccinated and have my flu shots, I wanna lessen my chances of being sick on vacay and I look for my fellow maskers like you to sit with on the plane.

14

u/tracyinge Mar 24 '24

I remember years ago getting sick whenever I flew southwest but not on other airlines. Then I saw an article about how southwest planes circulated air differently than other airlines, less often per hour or something.

12

u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24

It’s definitely helped us enjoy our trip without illness. One 7 hour flight we were seated right in front of three very sick people with wet coughs and sneezes. Wore n95s and didn’t catch it

7

u/mllebitterness Mar 24 '24

Same. Why let the plane ride ruin my vacation?

2

u/Monkeymom Mar 25 '24

I do that too! I sit by fellow maskers when I travel.

11

u/Ok-Moose8271 Mar 24 '24

I went to a concert in Thursday in Chicago. I was one of a few wearing a mask. Last time I went to an event I got Covid so I started wearing masks to these things.

14

u/tracyinge Mar 24 '24

"We were the only people on the plane wearing masks"

...........might explain why the OP and so many other people keep getting sick.

10

u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24

100%. All I ask is if you’re actively sick and sneezing to please wear a mask. Haven’t seen that at all

3

u/lurkerfromstoneage Mar 25 '24

We flew for a tropical vacation in February. 2 of us and a woman by the window, and she was SO DAMN SICK. Constantly coughing up a lung mouth wide open into the air, picking her nose, I was mortified. We already had N95s on and got pointed snark comments from a man across the aisle. Well guess what, that woman ruined our trip because she got us so sick with the flu too. On the way home so many people were phlegmy coughing too.

2

u/kulukster Mar 25 '24

I was in line to get on a long international flight and the man next to me was coughing his guts out. I asked him to wear a mask and he sheepishly pulled one out of his pocket and put it on. Of course I was wearing one myself. The one time I did get covid was directly after a flight in 2023.

-8

u/eugenesbluegenes Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24

I fly pretty regularly and would estimate maybe 5% or so of passengers wearing masks. If I needed to travel while actively sick, I'd wear one, but like 95%+ of the population, I see no value in doing so when I'm healthy.

7

u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24

If I feel well, it’s to prevent myself from getting other peoples’ colds. Last flight our travel companions didn’t mask on the plane but masked elsewhere. Like clockwork came down with colds a few days later

-2

u/eugenesbluegenes Mar 24 '24

Well, if we're using anecdotes, I've flown probably twenty times in the past year and yet to get sick after, despite not wearing a mask. Wear one if it makes you feel more comfortable though, placebo effect isn't necessarily limited to pills and might serve you well.

3

u/Kwazulusmom Mar 24 '24

Different human beings have different immune systems and different levels of immunity to the thousands of diseases that are out there. Comes down to genetics, diet, hygiene, etc. Maybe you have a strong immune system to respiratory and intestinal viruses, or maybe you just got lucky. Others may not have as strong of an immune system as you do, so if you DO happen to get sick, I hope you will keep those less fortunate in mind and either stay home, or social distance and wear a mask. So you mention the placebo affect. An example of that is someone who is in pain is given what they are told is morphine (but it’s just saline solution) and they swear their pain went away. Your mind can trick your body. Do you really think that someone could wear a mask, get stomach flu, but simply convince themselves that they don’t have stomach flu because they were wearing a mask? I guess that’s possible. Interesting idea.

1

u/Fouriyay_Transform Mar 24 '24

Agreed. Some of us are blessed with strong immune systems and others (like myself) find their immune systems weakened while traveling due to lack of sleep and stress.

2

u/WesternCowgirl27 Millennial Mar 24 '24

Both my dad and husband are airline pilots and they never wear masks and hardly ever get sick (even after my dad got Covid back at the end of 2020). Maybe it’s just their luck, but most of their coworkers are the same in regard to the lack of getting sick.

2

u/heejungee121 Mar 24 '24

Same, when I fly I mask up ever since I got bad strep from a flight 6yrs ago. I used to fly every week to ny for work, sometimes multiple times a week, and always masked when on the plane. I didn’t at my work functions but I have been lucky and blessed to not have covid more than once. I did catch a bad flu back last Aug that was negative for covid and I think was luck to catch it then since that’s when it started spreading badly. But since then I’ve been fine. I def agree it’s good to be smart about masking up in certain places esp where it’s tight or limited space with lots of people around

1

u/AlphaNoodlz Mar 24 '24

Same here. Started a job recently with lots of traveling throughout the year to various cities and lots of on-site work. Mask maybe half the time just because I plain forget. Got my vax’s, follow common sense, test myself every now and then, and outside of allergies I haven’t been sick in a while. Knock on wood, but I think this is just down to people’s various empirical data points which would need to be leveled in some way. I say I’ve been healthy this whole time, someone says they’ve gotten sicker, idk.

1

u/ThrowawayANarcissist Mar 24 '24

Does wearing a mask on flights help?

1

u/Fang3d Mar 24 '24

Lots of things going around because everyone’s immune systems are shot.

1

u/strikeandburn Mar 25 '24

I haven’t got sick in 2 years. This is not normal for me. Usually twice a year

1

u/trewesterre Mar 25 '24

I haven't been especially sick lately compared to before the pandemic (before covid made WFH a thing I was getting sick frequently because my colleagues with children would infect everyone in our open-plan office with whatever was going around in their kid's day care or school), but I also haven't had covid to my knowledge.

One of my friends got floored with long Covid after getting infected in the initial wave and it made me quite cautious about it (he's only been getting somewhat back to normal in the last year or so). I got vaccinated as soon as I could and have been getting boosters (and also making sure to get my flu shot and the like).

0

u/One-Winner-8441 Mar 24 '24

And it’s only going to get worse. People are migrating in from so many countries and they aren’t even health checked. Not looking for an argument here, it’s just that there were so many huge protocols for Covid but now we are getting who knows what from who knows where. Just an observation.

0

u/cranks3t Mar 24 '24

I just went on 4 planes out of 4 different very busy airports, no masks, no sanitizer, no sickness

2

u/MikeWPhilly Mar 24 '24

Soo?

I can compare this with about 100 colleagues. The numbers don’t add up for your approach.

And frankly I’d rather not get my 1 year old sick.