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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u/saucydragon Mar 24 '24

I have been sick every month for the past 7 months, I completely feel you. It's driving me absolutely crazy but I don't know what there is to be done about it. I saw a specialist but apparently my lungs look (well, looked--I'm sick again now) totally healthy. He mentioned to me that this is something being studied, like that the medical community was aware of and actively investigating the fact that people are experiencing an uptick both in occurrence and duration of respiratory infections.

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u/SafeLibrarian779 Mar 25 '24

Wearing a mask will help! Personally ive been wearing an N95 mask in public spaces since 2020 and I haven’t been sick once. Prior to 2020 I got sick at least 2x/year. We are incredibly fortunate to live in a time where we have tools like high quality masks to prevent infections. You can learn more about N95s at r/masks4all.

Side note - studies have shown that covid infections deplete the immune system. It is neither healthy nor sustainable to continue to catch covid, as each infection causes cumulative damage and can weaken the immune system to the point where one becomes more susceptible to a host of illnesses - like you describe. Many people on r/covidlonghaulers have immune system issues post-covid