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Are reinfectons milder?

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I would like to know if anyone on this forum (or friends, relatives or just people you know) has had covid at least twice. Has the second infection been milder than the first one? I know a few people who have had covid but no one who has had it twice yet.
 
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Gloster

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I have had it twice and reckon they were about the same, although the diarrhoea was not as bad the second time. However, that might be because I had moved house and had better cooking facilities.
 

baz962

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I would like to know if anyone on this forum (or friends, relatives or just people you know) has had covid at least twice. Has the second infection been milder than the first one? I know a few people who have had covid but no one who has had it twice yet.
Daughter had it twice. Slightly worse the second time. But both cases were quite mild.
 

yorkie

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I would like to know if anyone on this forum (or friends, relatives or just people you know) has had covid at least twice. Has the second infection been milder than the first one? I know a few people who have had covid but no one who has had it twice yet.
I don't think I know anyone personally who has mentioned having it twice, but in general it's more likely to get milder with each exposure (there will always be exceptions to the general rule, of course).

It's also likely that a significant proportion of infections are now asymptomatic and many people will not know they are infected.

Given seroprevalence is at incredibly high rates now, I suspect many people have been exposed to Sars-CoV-2 multiple times.
 

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I know of a few colleagues who have had it twice and reported the second round to have been milder (in one case, significantly so, as the first round early in the pandemic, reportedly floored them)
 

Lloyds siding

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Well, it depends on how bad your previous infection(s) was/were.
A relative is currently on her second infection, which is a little worse than the first.
Another person I know is still recovering after being infected in April 2020, and has taken extreme measures to prevent reinfection.
Two other relations (with other conditions) didn't survive their first infection.
 

greyman42

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I would like to know if anyone on this forum (or friends, relatives or just people you know) has had covid at least twice. Has the second infection been milder than the first one? I know a few people who have had covid but no one who has had it twice yet.
I have had it twice. First time was Xmas 2020 when the "full fat" version was knocking about and i was laid up and felt terrible for a week or so.
Second time was about 4 months ago but was the Omicron version which just resulted in a really bad cough for a week.
 

Lewlew

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I have had it twice. First time was Xmas 2020 when the "full fat" version was knocking about and i was laid up and felt terrible for a week or so.
Second time was about 4 months ago but was the Omicron version which just resulted in a really bad cough for a week.
I’ve had it at least three times. First time was Feb 2020 where I was extremely fatigued. Second time was summer 2020 where it was just a cough. Third time was Xmas 2021 where it was flu and extreme fatigue.
 

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It's been either milder or similar for most of the people I know who've had it a second time, the only exception I can think of was someone who works at the local hospital, he's had it 3 or 4 times over the last couple of years and said it's been slightly worse every time (different variants as I understand it, if it's through work - as he seems to think - I guess it's due to getting a higher viral load as part of the reduction of restrictions there).

I've just had it the once, last October, as far as I know. Haven't tested since March, the last of the near misses I had early in the year where people who'd been sat near me in the pub became symptomatic the next day. Interestingly, out of the 3/4 times it happened only 1 other person appeared to come down with it as a result of sitting near the infected in the pub.
 
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Tested positive for the second time today….. I feel worse than the first time I got it - but that was only a few months ago. There is a new variant or two going about rampantly at the moment though… got a high temperature with this one and a clogged chest than last time.
 

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I had it March 2020, not confirmed with test due to nonavailability, but I was ill with the required symptoms and also my partner and I both had positive antibody tests last year (mine was post vaccination but his was pre). I was ill for maybe two days, sleeping on sofa mostly, not the worst illness I’ve ever had; that was probably swine flu.

Second time I had a positive LFT and PCR test 2 weeks ago, my illness if you can call it that was hot sweats one night and a sore throat for one evening, although I put the down to very hot weather and also having an extremely busy day at work including very early starts all week, but carried on life as normal.
 
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Both our adult children have recently had a second infection. Neither reported their symptoms as being milder. Both isolated.

The elder was reinfected only 10 weeks after the first, and they continued to test positive for 9/10 days.
 

cuccir

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Our neighbour had her second infection last week and for her it seemed much worse, it having been a mild infection in 2020.

It's hard (impossible?) to know whether reinfections are intrinsically more or less severe. Most people who have had more than one infection will have been vaccinated between the two infections, and any being reinfected now will be getting the milder Omicron variant. People will be exposed to different viral loads each time they're infected too.
 

yorkie

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Our neighbour had her second infection last week and for her it seemed much worse, it having been a mild infection in 2020.

It's hard (impossible?) to know whether reinfections are intrinsically more or less severe. Most people who have had more than one infection will have been vaccinated between the two infections, and any being reinfected now will be getting the milder Omicron variant. People will be exposed to different viral loads each time they're infected too.
I think people who have an experience that is contrary to the common one are more likely to post about it, hence the mismatch between some posts here and the prevailing reality

Infections are clearly milder as infections are through the roof but hospitalisations, ICU admissions, workplace absences etc are way down from previous waves.
 

nw1

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Hard to know if I've had it more than once.

Had it in Nov 2021 when it was roughly the 40th most severe viral infection of my lifetime, well below the most severe (in December 1999). Just seemed like a bad cold, the kind which would normally be bad enough to take a couple of days off work.

Since then I have had very minor cold-like symptoms, the sort that before Covid I wouldn't have even noticed probably (and certainly not bad enough to avoid going into work) in mid Jan, early April and late May. Avoided physically going into work for the April one (was working from home the other two anyway) but wasn't severe enough to test.

I did also have a cold-like minor illness in mid March 2020 but without the cough or high temperature (my temperature was well below the threshold they were publicising at the time), so I didn't isolate (which, with online shopping being booked out weeks in advance, would have been difficult to do anyway - the government's attitude here just seemed to be "you're on your own, mate"), but did avoid going into work (it was just before lockdown) as a precaution. Maybe this was actually Covid,who knows.
 
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