4 ms·

Apologies for the throwaway account, I just don't want this comment 'on the record': I've worked nearly 100% from home for the last 5 years. My wife works for

Apologies for the throwaway account, I just don't want this comment 'on the record': I've worked nearly 100% from home for the last 5 years. My wife works for a major bank, and has had a hybrid work arrangement for all that time. Employees there are required to spend 5 days in the office per fortnight. This requirement is strictly enforced. For whatever reason, we spend about 3 months of every year battling viruses that spread around her office. Every few months someone brings COVID to her office. Flu season is an absolute nightmare. I'm not sure what has changed in the wider human biome, but I don't remember respiratory viruses being something I needed to worry about prior to COVID. I'd only ever had the flu once before in my life, but now we get it multiple times a year. I've had three severe respiratory viruses this year alone, and I'm a healthy, fit, non-immunocompromised person. Anecdotally, other people are experiencing the same thing. Is this something that affects other people here?

stackghost 2y ago
I get a flu and COVID vaccine once a year and essentially never get anything worse than a cold. I have young school-aged kids, and kids are cesspools of filth and pestilence.
jiggawatts 2y ago
Yes, there was a “rebound” effect where isolation during COVID reduced herd immunity to other respiratory viruses. When people were brought back into close contact, the result was a “speed run” through three years of viruses in the space of one year. It’s a bit more complex than that but you get the gist.
- s1artibartfast 2y ago
  I think the majority of the effect is that and confirmation bias, but I think there could be some marginal effect. Im hybrid with days in office counted and a performance consideration. When I have used by WFH days then get sick, I 100% take it to the office. I dont know if this surpasses the effect of fewer people in the office, but I think it is possible.
- laserlight 2y ago
  > isolation during COVID reduced herd immunity to other respiratory viruses. Do you have any reference explaining this? As far as I know, respiratory viruses (flu, RSV, COVID-19) are difficult to develop immunity for because of their rapid evolution cycles. The quote above sounds counter-intuitive to me.
  - jiggawatts 2y ago
    Disclaimer: I'm not even remotely a biologist, and this is a vague memory of some announcements (albeit by reputable scientific sources) a year ago. This gist of what I remember was that viruses mutate some "percentage" of their envelope on average annually. It's somewhat predictable for more than six months into the future, which is how flu vaccines are developed and manufactured ahead of time before the next flu season. This unpredictability accumulates, so after three years the viruses become nearly totally unpredictable, not just to vaccine manufacturers, but also to the human immune system. If you get the flu every year, each year the new flu might only be 30% different than the one before, so you have some lingering immunity to it. If you catch it every year, you'll generally get mild cases and refresh your immunity each time. If you skip three years, the viruses become 66% different, which might be sufficient to evade your immune system and give you a really bad case. There were also a few coincidental compounding issues recently, such as particularly virulent strains of viruses such as RSV going around.
- terminatornet 2y ago
  in 20 years people will still be saying lockdowns in 2020/2021 caused immunity debt.
majke 2y ago
What is your location? Here, in Poland, its mostly the kids bringing infections home. I usually expect at least one week off due to sickness in early fall, and then proper flu (taking around 10 days) in december/january. This is the norm. I remember a stark contrast with the UK where, I guess due to the climate, the kids dont get sick at all.
- repiret 2y ago
  In my experience in the US, it's about the same. Although it seems my house doesn't get quite as sick as yours; I don't think I've ever been sick enough long enough to take 10 days off work.
- BrandoElFollito 2y ago
  Same in France. The threshold for "can go to school" is "no fever". So you have plenty of kids sneezing and coughing as if they were in a final stage of tuberculosis and there was no tomorrow. They are taught to sneeze in their arm (and they do it) but not coughing. So they cough as of it was the olympics again and there would be a prize for the one who coughs further. For the record, I have two children (now students) so they did their share of spreading diseases (to home and at school)
- soco 2y ago
  Which is the reason I started a few years ago doing the seasonal flu shots (then covid too) and lo, no more sickness time. I'm aware they never cover 100% of the strains but seems I was in the lucky majority. Now that kids are growing up probably I'll continue, it's nice to not worry about sitting with fever at home.
aulin 2y ago
It's not flu. I just assume anything respiratory I get from the office or when travelling is COVID and so far antigenic tests always confirmed it. I take flu vaccine shots once a year and didn't get flu since years. Same for COVID but they don't work, I still get it at least twice a year with bad symptoms
laserlight 2y ago
It amazes me that our culture normalizes people spreading their infections.
- nickpp 2y ago
  I thought getting regularly infected with seasonal diseases keeps your immune system up-to-date against the pathogen mutations and avoids a rarer but more dangerous episode down the road. But I guess without a serious study my belief is hard to check & validate.
  - sunaookami 2y ago
    It's the opposite - regularly getting infected weakens your immune system. It's not something that constantly needs to be "trained".
- tharne 2y ago
  What we normalize is not stopping the world every time someone gets the sniffles.
  - skeaker 2y ago
    So you're the one passing the cold around. Please stop doing that! We all resent it.
  - xboxnolifes 2y ago
    What we have normalized is forcing people to work while sick, so they can make everyone else in the office sick.
Elinvynia 2y ago
If you had COVID (which you definitely had) you are now immune compromised. You can test your cell immunity to see this (CD3+CD4- and such). I had AIDS-level immunity after my infection. This resolves within 2 years, usually, unless you are constantly getting reinfected due to this lower immunity and not taking any precautions like masking.
neomoto 2y ago
How many Covid vaccines did you have?
rldjbpin 2y ago
might not be a universal thing, but covid or not there is usually a decent health and safety policy in most places that allows remote work when you are feeling symptoms of the flu. being from a city where owning personal vehicle is too expensive and impractical, and where public transportation is "good enough" and encouraged, it is the act of commuting, whether work or not, that would have given me more anxiety. this is what living in the city is though. i would not choose a way of working based on this alone.

stackghost 2y ago

I get a flu and COVID vaccine once a year and essentially never get anything worse than a cold. I have young school-aged kids, and kids are cesspools of filth and pestilence.

jiggawatts 2y ago

Yes, there was a “rebound” effect where isolation during COVID reduced herd immunity to other respiratory viruses. When people were brought back into close contact, the result was a “speed run” through three years of viruses in the space of one year. It’s a bit more complex than that but you get the gist.

s1artibartfast 2y ago
I think the majority of the effect is that and confirmation bias, but I think there could be some marginal effect. Im hybrid with days in office counted and a performance consideration. When I have used by WFH days then get sick, I 100% take it to the office. I dont know if this surpasses the effect of fewer people in the office, but I think it is possible.
laserlight 2y ago
> isolation during COVID reduced herd immunity to other respiratory viruses. Do you have any reference explaining this? As far as I know, respiratory viruses (flu, RSV, COVID-19) are difficult to develop immunity for because of their rapid evolution cycles. The quote above sounds counter-intuitive to me.
- jiggawatts 2y ago
  Disclaimer: I'm not even remotely a biologist, and this is a vague memory of some announcements (albeit by reputable scientific sources) a year ago. This gist of what I remember was that viruses mutate some "percentage" of their envelope on average annually. It's somewhat predictable for more than six months into the future, which is how flu vaccines are developed and manufactured ahead of time before the next flu season. This unpredictability accumulates, so after three years the viruses become nearly totally unpredictable, not just to vaccine manufacturers, but also to the human immune system. If you get the flu every year, each year the new flu might only be 30% different than the one before, so you have some lingering immunity to it. If you catch it every year, you'll generally get mild cases and refresh your immunity each time. If you skip three years, the viruses become 66% different, which might be sufficient to evade your immune system and give you a really bad case. There were also a few coincidental compounding issues recently, such as particularly virulent strains of viruses such as RSV going around.
terminatornet 2y ago
in 20 years people will still be saying lockdowns in 2020/2021 caused immunity debt.

majke 2y ago

What is your location? Here, in Poland, its mostly the kids bringing infections home. I usually expect at least one week off due to sickness in early fall, and then proper flu (taking around 10 days) in december/january. This is the norm. I remember a stark contrast with the UK where, I guess due to the climate, the kids dont get sick at all.

repiret 2y ago
In my experience in the US, it's about the same. Although it seems my house doesn't get quite as sick as yours; I don't think I've ever been sick enough long enough to take 10 days off work.
BrandoElFollito 2y ago
Same in France. The threshold for "can go to school" is "no fever". So you have plenty of kids sneezing and coughing as if they were in a final stage of tuberculosis and there was no tomorrow. They are taught to sneeze in their arm (and they do it) but not coughing. So they cough as of it was the olympics again and there would be a prize for the one who coughs further. For the record, I have two children (now students) so they did their share of spreading diseases (to home and at school)
soco 2y ago
Which is the reason I started a few years ago doing the seasonal flu shots (then covid too) and lo, no more sickness time. I'm aware they never cover 100% of the strains but seems I was in the lucky majority. Now that kids are growing up probably I'll continue, it's nice to not worry about sitting with fever at home.

aulin 2y ago

It's not flu. I just assume anything respiratory I get from the office or when travelling is COVID and so far antigenic tests always confirmed it. I take flu vaccine shots once a year and didn't get flu since years. Same for COVID but they don't work, I still get it at least twice a year with bad symptoms

laserlight 2y ago

It amazes me that our culture normalizes people spreading their infections.

nickpp 2y ago
I thought getting regularly infected with seasonal diseases keeps your immune system up-to-date against the pathogen mutations and avoids a rarer but more dangerous episode down the road. But I guess without a serious study my belief is hard to check & validate.
- sunaookami 2y ago
  It's the opposite - regularly getting infected weakens your immune system. It's not something that constantly needs to be "trained".
tharne 2y ago
What we normalize is not stopping the world every time someone gets the sniffles.
- skeaker 2y ago
  So you're the one passing the cold around. Please stop doing that! We all resent it.
- xboxnolifes 2y ago
  What we have normalized is forcing people to work while sick, so they can make everyone else in the office sick.

Elinvynia 2y ago

If you had COVID (which you definitely had) you are now immune compromised. You can test your cell immunity to see this (CD3+CD4- and such). I had AIDS-level immunity after my infection. This resolves within 2 years, usually, unless you are constantly getting reinfected due to this lower immunity and not taking any precautions like masking.

neomoto 2y ago

How many Covid vaccines did you have?

rldjbpin 2y ago

might not be a universal thing, but covid or not there is usually a decent health and safety policy in most places that allows remote work when you are feeling symptoms of the flu. being from a city where owning personal vehicle is too expensive and impractical, and where public transportation is "good enough" and encouraged, it is the act of commuting, whether work or not, that would have given me more anxiety. this is what living in the city is though. i would not choose a way of working based on this alone.