Comment by Baeocystin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Baeocystin | Hacker News Reader

Is there any way to tell, after having had a vaccination?

I got unusually sick in February of 2020; felt like I'd been hit by a truck. Went to the hospital, and there were so many people there with the same symptoms we were a line past the ER and down the hallway. No one was thinking covid at the time. I remember the nurse checking me in asking if I'd had the flu shot (I had), then shrugging and guessing it must not be that effective that year. Was sent home after receiving fluids.

That being said, I never lost my sense of smell, nor did I have the brain fog, covid toes, any of the other supposed tells. Did take a solid month to feel fully human again in terms of energy levels, though.

Haven't been sick since, that I am aware of.

You can have your antibodies tested. If you had the vaccine, you will only have spike antibodies. If you had the disease, you will have other ones as well.

Good to know, thank you. Is this something a lab like Quest would offer, or do you have to ask your GP about it?

Quest does offer it, don't know if you'll need a doctor's order or not because that's not an issue for me - I can order it myself or have my wife (also a physician) order it. You want a nucleocapsid antibody test to find out if you've had the disease - the spike antibody test will tell you whether or not your vaccine "took".

Thanks again. Your help is appreciated.

I'm vaccinated and boosted (but never got the Omicron booster this fall). On day 6 of my first COVID-positive infection and while I never lost my sense of smell, I had a super high fever (104ºF-ish) and awful headache for 2-3 days, and have been having intermittent brain fog and fatigue and a cough since then but feel 65%-95% recovered at any given moment.

I also just finished my round of Paxlovid, which feels like it may have reduced my recovery time slightly, at the cost of an _awful_ constant metallic taste in my mouth and mild but increasing gastrointestinal upset.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com