{"id":19176,"date":"2021-07-21T14:36:53","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T19:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/?p=19176"},"modified":"2023-03-06T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T17:02:09","slug":"why-is-everyone-around-me-sick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/patient-stories\/why-is-everyone-around-me-sick\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Everyone Around Me Sick?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before the pandemic, I was notorious for contracting bad colds \u2014 at the worst of times. At my senior prom, an unknown respiratory illness rendered me unable to speak, but for a few raspy words. The first year I lived in NYC and began riding the germy subway, I came down with multiple sinus infections.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I came to accept my fate as the girl with the perpetual cold. Then the pandemic hit. In lockdown, the precautions I was taking to stay COVID-free \u2014 dutifully slipping on my mask, bathing in hand sanitizer, avoiding contact with people and communal surfaces \u2014 protected me against all minor communicable illnesses. For more than a year, I didn\u2019t fish out my reliable tub of NyQuil or suck on a single cough drop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But one day in late June, I felt that once-familiar itch in the back of my throat. I groaned, downed several glasses of Emergen-C and hoped for health. Nevertheless, the itch morphed into a full-blown summer cold, complete with green snot, startling sneezes and a phlegmy cough that kept me up all night. I rushed to an urgent care center to get COVID test. Luckily, I wasn\u2019t in the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">0.003 percent<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of vaccinated people with severe <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22575227\/covid-19-post-vaccine-breakthrough-infection-cases\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">COVID-19 breakthrough infections<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. I just had a frustratingly incurable cold that had to \u201crun its course.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As I sat in bed that weekend, blowing my nose and reeling from FOMO, my friend texted me that he was sick too. Soon enough, a lot of other people were complaining about colds \u2014 friends, acquaintances, coworkers, family members, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/catcohen\/status\/1412774841271390212\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">comedians on Twitter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the healthiest year of many people\u2019s lives (for those of us lucky enough to avoid COVID), it suddenly seemed like everyone was sick. What was going on?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<hr class=\"squiggle\" \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A common belief among my family and friends is that exposure to germs strengthens the immune system. By that logic, 16 months of social distancing and compulsive sanitizing would leave people unusually susceptible to infectious diseases. Apparently, this a huge misconception \u2014 at least for adults.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019re born into the world with an \u201cinnate immune response,\u201d which kicks into gear quickly to<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> act as the first line of defense against invaders, immunologist Douglas Green says. Through immunizations and exposure to illnesses, you build up an \u201cadaptive immune response.\u201d This mechanism allows your immune system to remember viruses, bacteria and other pathogens you\u2019ve come across already and protect you against reinfection, Green says. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAny time we are exposed to a new infection or vaccine, we generate an adaptive immune response.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/the-truth-about-boosting-your-immunity\/\">immune system&#8217;s strength<\/a> is fully developed by the time you&#8217;re an adult. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(That is, until you get older, and it starts to lose some of its might.) Our bodies have great memories; they don\u2019t need constant re-exposure to germs to know how to get rid of them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, offers a helpful comparison. \u201cI<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">f you stop lifting weights for a while, your muscles will become slack, but there&#8217;s no evidence that that happens with your immune system,\u201d he says. &#8220;So the notion that this coming respiratory season will be more severe because our immune systems have become relatively inactive is incorrect.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the lockdown hasn\u2019t weakened our immune systems, what\u2019s making us sick? The two experts I talked to said it\u2019s likely a combination of two things: exposure and lifestyle choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the flu pretty much faded from existence this winter, cold-weather respiratory illnesses are starting to show up again.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Schaffner works with a team that looks at <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, in kids. The virus is primarily found in young children, but can also appear in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/rsv\/high-risk\/older-adults.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">adults of all ages with chronic medical conditions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Similar to the flu, RSV tends to strike in winter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s been quite clear that southeastern states have seen a very unseasonal increase in hospitalized RSV infections,\u201d Schaffner says. \u201cThis is just evidence of the fact that there are respiratory viruses out there. People are getting together very closely, and this has provided some opportunity for these viruses to be spread.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the flu, and viruses that cause colds and other respiratory illnesses, didn\u2019t die out. They\u2019re out there, ready to give you the sniffles. It\u2019s just a matter of running into one at your maskless happy hour. \u201cIt just reinforces how important our social distancing activities were and how effective they were,\u201d Schaffner says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While your immune response is more or less fixed by adulthood, that doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need to take care of it like any other system in your body. \u201cA healthy diet, exercise, and getting enough sleep are all parts of a healthy lifestyle, which includes a healthy immune system,\u201d Green says. However, he notes, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">diets and supplements that purport to improve immunity are largely nonsense.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sure, if I\u2019m being honest, leading a healthy lifestyle hasn\u2019t been my priority this summer. After a year of being cooped up, I\u2019ve focused on having fun. I\u2019m sleeping less and dining out more than I was during lockdown. Add in lingering stress and anxiety from the pandemic, and you\u2019ve got the perfect cocktail for a summer cold. (In fact, Green suspects PTSD could also explain why so many people are getting sick right now, as there\u2019s some evidence it can affect the immune system.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After two weeks of coughing, I\u2019m finally over my cold. Will being slightly sick all the time once again become my MO? I hope not. While I don\u2019t plan to resume non-stop mask use, I do plan to find a more balanced lifestyle as we shift back into \u201cnormalcy.\u201d More sleep and veggies, less reliance on packaged Vitamin C.\u00a0As for this year\u2019s flu season, just around the corner? We\u2019ll handle that one when we get there.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h1 class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"s1\">Ready to book a doctor&#8217;s appointment? Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Zocdoc.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immunity experts explain why summer colds are returning with a vengeance.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":18603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[181,165,149,29,93,59,180],"class_list":["post-19176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patient-stories","tag-cold-season","tag-covid-vaccine","tag-covid19","tag-flu","tag-public-health","tag-recovery","tag-viruses","reviewer-dr-nassim-assefi","specialist_by_city-find-primary-care-physicians-near-you"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why Is Everyone Around Me Sick? - Patient Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Immunity experts explain why summer colds are returning with a vengeance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/patient-stories\/why-is-everyone-around-me-sick\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Is Everyone Around Me Sick? 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