I’ve been feeling awful ever since I got back in the US a week ago — sore throat, dry cough, nasal congestion — and so I finally went to urgent care today to get all the swab tests. The results:
❌ no Covid (I always get the vax) 💉
❌ no flu (I always get the vax) 💉
❌ no strep (believe me, if there were a vax, I’d get it)
It’s a cold. Just a cold. I haven’t had one in eight years. It could have been much worse, but it wasn’t, thanks to vaccinations and masking.
I’m still pretty miserable, though.
Get vaxxed whenever you can, especially now.
🛡️ 
@wendynather
So glad it's just a cold! Feel better soon :)
Even if vaccines don't always entirely protect you from catching breakthrough infections it makes it a lot easier to deal with and reduces the risk of infecting others. I got Influenza A at a wedding with the rest of my family. Only one with a recent flu shot and my symptoms lasted about three-four days shorter than the rest of my family!
Around New Year in 2018, I contracted influenza - something I tend to get about every 10 years! I wasn't vaccinated and I cannot even begin to recount how ill it made me. I was unable to stand up for 4 days - for the first couple of days of it, I thought I was dying - for the next few days I hoped I was dying as I felt so incredibly ill! After recovering, I developed an opportunist infection of bacterial pneumonia (something that commonly kills influenza patients), fortunately a timely course of antibiotics stopped that in 48 hours.
As I am now of the age that means I can get the flu vaccine free of charge, I do exactly that every year religiously now!
