So after two plus weeks, I am finally over my COVID infection. The positive indicator was very faint on Thursday, and totally not there last night. I still have a slight cough and itchy throat, but I often have those symptoms for no real reason way before COVID.
The question now is what variant did I get? Based on the new cases history for France above (the curve for Italy is similar), I think it was the BA.4/BA.5 variant.You can see the massive spike in cases for the first Omicron variant (BA.1) in January, then the smaller bump for BA.2. I was feeling pretty good about our trip to Europe since we left during the low in early June, but a month later, we can see the effect of BA.4/BA.5. I read that the BA.5 variant appears to have a R0 of > 18. That is higher than measles and puts it as the most infectious virus ever.
Here is the same chart for Los Angeles County. This is my main area of concern as I decide whether to return to the office or continue to work from home. The timing of each spike is different, but the original Omicron spike is evident. Looking at the slow increase of the past few months, is it due to BA.2 or BA.4/BA.5? I had fairly mild symptoms during the past two weeks, but if I get reinfected, will I have similar symptoms or maybe something a lot worse?
It seems that after two and a half years of COVID, we know much more about the virus but there is still a lot of questions.
Life with chronic diseases 