Lemmings who know where/when they contracted COVID, how long after your exposure did you become symptomatic?

3 days. Felt like shit, I immediately knew something was wrong and that it wasn't a normal cold, so I did a test and it came out positive.

Couple of days. Was sitting on a plane leaving Omaha, we were about a year and a half in so it was fairly safe to travel then, but we still masked everywhere. That didn't stop big boomer billy from refusing to put on a mask and coughing on my wife and I for the duration of the flight. We were both vaxxed so we pulled through, but it still sucked.

I heard something like "90% of cases will start symptoms within 5 days" or something. Still, take a test, maybe try to stay home for the next few days if you can, and if you must go out wear a mask just to be safe to try to not spread it to anyone else. My immuno-compromised family thanks you for that.

And if you did get it, as long as you're vaxxed you don't need to worry. Prepare for a bad flu, the first week be ready for a bad fever, but queue up some movies/TV and plow through it.

It's been a couple of years, but I'm pretty sure it was something around 5 days from exposure to feeling my first symptoms. I got it from a large event after people had stopped wearing masks regularly.

It hit me pretty fast and hard as soon as the symptoms started. I went from feeling perfectly fine to feeling very feverish. Checked my temperature and it was over 100F. The first night was the absolute worst for me. Everything hurt, I was both burning up and freezing cold. After my fever broke the next day, I was mostly fine outside of the cough which lasted a few weeks.

About a week.

Someone in the office had covid and for some fucked up reason decided to come in anyway and then get sent home but he was in the office for about 45 minutes before he was kicked out.

He was an anti-vaxxer and so kept saying it was just a cold, but even if you believed that why would not just take the opportunity to have a month off work and still be paid by the government? Idiot.

Then I got sick about a week later, and I know it was from him because at the time I lived by myself and I drove my car to and from work so I was never interacting with anybody else.

It took me 2-3 days.

Was exposed on a Thursday or Friday or possibly both days from some sick coworkers (can't remember now as it's been several months since I had it). Started to get a dry throat on Saturday afternoon but felt otherwise okay. Late Sunday night, it evolved into a really bad sore throat and absolutely massive headache and exhaustion and I developed a fever. Took a test at that point and it was very positive.

Still haven’t had it

You almost certainly have. A substantial minority never develop symptoms. It's one of the things that makes it spread so easily. If it made everyone very sick they'd all be safely tucked up in bed and not spreading it.

There is no useful answer to your question. Some people develop symptoms very quickly, some people are asymptomatic for a period, others remain asymptomatic throughout.

If you think you've been exposed and you could put others at risk, do a test. False positives are common but they're better at picking up people who are very infectious so that's something.

If you want to know if you've had it, there are antibody tests which check for antibodies from infection rather than vaccination. (Example for information, not a personal recommendation.) They're not 100% accurate but a positive is most likely a true positive, given that the vast majority of people have had it by now. They test for two types of antibody, IgM and IgG. IgM should only show up during or immediately after recovery from an infection, IgG turns up later in the course of an infection and sticks around after recovery.

3-4 days.

Picked it up at the gym towards the end of 21 for the first time. After a night of mild drinking watching a game a few days later I woke up thinking I was somehow extremely hungover off 3-4 beers. It lasted too long, assumed it might be allergies too. Headache, lack of appetite/unsettled stomach, weak, sore throat and tired. Tested myself towards the end of the first day of sumtpoms, was positive. It lightening up after a couple days, didn't feel right for almost a week though.

I definitely had it again about a year ago. More like bad allergy symptoms. Headache, sore throat, felt a little "foggy". Tested positive and it passed mostly in 24-48 hours.

I have fairly bad winter cedar allergies that the symptoms of often line up with covid. I wouldn't doubt I've had it a few more times mildly in the last year or two. I go out in crowded public spaces like the gym a lot and haven't worn a mask in a long time. My impression of the more prevelant strains lately are what the Republicans wished the first waves were (the first time I likely had omecron, it sucked). A mild flu or a head cold. Just quarantine and if the symptoms last more than 24hrs try and get your hands on a test.

Around 2-3 days after exposure at a wedding. The outbreak happened at work (home office). I could feel how my body temperature started to rise and I started feeling bad. Shortly thereafter I had a burning sensation in my lungs and had my first positive test result 🤢

For 2-3 days I felt bad and extremely weak. Then it got gradually better.

I was fully recovered in 6-8 weeks (felt very weak when running in the morning or when doing heavy work). The next 6 months I had a lot of colds which is not normal for me.

Within 12 hours. I flew out to Philadelphia to attend my friend's graduation for her masters. She picked me up at the airport and said she had an itchy throat and a headache but it was allergies.

Bam, 12 hours later, I was completely on my back, horrifficly sick. Took a test, positive for covid. She took a test, positive for covid.

Her sickness continued as a light sore throat and a light headache. I had a 104 fever and it morphed into a nasty eyelid infection, which I convinced myself was eye herpies after googling images of what mine looked like.

Not eye herpies, thank god, but I definitely broke down in tears at the time thinking so.

Still love her even though she gave me covid.

As far as I can tell, I'm still a novid

Never. We had a work lunch and one of the guys a few days later said "I just tested positive for covid, better test". About 2 days later I was testing positive, but none of us in the household ever had any symptoms other than testing positive (about 4 days in, the LFT was going bright red as soon as the liquid reached the test line). None of us ever had so much as a sniffle. The guy we got it off was really rough for a few days.

I'd agree with around 5 days or so. I played a show with my band, which was really hard to do during that time, our singer apparently didn't feel well, but decided not to tell anyone. He got almost all of our band and members of other ones sick.

I was at a crowded event, fully masked, still got it two days later. It had to be the event, I was not exposed in any other way. I work from home, so it was just my wife and I. She got it weeks later while at a nail salon. Again, fully masked.

Mine was bad, and over a year later, I am still suffering asthma side effects. To be fair, I had asthma before, but it used to be mild. My wife is still suffering from the lethargy, but she's retired military on pension, so she can just sleep.

It's shortened over time. Original and Delta, it could be somewhere between 4 days and a week. As I understand it, it's closer to 2-3 days on average now.

Mid-December 2020. My mom had to attend a reunion with her former workmates and I was pretty much isolated from anyone except my family at that time. My mom's reunion happened late November, and she started having symptoms early December. Sometime between then and mid-December, me and my siblings got infected. So, around two weeks between getting infected and getting symptoms, I suppose.

I started having muscle pains first, and didn't really think much of it. My mom was sent to hospital soon after I started showing symptoms, and her condition started requiring hospitalization. My other siblings were all sent to the hospital as well, while I got the entire house to myself for isolation, haha.

Not the best way to deal with things, but we agreed that had I been subjected to the stress of finding a hospital, then having minimal care (if not left in the hallways due to the lack of beds), I would have fared much worse. Fending for yourself while sick at home is better than fending for yourself while sick in a very stressful and crowded hospital setting. My mom got the best care as she got a slot in a private lying-in clinic. My siblings got taken care of by their respective spouses. I managed by forcing some milk into my system as regularly as I could along with medicine that took care of the symptoms.

Spending Christmas eve alone and deliriously sick was quite an experience though. Neighbors and relatives sneaked in a pretty nice Christmas dinner that unfortunately went to waste because I can't stomach any food at that time.

My wife and I are just getting over it. Not too severe for us, fortunately. She missed two days of work last week over it, and I would have missed Friday and Saturday if I hadn't already been off. (We work from home.)

We're not sure where we picked it up. 5 days before she started feeling it, we were at a restaurant that seemed like a potential candidate, but most of the comments here seem to be 2-3 days, so maybe it was something else. We weren't really in close contact with other people during those times - even that restaurant wasn't that busy. Maybe one of the servers there had it, or maybe it was something else.

Took about two days to kick in and I was bedridden for around a month. Horrible coughing, pain all over, slept all day but sleep was never restful as the coughing kept waking me up. I was tired all the time. My roommate had it too and we both basically could only microwave some food every day then collapse. The whole experince is a blur.

I honestly think that without the vaccine and booster it would've killed me. My roomie has lasting lung damage.

3 days after getting home from a business trip. I assume the plane is where I got it but can't be sure

Maybe 8 to 10 days. My kid got it at school, a little more than a week later I was coughing. I tested positive on home tests for another 10 days or so, I remember because I had to cancel some Dr. appointments.

But I was very vaccinated and it really was no worse than a short cold.

Never had it, but when i got my 3rd Pfizer vaccine i definetly felt the sympthoms for a couple hours. 🤒😷

(Mostly feeling ill and fever).

My girlfriend just had it. Took her at least five days - she was exposed right before a camping trip and didn't get sick until the last day.

She had the Pfizer vaccine (both shots) shortly after it was made available and one booster.

I got it in May 2022 after going to the dentist. Symptoms came after 2 days, similar to a cold. I just took something for the fever and I was back in action in about 2 days. The flu I got last year was way worse than covid.

A day and a half.

3 days, tests were positive when it was already very clear to me

Off work with covid right now. My wife went to a funeral for her friends father, found out the friend had it. We tested her a couple days later, she was negative. However, she has a tendency to become a carrier and since I'm immunocompromised I caught it. Total time was about 4 days.

The last time I had covid it almost killed me, I was in the hospital because I couldn't breathe, then I got pneumonia. It was bad, so this time within hours of testing positive my doctor had paxlovid in my hands.

It started with a sore throat, but unlike a normal sore throat nothing I took seemed to make it better, a day later I got a headache that lasted multiple days, I was alternating between freezing cold and hot sweats and I had trouble staying upright, so 2 days straight I was in bed. The paxlovid really works though, I'm on day 4 and it's been reduced to a mild cold, doctor says I should be fine to go back to work Thursday. Last time I got covid I was off for 4 months, my lungs weren't the same after the pneumonia and I had alot of long covid symptoms.

I caught it 9 days after my wife tested positive. This was delta though.

I first got it a year ago and it was almost exactly 2 days. I was with my family all day on a Thursday, my brother tested positive on Friday, and after work on Saturday I felt like absolute shit all night. Tested myself at 5am Sunday after not sleeping and was positive.

My wife caught it at work, about six months into the pandemic. Was inevitable, since she works in a grocery store. She woke up with a fever and no sense of taste or smell, and then went downhill with really bad flu like symptoms from there. I started with the same thing the next day. Main illness lasted two weeks, but the worst part was the first week by far. My wife was sick for almost 6 weeks and ended up on an inhaler for a while until her lungs healed. Neither of us got our full taste back for almost 2 years, and our smell hasn't fully recovered yet either (about 80% now).

We both tested positive again last June, got a mandatory week off work but the only symptom was a mild fever. Wouldn't have even known I was sick, but a family member tested positive and we'd been to visit so took a test and there I was. I'd been vaccinated by that point, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say the vaccination did what it was supposed to do with keeping me from being sick.

2 days. Flew red eye to the UK and got off the plane and went straight to a music festival where I hardly ate or slept for 3 days straight. Day one of post-rave was rough. Day 2 I was full on sick.

It depends on what variant you get. Older strains could become symptomatic up to a week later, newer strains as little as 1-2 days. It's nearly impossible for the average person to know what strain they have and the older ones are still floating around.

I teach in schools every week day. How would I know which school, which day, or which student?

About a day, my dad got it then almost exactly 24 hours after he came home sniffling I was sniffling too and ended up testing positive.

I was around a friend all day Monday who swore she just had allergies (to be fair, she tested herself that morning and was negative). The next morning, Tuesday, she tested positive. That day I masked up and did grocery shopping, got my free Covid tests, etc. The following morning, Wednesday, I felt a slight tickle in the back of my throat, like if I were holding in a cough. If I hadn't been thinking about it because of my friend having it, I probably wouldn't have noticed. By Wednesday night, I had a headache and fatigue that hit me like a truck.

So, about 40 hours to mild symptoms, but by 56 hours, it was hitting me hard.

July 2022. The event where I (almost certainly) caught it was on a Wednesday. On Friday I went to a barbecue and had no symptoms, later found out that nobody there tested positive. By Saturday night I was feeling sick enough to cancel a meetup on Sunday, and Sunday morning I finally took the test and it was positive.

Normally 5 days, if you still have no symptoms after that, then maybe you are asymptomatic, or did not catch it.

On the fifth day you can have yourself tested just to be more sure if you have it or not.

It was basically a day or day and a half, and very clearly once the symptoms hit. I contracted it at night, so late next day and the morning after that, which is when I took the RAT test, which came up super positive immediately.

2 days. My coworker had been at an event and we had a meeting on a Wednesday. He discovered he had covid and called off Thursday, informing us. That Friday I felt the symptoms.

2-3 days

Mardis Gras 2020. Was down there for a buddy's bachelor party. That place is fucking disgusting. Had an absolute blast. Somewhere between the bars, constant parties, strip clubs, and 3 days of abusing my body as hard as I possibly could, I caught it.

Exactly two weeks later I woke up and felt like shit. Didn't lose smell or taste but just felt super lethargic and achy like I had the flu. Called the doctor and he basically said I'm young and healthy and not to come in and if I felt worse to go to the ER.

This was very early in all the shit, right as the lockdowns were getting started. Missed 3 days of work and stayed in bed most of the time. Tests weren't available back then unless you were in the hospital. But man was New Orleans a good time.

Couple days after. Must've gotten it in the gym, cus I worked from home at the time, and didn't even go out to buy groceries. Started with a slight, but constant and distracting headache. Different to a hunger headache or a migraine, like a needle hammered into my head. Masked up that day and shut myself in, told my family I'd distance for a bit until I got a negative result. First week was hell, barely got out of bed.

Long covid sucks too. Somehow my right ankle and right shoulder got screwed up, developed joint damage.

Brewery in San Francisco, meeting a friend. We had both been careful and masked up. Ordered a round and went to the far end. Unmasked to drink and chat. Bartender comes over and asks if we want another round. We say yes. He brings it over. Nobody's masked at this point.

Next day, I get a scratchy throat. Tested positive. My friend, thankfully, dodged the bullet.

• I can't remember the exact time frame, but my neighbor had stopped by for a while then called later that night to say he tested positive for covid. This was back when Delta variant was the most rampant. A few days later (i want to say 3 or 4), I was sneezing like crazy (I thought my allergy sneezing was bad! Oh no! This was 10x worse!) running a fever, vomiting, and coughing. Nothing tasted or smelled right. About all I could stomach was blue Gatorade and fries.

I got it last August. hung out with a friend on a Sunday, he tested positive that night, and I started getting symptoms and tested positive Wednesday, so 3 days for me.