“COVID Ripped Through Our Household”: An Eight-Tweet Story

Sarah Davies, CAS biology assistant professor, shares the impact on her kids, her husband, herself, her world

an image of Dr. Sarah Davies' tweet on a purple background. Tweet reads: "COVID ripped through our household (2 vaxed un-boostered parents, 4.5 yo, 2.5yo) over the past 2 weeks and I have some thoughts. A thread 1. COVID is scary even if you're vaxed. My symptoms ranged from uncomfortable to panic-inducing."

Tweet courtesy of Sarah Davies

Health & Medicine

“COVID Ripped Through Our Household”: An Eight-Tweet Story

Sarah Davies, CAS biology assistant professor, shares the impact on her kids, her husband, herself, her world

October 26, 2021
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The first tweet landed at 8:23 am on Monday. Sarah Davies, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of biology and head of the Davies Marine Population Genomics Lab, got right to the point: “COVID ripped through our household.” She went on to describe the impact of the coronavirus on herself, her young children, her husband, her work, and to tell anyone who was paying attention just how terrifying the virus can be. Here is one woman’s story, one mother’s story, one scientist’s story, in eight tweets:

https://twitter.com/DaviesswPhD/status/1452611811157712896?s=20

BU Today asked Davies how she and her family are doing now: “My husband tested positive a whole week before I did because I was away at the American Genetics Association President’s Symposium, and my daughter tested positive while I was away. So he is a week ahead of me in recovery as well. He still has subtle lung issues, but overall seems to be largely recovered now. For me, I feel about 60 percent. I still have slight cough and congestion, bouts of fatigue, and my lungs feel compromised still. For example, I have been training for the Cambridge Half Marathon [November 7, 2021] and I ran 11 miles the day before I tested positive, and now I am not sure I will be able to run it at all.”

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Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 14 comments on “COVID Ripped Through Our Household”: An Eight-Tweet Story

  1. I am given to understand:
    If your caregiver had been vaccinated he/she could still have been the source of your family’s contagion. Both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated individuals are capable of transmitting the virus, so the former aren’t solely responsible for spreading COVID. They are more likely to suffer more severely should they acquire the illness, however, and are often more compliant about mask-wearing and social distancing because they know they cannot let their guard down. It’s why getting a COVID test every 72 hours is still so important.

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  3. I am so sorry to learn of yours and your family’s awful experiences. Thank you for the revealing tweets, and more importantly, informing us of the experiences, unintended consequences, journey filled w/struggle to return to health, and costs of this “journey.” The impact on parents with school age children illustrates some of what’s broken and you offer assistance. I hope your counsel is heeded. Your message is a slice of real life some of us will use to make our case to our loved ones. Please take care, and best wishes for a full recovery and return to good health. May another 1/2 marathon be in your future!

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      1. You should really read the article you cite more closely. They say:

        Out of more than 51,000 Covid deaths in England between **January and July** 2021, only 256 occurred after two doses. (I added the ** for emphasis)

        That is hardly surprising given that virtually no one was vaccinated in January. My family all live in the UK and I can tell you that it took forever for my elderly parents to get both shots (maybe by April or May they were done because they were spacing the astra zeneca shots out by 12 weeks) and my brother didn’t get his second one until August 9 (pfizer).

        We’re supposed to be an academic community. Do your due diligence and research, and try not to regurgitate facts like this without the relevant context or framework for understanding, because doing so really just amounts to spreading vaccine misinformation.

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        1. K- Please don’t act like you have some due diligence high ground, especially when the “70% deaths are from vaccinated individuals” has been shown to be a misnomer. What matters is the death rate between vaccinated and unvaccinated. In England the death rate of vaccinated individuals is lower than that of unvaccinated.

          https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/29/alex-berenson/covid-19-death-rate-england-much-higher-among-unva/

          And people need to quit straw-manning the arguments for vaccinations. Sarah did not say anything about it being impossible for vaccinated individuals to transmit the virus or die from the virus. The fact remains both are less likely when you are vaccinated.

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      2. Tom, the BBC article cites the death numbers between January-July.

        From UK government figures:
        “Between September 6 and October 3, 70 percent of deadly COVID cases occurred in the fully-jabbed, according to the UKHSA data, with 2,281 deaths in “fully vaccinated” people and just 611 in the unvaccinated within 28 days of a positive test.”

        I think the virus has evaded the vaccine, at least partially. What do you expect, the vaccines were created nearly 2 years ago!

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        1. “From UK government figures:
          “Between September 6 and October 3, 70 percent of deadly COVID cases occurred in the fully-jabbed, according to the UKHSA data, with 2,281 deaths in “fully vaccinated” people and just 611 in the unvaccinated within 28 days of a positive test.”

          You quote this source without a al ink to where it came from.

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          1. It is in the link that Fariha posted previously. It’s concerning to me that you would contest the argument being made without even reading the article that made the claims.

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  6. I am truly sorry that this family got sick, but the continual attack on the unvaccinated and the fear mongering that comes with articles like these is appalling.

    We’ve seen countless examples in history where a minority population has been made the scapegoat for problems experienced by the majority, and it never ends well. We look back on history and wonder how people could ever have let that happen, and yet here we are once again, and most people are only too happy to play along.

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  7. Consider the optics here.

    “unvaccinated people continue to make our kids less safe”

    and not

    “corrupt, capitalist policy-makers who have no qualms about letting poor people die continue to make our kids less safe.”

    The blame is never put where it should be

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