Year 1 in vet school felt like at any given time, at least a quarter of the class was always sick. Now that we’re in Year 2, that seems to hold true, not just for my class, but for the first year class as well. People have a multitude of symptoms suggesting that there are various bugs going around, but it makes you feel as if getting sick or being sick multiple times each year in vet school is inevitable, but I assure you, it’s not!
I could be jinxing myself, so to speak, by writing this, but I have not yet been sick in vet school — even with the people who sit near me being sick. I cannot claim that I have the most impenetrable immune system in the world, because before moving to Davis I got sick often enough for me to know that that is not the case.
Then how, you might ask, have I been able to evade the various bugs that have been going around? All I can say is that I maintain a happy, optimistic, and low-stress life that includes eating healthily (for the most part) and exercising regularly. It is not because I am a compulsive hand-washer or because I simply avoid contact with people and fomites. Quite to the contrary, I am involved in a sport in which the entire premise is based upon grabbing “holds” — fomites that tons of other people have touched!
In the end, I cannot tell you for certain why most people get sick and very few manage to escape it. All I can say is that when you cram 130+ students in a classroom with limited air circulation and no regular disinfection of the desks, it is no surprise to me!