>>Many people I know will take a covid test before they go and cough on others...

Same here. But I got it from dining outdoors (screen porch, really) with one of those friends who had *no* idea he was sick... yet. That was my first time. I was absurdly careful, got *all* the shots, including the bivalent.

Bright side: mine presented as a bad / achy head cold, had a Rx for Paxlovid, but decided not to use it (you have to start by day 5, and I was already getting better on day 4). My friend landed in the hospital for a couple of nights, now has (hopefully minor) kidney issues. I'm still not at 100%. I used to be able to dash to the top of our hill with one of the neighborhood kids on my shoulders. Now I'm out of breath at the top. Hope this doesn't represent my new normal :-(

FWIW, for a vaccination to have the most effect on the immune system, you need to wait 3 months after your last infection - so I won't be first in line for the next one, but as soon as those 3 months are up...

As far as "Why does it take almost a year to update the shots to be effective again?", I'd guess it's efficacy tests. mRNA vaccines can be really fast (tech's pretty amazing) but they still have to test it.