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Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#151

Post by klodolph »

e12e wrote: post #147
klodolph wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your quote literally includes the phrase "testable explanations"? It says "and predictions". That is, both "testable explanations" and "testable predictions" are a part of science. > Indeed, 'testing "how"' isn't really possible, only testing "if". This argument is a dead end. If you construct your epistemology in such a fragile way that testing "how" is not possible, then take a closer look at the world you've con…

OK, I think I see where we talk past each other - I stated: > One could argue that science is about falsifying hypothesis - and terby narrowing in on not just if something works, but how. You read that as saying that we can only test how, not if. Now you read my comments as saying we can only test if not how. I think we're in agreement that they are two sides of the scientific process.

> You read that as saying that we can only test how, not if. Now you read my comments as saying we can only test if not how.

The original sentence, "One could argue that..." is poorly worded and confusing. Maybe you could take this opportunity to clarify what you meant.

I'm not really interested in litigating who said what. I'd rather understand what you actually mean, rather than try and attack the wording that you happened to use.

To clarify what I'm saying: Testing "whether" can be science, without testing "how", and vice versa.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#152

Post by john61 »

alexilliamson wrote: post #60
aufav36 wrote: post #42

Have 4 family members that have been tested positive for COVID-19 in Austria: - Male (56), no symptoms except weak voice - Female (55), no symptoms - Male (80), light fever (37,7C), weak voice - Female (81), no symptoms These cases are all connected, and we have talked with others that seem to have caught the same variant/mutation. None of them does really show symptoms, no hospitalizations, no real fever, and no har…

Is there a significant amount of testing going on in Austria, compared to other countries? I'm suprised that you mention these people were tested without symptoms.

14.03.2020, 15:00 Tests: 7.467 Confirmed: 655 recovered: 6 dead: 1

Austria has approx. 8 Mio inhabitants

official source: https://www.sozialministerium.at/Informationen-zum-Coronavir...

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#153

Post by beeforpork »

aufav36 wrote: post #130
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #80

Your comment about not being older than 60 to get tested made me so angry and shows how fucked the US is. Testing has nothing to do with protecting you (the current treatment for Covid-19 is the same as any other severe respiratory illness), it's about deciding who needs to be quarantined and have their contacts tracked to protect other people. While the severity of symptoms varies by age, the transmissibility does n…

> Your comment about not being older than 60 to get tested made me so angry and shows how fucked the US is. This is not US-only. Here in Austria there are very strict rules on whom to test, and age is a big factor as well as having symptoms or not. Local authorities do decide on a case-by-case basis, and getting a test if you are not showing symptoms is really hard. But on the other hand by taking these measures they…

How did South Korea manage to ramp up the testing so quickly? They did a vast amount of tests, and test results constantly came back quickly. What is needed to do the same?

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#154

Post by andor »

whotheffknows wrote: post #124
biotechiscool wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine? Old wives tales usually have some science behind them that hasn’t been tested yet. No one is saying they have the magic cure-all. I make a mixture of turmeric, horseradish, ginger, garlic, habanero, hot onion, and apple cider vinegar. Chop finely or blend and let steep and ferment for as long as you want. Doesn’t go bad. I take shots of it when sick. Actually really good to put i…

On this note about old wives tales, I'm a woman. I've tried every medicine, multiple birth controls, diets, workout and stretch routines to help with period cramps and pain, and I get to try a method and then take what I think helps and adapt for a better test every month until I run out of eggs and here is the bottom line for me at 30 having optimised alot. Yes drinking water, stretching/really being flexible and fi…

Since you mentioned steak, have you tried a vegan diet? Dairy and meat contain hormones that might affect you. Neil Barnard has written about that, if you're interested.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#155

Post by ekianjo »

tonfa wrote: post #95
ekianjo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just in the US. In most countries tests are extremely limited so they screen out massively.

Yes, I think CH and FR do that, they ask to self quarantine if you have symptoms. Italy was actually testing everyone afaik.

Japan does virtually no tests at all for example. On the other hand South Korea is a lot more into testing everyone.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#156

Post by sjcsjc »

Yetanfou wrote: post #149
sjcsjc wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your comment is in good faith, but I also believe you are wrong. This approach sounds very similar to the UK approach, overseen by Whitty[0] and Vallance[1], and agreed with by Neal[2] and Ferguson[3] (and I assume more but I haven't looked very hard). I don't think all these guys are morons. Well, I hope they're not. [0] Chris Whitty, UK Chief Medical Officer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Whitty [1]…

In what sense would my comment not be in 'good faith'? The UK allowed the Cheltenham festival [1] to take place this last week as well, attracting 250.000 visitors. The mere fact that the UK arrived at the same conclusions as Sweden does not make those conclusions any more valid or wise. [1] https://cheltenhamfestivaluk.com/

Yeah, fair enough, my good faith line was a bit pointless. I was just trying to be nice before disagreeing with you. Ham-fisted of me.

I was (quite vociferously) of your opinion till Boris Johnson's press conference on Thursday. I changed my mind during it listening to Whitty and Vallance explain their strategy. I now think it makes sense.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#157

Post by Yetanfou »

bjourne wrote: post #138
Yetanfou wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your comment about not being older than 60 to get tested made me so angry and shows how fucked the US is I live in the (presumed) social democratic paradise of Sweden where the "government" has just decided to stop testing anyone who is not already in a hospital and belongs to a risk group, i.e. anyone under ~65 years of age without any co-morbidities [1 - Swedish]. The "state epidemiologist" Anders Tegnell has oth…

Another "I'm a Swede and I hate my country" poster. I'm also Swedish so I know what you write is 100% bullshit and parroted from a bunch of right-wing sites. The reason why not everyone is offered testing is because healthcare is very accessible and free in Sweden (like it is in Denmark, Norway, and Germany too) meaning that you can't offer it to everyone who wants it. Because if you did, you would have to pointlessl…

I don't hate Sweden, I actually quite like the place. I just don't like the way the "government" handles things at the moment, including their handling - or rather lack of handling - of the oncoming epidemic. Your statement on Swedish health care being "very accessible and free" is easily countered by the fact that the waiting times are notoriously long and getting longer while the amount of provincial tax money spent per capita is more than double the amount spent by neighbouring Finland which manages to avoid some of these problems. Those long waiting times have led to a large increase in the number of people who take out private health insurance to make sure they can actually get the treatment they need instead of having to wait for half a year or more. This means those people pay twice for health care, one time through their provincial taxes, another time through their health insurance. This has been compounded by the "government" putting an extra tax on private health insurance because they deem it unfair that those who have private insurance don't have to wait as long for treatment as those who lack such insurance.

I am all for single-payer health insurance, either through the state or through a private-public system like the Netherlands uses. I just don't see how the current Swedish system can be seen as a good solution given the high costs and low productivity it is characterised by.

Those fatality rates you quote are based on the assumption that the reported case incidence is correct which is very likely not the case. Assuming that the number of SARS2-related deaths is correct this number is probably the best way to make an estimate of the actual case incidence in developed countries with a functioning (not overloaded) health care system - this does not go for e.g. Italy where they're now doing reverse triage, i.e. they decide who gets treatment based on a desire to maximize throughput instead of treating those who have the highest need first as is done in a non-overloaded situation.

By the way, I'm not a Swede. I am a Dutchman living in Sweden with a Swedish-French wife and two Dutch-Swedish-French children.

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#158

Post by jmnicolas »

smoyer wrote: post #17
benrrio wrote: post #12

I have had a fever for a week and difficulty breathing. I have asked my doctor about getting tested for Covid19 and they have declined to test me because I don't meet the critical criteria: age > 60, around large groups of people, etc. I run in circles with someone that returned from Italy and has been confirmed to have Covid19. I'm assuming I have it. The fever isn't so bad for me but there have been a few times whe…

Some of the old-wives tales were descriptions of things that worked just like a lot of the herbal medicines. We didn't know why they worked so I agree it's hard to call them science. It's also possible it worked for you due to placebo effects, but you describe having a sample size of two! I hope we don't mock people for stating anecdotal evidence. I have seen mocking for statements that clearly contradict evidence (c…

I met skepticism on HN when I said that mega-doses of vitamin C were helping with my hay fever symptoms and was literally insulted on YouTube when I advised to keep water in your mouth while cutting onions to avoid crying.

Why would I care that these 2 things are not peer reviewed by some high level scientists ?

I know it won't be a popular opinion here but there's too much emphasis placed on science nowadays. While science is perfect, scientists aren't, they can make mistakes, they can be bought, and more importantly there's not enough budget to prove everything.

So I'm a pragmatist : if the thing makes sense to me and isn't costly or dangerous to try, I try it.

In fact I whish the placebo effect was much more prevalent. Imagine if you could cure everything with a few drops of fresh squeezed lemon juice in warm water ?

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#159

Post by Eugeleo »

rv-de wrote: post #140

A recurring symptom mentioned here is difficulty breathing. That's terrible and can easily cause harmful feedback loop. I'm mid-30s so I will try to defer medicinal interaction for as long as possible. To self-assess the seriousness of breathing issues I intend to make us of a pulsoxymeter. Is there somebody here who could suggest a rule set for when to seek help? Something like: seek help if SpO2 - between 85% and 9…

As per this reference [1] (that also has a lot of other useful info and links)

> If you think you’ll fret a lot about whether you need to go the hospital, get a pulse oximeter ($20 on Amazon). Readings consistently below 90-94% are pretty bad and mean you should seek immediate treatment.

[1]: https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/03/02/coronavirus-links-spec...

Re: Ask HN: Have you been infected by Covid-19? What is it like?

#160

Post by japan-throwaway »

I hesitate to post this because I haven’t been tested, but I can’t help but wonder. I live in Tokyo. 3 weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night vomiting, and had a ~38.5C (101F) fever for 2 days. Muscle aches, very fatigued etc, but no real breathing problems - basically a tougher-than-average flu. I went to the doctor and tested negative for influenza. The policy at the time in Japan was not to test for COVID-19 unless the patient had a cough. My wife came down with the same symptoms a couple of days later and had an intermittent 38~9C (102F) fever for three days, and also tested negative for influenza (we both have flu shots every year, if that’s relevant). A couple of weeks later we (plus 2yo child) all have cold-like symptoms and a cough, and are keeping ourselves isolated. It isn’t possible to get tested now unless we have a fever, so who knows. Our child has not had a fever at all and seems quite cheerful apart from a runny nose and cough. 3 weeks ago I would have had to have been quite unlucky to catch it which makes me wonder if I’m just a hypochondriac, but the timing makes me wonder. We’re all on the mend and I don’t feel there’s any need to tie up medical resources, but it would be nice to know for sure if we have / had it. Again I hesitate to write this because I don’t wish to add to the mountain of misinformation out there, but at the same time I’d be very interested to learn if anyone has had a similar experience.
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