Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 201 posts

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

#171

Post by rntksi »

samfriedman wrote: post #44
kjakm wrote: post #35

It might be worth taking a look on Twitter. This doctor is 'live' tweeting his experience with the disease including lung scans [1]. Based on some other first hand experiences I've read on the Twitter/News people's experience varies wildly. Some people say it's not much worse than the flu. On the otherhand I saw a tweet from one doctor who had it claim it was worse than child birth so seems like the variation in expe…

>people's experience varies wildly Here's an article about two Chinese women with COVID-19, with very different outcomes. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/13/world/asia/co...

What a heart wrenching article. When it's just numbers people can brush it off, but when it has a human face and story, I think that's when it really hits most people. More so when it affects closed ones too.

I've been repeating this to my students: don't panic, but be cautious.

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

#172

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#173

Post by rsync »

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…

I am an EMR in California and provide (emergency) medical care relatively frequently.

"To self-assess the seriousness of breathing issues I intend to make us of a pulsoxymeter."

I like the idea of owning a pulse oximeter and have them in all of my first aid kits. However, I think of them as providing immediate information about an acute breathing problem.

Your SpO2 should be around 98 always. If you go below 95, something is really wrong and requires immediate attention. You will be displaying signs of breathing difficulty and you're not going to see if it lasts 24 or 48 hours.

If you are not tremendously affected by a cold/flu/coronavirus, I would expect you to have a ~98 SpO2 throughout, even if you feel terrible and perhaps feel your breathing is a bit labored.

" ... below 80% immediately ..."

Just to put this in perspective, all else being equal, you're not going to be coherent or functional in any way below 80%. I would personally call 911 if I saw an otherwise normal person below 90 and I would be very concerned if I saw readings below 95 - especially if the trendline was down ...

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

#174

Post by bmn__ »

jmnicolas wrote: post #158
smoyer wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> was literally insulted on YouTube when I advised to keep water in your mouth while cutting onions to avoid crying

The reaction is unsurprising. Anyone who has ever cut onions gained an understanding that irritating gas (http://enwp.org/Syn-Propanethial-S-oxide) wafts up into the eyes. The hypothesis that water in the mouth is supposed to help runs counter to intuition.

It affords testing. Devise an experiment and let us know the result.

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

#175

Post by dang »

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…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22574772.

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

#176

Post by rv-de »

rsync wrote: post #173
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…

I am an EMR in California and provide (emergency) medical care relatively frequently. "To self-assess the seriousness of breathing issues I intend to make us of a pulsoxymeter." I like the idea of owning a pulse oximeter and have them in all of my first aid kits. However, I think of them as providing immediate information about an acute breathing problem . Your SpO2 should be around 98 always . If you go below 95, so…

thanks for putting things into perspective.

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

#177

Post by sjcsjc »

Yetanfou wrote: post #165
sjcsjc wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etlyvt9n_QE Dr. John Campbell goes into the contradiction between the approach used in e.g. Sweden and the UK vs. that advocated by the WHO. He is with the WHO on this point, as am I. In a few months time we'll know which approach worked best.

Just seen this, which supports your point of view:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51892402

Edit: Ah. The list of signatories is worth reviewing.

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

#178

Post by andrewseanryan »

I was not tested although I went to the doctor 4 times over 5 weeks. I went to Milan from Munich in January. Upon returning to Munich, I was hit with a sudden, dry cough. It was noticeably different from anything I had experienced before. I went to bed and woke with a fever of about 102. It lasted for days and I developed a very strange lung issue. On every exhale it sounded like 1000 pop rocks going off in my upper lungs/throat. The sound was loud enough to wake me. I “recovered”, with lasting lung issues for about two weeks. A week later I developed another fever that lasted 3 days. I then had intense night sweats for 2-3 weeks.

If I had it, it would go against many of the models of when it reached Milan. If I didn’t have it, I had some other monster illness that hit the lungs hard.

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

#179

Post by ta999999171 »

okareaman wrote: post #21
danhak wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind sharing your age?

I'm 62 and very healthy according to my recent physical. No drinking, drugging or smoking.

I don't think I've ever heard the term drugging, but I love it.

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

#180

Post by tomashm »

netsharc wrote: post #117
jrs235 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you can update this this in 5 days, 10 days, and 15 days so we can see if/when symptoms change or appear.

I wish there's a way for people to self-report and self-track their progress if they have the virus/disease. Having real numbers, not the number determined by Xi or Trump or [insert your hated government baffoon here], would be useful. Sadly something like that would probably have a lot of trolls, and hypochondriacs.

This looks quite good: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820...
Post reply on HN