Live data from Hacker News

Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

qz.com

71–80 of 234 posts

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that’s pretty amazing. Really makes you wonder. And that would just be the people with symptoms right now. It wouldn’t include recovered, asymptomatic, nor people in the incubation period.

Or the data is invalid. We'll find out soon enough, there are millions of test kits being made available soon.

I dont understand what millions of millions of test kits will do. I’m not going to get tested because I have no symptoms. If I had symptoms I would stay in lockdown until it got worse. I don’t see rationale for anyone going to get tested just because (and based on some of the photos from drive through testing, a very easy way to contract COVID yourself)

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Due to the emergence of the coronavirus, Kinsa is receiving two to three times more thermometer readings per day than in previous flu seasons. Historically, Kinsa’s methods have been able to account for a sharp rise in the number of people taking tests, said Benjamin Dalziel, a professor at Oregon State University who studies infectious diseases. For his research, Dalziel has ensured that a spike in testing didn’t…

That'll teach me to rush to comment when I see something "off" instead of reading the whole thing. I'm tempted to delete a post that isn't useful now, but I should leave it as a minor embarrassing lesson to myself. I wish people would stop upvoting me though... Each one makes me cringe: another person who didn't read very carefully.

It's good to be skeptical. You asked a fair question, and when presented with evidence you changed your position. Those are all positive things.

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#73

I've noticed this anecdotally. My son usually goes to preschool (and Sunday school and playdates and museums and parks). He has had an almost constant runny nose for a while... as soon as one virus is fought off, another takes its place. Nothing major, but clearly annoying to him (cheek red due to him wiping his nose, in spite of our efforts to keep his face clean). A few days to a week after soft-quarantine (school…

This also means your little one is not getting that community immunity. You want your little one to get sick at a young age to ward of invaders as they get older.

Anecdote: my niece gets sick badly and passes it on to everyone in her house at least every other month. She does not got to daycare. My LO does go to daycare and comes home with a new mild sickness once every third week and is fine a few days later. I’m interested to see how he fairs when school opens up again

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#74
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Handshakes far predate modern germ theory of disease. The "danger" doesn't really help with intimacy in any way. It's completely unnecessary danger. We'd find sharing tissues with strangers to be disgusting if it were introduced as a greeting today, but touching the hands of someone right after they've sneezed and coughed into them--after which we often unknowingly touch our own face--is regarded as a sign of intimac…

> We'd find sharing tissues with strangers to be disgusting if it were introduced as a greeting today Sounds like you're unfamiliar with the practice of agreeing to a deal by both parties spitting into their hand and then clasping hands? There's also the idea of making a pledge by both parties cutting their hands and then clasping hands, mixing blood with each other.

When was the last time you saw anyone do either of those things, other than in a movie?

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#75

The lockdown of non-essential businesses has essentially reduced traffic accidents here to zero when usually there'd be a over a hundred deaths and few thousand injuries per week. By comparison there's only been 20 deaths from covid-19 over the space of 3 months, nearly all of them elderly people with pre-existing conditions. Yet people are emotional creatures and not all deaths are equal.

The "car accidents" fallacy. 1. "New thing X puts us at risk of losing Y lives every day." 2. "We lose Y lives to car accidents every day". 3. "Ergo, X is harmless!" Except you now have 2Y lives lost every day. Furthermore, car accidents kill an insane amount of people, and cars suck. This is not the bar.

Once covid-19/sars-cov-2 is over would you support the same levels of lockdown for car accidents and flu/viral pneumonia? Many more lives could be saved with the same political will and public support you find on this issue.

These lockdowns can clearly prevent the spread of existing diseases and save magnitudes more lives as presented by the article along with the inevitable traffic statistics to come out showing the effects.

I'm wondering how someone here supporting lockdowns can justify not repeating it once this pandemic is over? Is ten young healthy lives taken by cars not worth one old ill one taken by a disease?

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#76

Just imagine how many fewer people would fall ill each year with the flu if we didn’t shake hands as our default greeting?

It's time we start greeting everyone with a kiss on the cheek.

I don't think so; just speech is OK, or else bow is OK.

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#77
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hope this helps kill the concept of handshaking entirely. Unfortunately, there's still a large segment of dirty-handed people who think you can judge a person based on their handshake.

There's a lot of hidden value in physical contact. I don't think it should be disregarded so easily considering society as a whole became much more distant in recent years.

It's not even hidden value, it's very measurable -- when you touch someone else, your heart rates will trend towards each other and you'll gain a level of empathy that you wouldn't have had without physical touch.

Re: Social distancing slowing not only Covid-19, but other diseases too

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Removed)

This line: >Recent data clearly show the spread of Covid-19. On March 19, the share of Americans with temperatures indicating they had flu-like symptoms was about 4.9% when it typically would be expected to be about 4.0%. This was likely a result of the spread of Covid-19, according to Kinsa’s researchers. ... means that 1 week ago 2,964,898 Americans (0.9%) had Covid-19. Today there are 65,950 recorded cases in the…

I am definitely buying one of these to support the company.
Post reply on HN