Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients • Hacker News Board

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#41

Post by cowpig » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:51 PM UTC

jpxw wrote: post #35

cowpig wrote: post #33

There's so much blind speculation in this comment section. The kind that's intriguing and fun when it's about engineering/math/whatever, but dangerous when it's about the health effects of an ongoing pandemic. I hope moderators do something about it.

Can you explain how exactly it is “dangerous”?

Speculating about how the virus works on the internet, especially in the confident kind of tone I'm seeing in this comment section, leads people to take that speculation as fact, repeat it, and then you have misinformation spreading on an ongoing health crisis that people use to inform decisions they make in their lives which affect themselves and others.

I am not a doctor myself, but I am dating one, and helped her prepare for her (likely endless) shift in the COVID-19 unit at the hospital two weekends ago. I was shocked at how much more serious the health effects were than the internet had led me to believe, and I don't use facebook avoid low-quality journalism.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#42

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

jpxw wrote: post #35

cowpig wrote: post #33

There's so much blind speculation in this comment section. The kind that's intriguing and fun when it's about engineering/math/whatever, but dangerous when it's about the health effects of an ongoing pandemic. I hope moderators do something about it.

Can you explain how exactly it is “dangerous”?

I don't get it either; it's a comment section on the internet, not people writing medical scientific papers about the subject.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#43

Post by nestlequ1k » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

It's not "mysterious". Myocarditis is a common result of viral infections of any kind, and can persist for weeks after recovering from the virus itself.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#44

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #39

jpxw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain how exactly it is “dangerous”?

Speculation on treatments for Covid-19 has already killed people: https://ktla.com/news/arizona-man-dies-after-taking-form-of-...

Speculation is fine; this guy died from self-medicating. There is a difference. We shouldn't resort to censoring to protect stupid people.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#45

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #28

This headline is definitely a lot scarier than the actual body of the study. The most likely cause of the heart damage by far is the systemic inflammation induced by pneumonia. We know this because pneumonia patients of all types often have heart strain afterwards[1]. But that damage is very rarely permanent as the risk subsides back to baseline given enough time. Until we see evidence of heart issues in patients wit…

[deleted]

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#46

Post by cowpig » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:53 PM UTC

trentnix wrote: post #36

cowpig wrote: post #33

There's so much blind speculation in this comment section. The kind that's intriguing and fun when it's about engineering/math/whatever, but dangerous when it's about the health effects of an ongoing pandemic. I hope moderators do something about it.

If you think there's a lot of blind (and wild!) speculation happening here, you should see what's happening in hospitals by physicians and infectious disease experts! We're just seeing how the sausage is made in a medical crisis. And it is never pretty.

Sure, but those people know a bunch of things we don't, and are not speculating on an internet message board for thousands of random people to read.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#47

Post by PaulHoule » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

cowpig wrote: post #33

There's so much blind speculation in this comment section. The kind that's intriguing and fun when it's about engineering/math/whatever, but dangerous when it's about the health effects of an ongoing pandemic. I hope moderators do something about it.

The medical literature is itself a shot in the dark right now.

For instance it is good that hydrochloroquone is being trialled, I might want it myself, but it is notorious that antiparasite and antibiotic drugs kill viruses in vitro but kill patients if they do anything at all in vivo.

The truth will out but it will take a while.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#48

Post by Cthulhu_ » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

411111111111111 wrote: post #31

let me preface this by mentioning that i havent been tested for covid-19. two weeks ago i've been having real issues breathing. it felt like my upper body was borderline paralyzed and i had to really force myself to fully breathe in. this wasn't constant but happened every day for several hours each. especially at night. i got worried that i might have the virus so i checked my temperature and oxygen blood saturation…

You could be having panic attacks; based on the fact you've got numbers, it sounds to me like you're actively monitoring your own blood saturation, which already implies you may be worrying too much about things like that. Don't underestimate the effects of worry and stress. If it's temporary and you don't have other symptoms then you probably don't have the virus.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#49

Post by trentnix » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:55 PM UTC

freehunter wrote: post #39

jpxw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain how exactly it is “dangerous”?

Speculation on treatments for Covid-19 has already killed people: https://ktla.com/news/arizona-man-dies-after-taking-form-of-...

Guess what? ALL discussion about treatments for Covid-19 is speculation.

That a Darwin award winner and his insane, political activist wife, neither of whom had Covid-19, ingested toxic chemicals (probably after indulging in mind altering chemicals) is not very good evidence that discussion on Hacker News should be curtailed in any way.

Re: Mysterious heart damage, not just lung troubles, befalling Covid-19 patients

#50

Post by jpxw » Mon, Apr 06, 2020, 2:56 PM UTC

cowpig wrote: post #41

jpxw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain how exactly it is “dangerous”?

Speculating about how the virus works on the internet, especially in the confident kind of tone I'm seeing in this comment section, leads people to take that speculation as fact, repeat it, and then you have misinformation spreading on an ongoing health crisis that people use to inform decisions they make in their lives which affect themselves and others. I am not a doctor myself, but I am dating one, and helped her…

There’s definitely some danger in people downplaying this virus, I totally agree. But I don’t see that happening in this comment section. I see people discussing how the virus might work, and trying to explain why these examples have been observed.