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Comment by kl4m | Hacker News Reader

If it's a mild infection, by definition, the immune system has squashed it. If it didn't, the virus would take hold; it's not a latent viral infection like herpes.

Edit: okay, okay, I didn't specify "a mild infection that stays mild and goes away". We know complications can arise and the infection can progress into severe symptoms. Plenty of examples.

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I've had coughs that have lasted a month or more - including at the start of lockdown [#] (caught from my son, I think, who was coughing for 8 weeks or more). I've always assumed that this is because a virus can be kept at low levels, but can "hide" in the body not coming across antibodies that will harm it, but not spreading enough to create a heightened immune response??

Kinda like when you don't take a full course of antibiotics, the latent infection grows again to problem levels.

You indicate this is wrong thinking (not a suprise as it's just a null hypothesis from someone without biology training): so what is going on when you have a cough/blocked nose for weeks on end?

{# I'm very curious to find if the virus I had was Covid19; it sent me to bed with mild flu-like symptoms, gave a tight chest, had me occasionally [not persistently] coughing for weeks. No noticeable anosmia. Very little phlegm; no snot (nasal/sinus mucus).}

There are plenty of cases that start with mild symptoms, and then progress to severe/critical after about a week. Boris Johnson is a perfect example of this.

Please don't spread misinformation.

The evidence does not support this viewpoint. Also, things are complicated by the evidence that the worst symptoms are caused by cytokine storm, i.e. an auto-immune response.

Which evidence? Are you referring to the "lag" in immune response in the initial stage of infection?

Perhaps I should have said there is no evidence that I am aware of that supports that viewpoint. Instead, there is evidence that asymptomatic people can transmit the virus. No symptoms does not mean no virus.

Asymptomatic does not mean permanently infected

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