Comment by Foober223 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Foober223 | Hacker News Reader

I don't think any official statistics exist. And any stats could even be misleading. People who take precautions very seriously (ie nurses) may actually have higher rates of infection. The average Joe Blow who never wears a mask or washes hands may end up with a lower % chance of infection. Because those nurses are working in hospitals, surrounded by super spreaders shedding virus all day long.

Covid-19 has proven similar to the common cold in transmission. The common cold is itself a corona virus so it makes sense.

Basically you are going to be exposed to Covid-19 at some point in your life. It's guaranteed. It's here to stay with the human race, just like the common cold corona's.

But there is value in delaying your exposure, even if you have little personal risk. Delaying your own infection also delays the infection of others (more vulnerable than you). They may be holding out for a vaccine. It avoids overloading a hospital. It gives the medical community more time to develop best practices and apply them to more people. If everyone gets covid-19 on day 1 then no one gets to benefit from the hard won knowledge paid for in death and damaged lung tissue.

Viruses tend to become less deadly as they mutate. Delaying your infection has value, even if it's inevitable.

To the question in the title. I don't know how I caught it. Before the lock down I was touching doors used by thousands of people daily. Touching gas pumps, etc. I have a habit of touching my face.

Luckily I had a mild reaction, but I still feel a slight tickle/burning in the lungs 2 months into it.

What were your symptoms like? I’ve read only that mild is not exactly mild by flu standards yet I know another friend who had it but was having a bad throat ache for 3 days and fever. Took her 10 days to recover.

Have/had a mild Bronchitis-like feeling in my lungs. But have/had no difficulty breathing despite that. No shortness of breath. The feeling sometimes goes away, but them later resurfaces.

To the best of my knowledge I have not lost lung capacity. I can mow the lawn (.3 acre) with a push mower in 1 go without stopping in hot weather.

Had a mild headache and mild sore throat at the height of it. Body was mildly achy in the evening near/at bed time. Occasional cough near the tail end of the recovery. For me this was not a cough heavy sickness.

No medication used. Lifted weights throughout the entire process. Symptoms were very mild but lasted forever.

Overall my personal symptoms were mild enough that I was not suffering. This is not to downplay. Other people have strange effects, such as "covid toes" where the flesh in their toes die. Or their immune system reacts causing inflammation in the lungs with serious damage to tissue. One bad thing about new viruses is a strong immune system can sometimes bite you. It was a big issue in the 1918 flu that was most deadly to people in their 20's. Elderly were relatively untouched by the 1918. Luckily Covid-19 has not proven to be particularly dangerous to young people so far. But it is causing bad immune responses in some young people, even if not at a large scale like the 1918 virus.

Not all "common colds" are covid. I recall 30%-40% of common colds are one of a few types of covid. Clearly covid-19 is no kind of common cold at all.

Yes, that's true, but corona's are considered to be colds regardless. Covid-19 will certainly become "common" once most of the world has been exposed.

Just FYI, "common cold" is not meant to downplay the deadly effects, especially if you know the history of the cold. The mention of cold was to draw similarities in how it is transmitted (what the OP's question was about).

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