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The existing human coronaviruses aren't the most well-researched things around, but as I understand it there's evidence infection with them might actually be pr
by makomk 7y ago
The existing human coronaviruses aren't the most well-researched things around, but as I understand it there's evidence infection with them might actually be pretty dangerous to at-risk people. They just can't cause a pandemic because too many people are immune.
- eloff 7y agoThe common cold is dangerous to people? The flu, sure, but I never heard of people dying from a cold. I'm sure it happens, but in comparable numbers though? I don't think so.
- ceejayoz 7y agoCertainly not the same mortality rate, but the common cold does kill people every year due to pneumonia, asthma attacks, etc.
- ejstronge 7y agoYou may already know this, but for the sake of others, it’s important to realize that many viruses cause what we refer to as ‘common cold’. Coronaviruses are only a minor component of this set of viruses, as low as 1-2% in a study I read (can’t find it now; this value also depends on lots of factors).
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoFWIW this WebMD article I read a while back puts "colds" as being caused by Coronavirus 20% of the time, https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_causes https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_ca....
- watwut 7y agoThis migth depend on location and local climate. The typical cold in my country has different symptoms and length then typical cold 8 hours of drive away south.
- eloff 7y agoI had heard 1/4 of the common cold are Coronaviruses. Thanks for clarifying here though. I tend to be very short on HN for practical purposes.
- ejstronge 7y agoToo late to edit my comment, but a somewhat authoritative source claims 10-15% of colds are caused by coronaviruses (UpToDate, if you're curious). The study I read may have been referring to a specific coronavirus that was mentioned in the original post.
- guscost 7y agoIt happens all the time, in exactly the same sense that people are dying “from” COVID-19 (i.e. usually combined with other morbidities). How much of this pandemic is due to the disease actually being worse than other coronavirus diseases, and how much is simply due to the rapid spread/no pre-existing immunity, remains to be seen. Who else here remembers learning that AIDS patients (people with acquired immunodeficiency) can die from the common cold, in school? Is it not common knowledge that old folks can die from a cold, too?
- eloff 7y agoI disagree. I'm unable to find any source with numbers. At best I've seen the statement "it's rarely fatal except in very rare circumstances". Like the flu, you don't die from the flu, but really it's the last straw on top of other issues that pushes people over the edge. But the flu is far more deadly than the common cold, it's misleading to talk about them together like that.
- guscost 7y agoThere are no numbers. Nobody has ever bothered to measure it separately from pneumonia. It’s hardly ever tested for or listed under cause of death, even when it’s obviously a factor. Once things change in the aftermath of all of this, we will see if your instinct is correct.
- guscost 7y agoWell it turns out I'm wrong about this, there are some studies with numbers but they're pretty rare: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3655081/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3655081/ > Twenty-two percent of all subjects with isolated coronavirus were hospitalized, but in the population aged ≥60 years this increased to 73%. While our study design precludes the determination of exact hospitalization rates as a result of coronavirus infections, the hospitalization rates were similar to those for influenza. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181476/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4181476/ > The high proportion of non-influenza infection in this study (72%) underscores the importance of non-influenza viral infection in contributing to severe illness necessitating hospital and ICU admission in adults, as has been found by others.
- ummonk 7y agoMaybe we could give them to people who aren’t at-risk though, so they are more likely to fight off covid -19 and less likely to transmit it around.