6 ms·

What I’ve learned from having Covid

23 points by nsoonhui 4y ago

gotaran 4y ago
I find it odd that I’ve never had COVID symptoms, even though post vaccination I’ve more or less lived my life like it was 2019. I don’t wear a mask unless mandated. I go to my open plan office 5 days a week. I go to the gym or fitness classes 5 days a week. I dine indoors and visit bars twice a week. I fly twice a month. And while I was a bit more careful during the January Omicron wave, I still did all of the above but at a lower frequency. And I’ve tested myself after exposures (of which I’ve had countless). What’s even weirder is that I haven’t even had a fever or the sniffles since 2020, when I used to fall sick every other month pre pandemic. Maybe it’s because my office is much less crowded than it was in 2019? Or that there are just fewer colds in circulation?
- michaelmrose 4y ago
  Maybe your grouping of people has normalized staying home when you are sick? It used to be normal that coming to work making everyone sick was a sign of motivation and dedication whereas now its deemed by many myself included as a sign that your an inconsiderate jerk who doesn't mind killing Susan in HR's grandma.
- remarkEon 4y ago
  You're not alone. One of my good friends is a bartender in LA, refused to get vaccinated (for religious reasons that aren't germane to this discussion) and has yet to get covid. You would think that a guy that interacts with people every day at a bar would get it, but nope. He never has. Probably never will. Makes me think that the CDC should seek out people like this and study them to determine why. I got my proper vaccinations, and still got it a couple months ago. It was a pretty decent flu, but honestly no worse than my worst seasonal flu I had back in 2014. He travels internationally a lot, and I have to wonder if doing that primed his immune system in some way.
  - CogitoCogito 4y ago
    He could have had an asymptotic infection. But yeah maybe he was just never infected. Of course everyone isn’t going to get it. Edit: What’s your reasoning for this claim? > Probably never will.
    - remarkEon 4y ago
      >Edit: What’s your reasoning for this claim? More or less the same as yours. If he had it, he was asymptomatic. If he gets it, he'll be asymptomatic because see above.
      - CogitoCogito 4y ago
        In the case where he has _not_ every been infected, I see no reason to assume any future infection would be asymptomatic. Besides you can always have it asymptomatic once and then worse later. My girlfriend had a light (well it was still comparable to a bad flu) case in the beginning of the pandemic and then a year later a much worse case that took more than 6 months to fully recover from.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- g42gregory 4y ago
  Everybody seems to be different and we don't know why. There seem to be not much research into why there are such differences in people's reaction, how virus actually spreads, the treatment protocols (stay at home and rest, unless you get really sick then come to the hospital and we will begin to look at you). Availability of treatments seem to be poor, again unless you are very sick at the hospital. We are only allowed to talk about vaccines. It feels like Pfizer bought off the entiriety of Western governments.
  - bawolff 4y ago
    People responding differently to the same disease happens in every disease. There's plenty of research into this, but we are still far from unraveling all the mysteries of the human body. Similarly the treatment protocol of - if you have a minor infection with no additional risk factors, rest and drink fluids, if the infection is major talk to a doctor, is how we handle pretty much all infections, and the obviously sensible thing to do.
    - g42gregory 4y ago
      Yes, but every other disease does not shut down the world for 2+ years and does not cost $trillions to deal with. It's not like the flu: it's not seasonal so there is no break in the Summer, vaccines barely working, it's much more contagious, and it affects world's productivity in a very substantial way. We got lucky with Omicron's being very mild. What will happen with the next variant? Who is working on the real solution?
      - bawolff 4y ago
        To channel the mythical man-month - 9 woman can't make a baby in 1 month. For virus based diseases, generally vaccines have been the most effective thing. Other treatment options have generally been very difficult. Best success story for non vaccine treatment is probably AIDS, and that took decades. Its not for lack of trying.
  - mandmandam 4y ago
    > It feels like Pfizer bought off the entirety of Western governments. They did though [0]. Out of 73 contracts with governments, only 5 were published, and those had "significant redactions". All vaccines were bought on condition of full legal indemnity. > There seem to be not much research into why there are such differences in people's reaction, how virus actually spreads, the treatment protocols Why research any of that when you can say that you just need this totally safe and effective [TM] vaccine, no you can't see the safety data, and if you question us then you're a murderous plague rat who hates old people!! So far they're getting away with this; if anything people's trust in pharma has gone up. Ugh. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secrecy-in-pfizer-contracts-as-company-accused-of-profiteering?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secr...
- jmopp 4y ago
  One thing that has come out of the pandemic is people became a lot more diligent about washing hands and keeping away if they are visibly sick lest it be covid - not to mention everywhere being less crowded in general. While it isn't enough to stop the spread, it has limited the circulation of the common coughing and sneezing diseases.
  - arinlen 4y ago
    > While it isn't enough to stop the spread, it has limited the circulation of the common coughing and sneezing diseases. It should be noted that that's exactly the whole purpose of basic higiene and public health measures: lower contagion rates by putting in place low-effort measures that hinder contagion rates.
zeroth32 4y ago
I had covid, pretty mild, flu was worse. Damage from all the lockdowns was devastating. My business and marriage fall apart, lost many friends, became alcoholic and now I have heart problems from overweight.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- michaelmrose 4y ago
  6.5M people died you know unlike the flu. Describing lockdowns as devestating when we barely did any here in the states doesn't make much sense. Virtually all decrease in commerce was down to people not wanting to hang out together and sicken each other. I used the extra time together with my wife to make our relationship better because we spent more time together and started doing walking for exercise. If you became a fat friendless alcoholic with a failed marriage that is completely and totally on you. Nobody made you trash your marriage. Nobody made you have that drink. Nobody made you eat that twinkie. The sooner you take responsibility for crashing your life the sooner you can get back up on your feet.
  - shmel 4y ago
    Do you not find that your self-righteous comment about lockdowns is just about tone deaf as "I had covid, it wasn't that bad"? First of all, here are a couple more countries on the planet except the US. Second, yes, great, you improved your marriage, I am really happy for you. But many people had it really bad. I can tell you what my life was in 2020-2021. In the first lockdown I watched my gf at the time going into a full-scale psychiatric meltdown and slowly losing grip on reality. I believe it was mostly caused by the stress of lockdowns. It completely destroyed our relationship because I didn't have experience nor expertise nor resources to be a full-time mental health nurse on top of everything else. All energy I had at that time I spent on trying to keep her from suicide (luckily I succeeded). There were also periods when I was alone, totally alone, not seeing anyone IRL for weeks. This soul-crushing loneliness (together with lack of understanding from literally everyone) was the worst that I experienced in my entire life. If I could swap this horrific time for having covid five times in a row, I'd have done it without hesitation. If you told me that would mean 10% chance to die, I'd have done anyway. The only contact I had was occasional video chats with friends. Many of them were having more quality time with their partners and couldn't really relate why I was so miserable. Almost all of them recommended me more netflix to deal with this. It built up an awful lot of resentment. I lost some friends over this. Getting over a good friend telling you with a straight face "it is your fault you were unprepared for a global pandemic, if you started a family and had kids, you would have had it a lot easier" was pretty hard, believe me. So for me lockdowns were devastating. Covid? YMMV, of course, but for me it was just a bad cold.
mandmandam 4y ago
Without any disrespect, I feel that these "learnings" betray a void of empathy from the author. How are any of his points news to anyone, two years on? And there's some very dangerous stuff in there. 1. This was obvious very quickly. The idea that we would vaccinate the virus out of existence with leaky vaccines was always absurd. And yes, sickness is inevitable. Did SA really think he could avoid an airborne global pandemic, rife across the planet for years, without living in hiding? No? Then how is this a learning? 2. This isn't a very helpful thing to "learn". Before a test result or major symptoms, there's no real way to tell foreboding from paranoia. A feeling of foreboding is often described by patients before major events, for good reasons, and they are often pooh-poohed by doctors, especially if the patients are female, old, young, or poor. 3. Hold on. We need less oversight and care of novel vaccines? Rather than more open, more distributed, more scientific and consistent analysis? Large pharma companies refused to share their safety data. Accurate statistics on Corona, mortality, and vaccine side effects are still impossible to find, partly because our institutions failed us, partly because we don't expect companies to share their data and work together in the common good. For all the praise they've gotten for "speedy" development of vaccines, the fact remains that in the non wealthy parts of the world, most vulnerable people don't have even one shot. In wealthy countries, the shots are being pushed at children, supposedly to protect their grandparents who are on their fourth shot. This is demented - and the solution sure af isn't fewer delays and less regulation. If the sprays are very effective, and shown safe (I'm not saying they are or aren't - I haven't looked into it as they're not even available to me), then how do we know there isn't a clause in Pfizer et al's contracts forbidding their use? We don't know the text of Pfizer's contracts in most cases; the excerpts we've seen are ridiculously draconian and onerous. [0], [1] > Pfizer has formalized 73 deals for its coronavirus vaccine. According to Transparency International, a London-based advocacy group, only five contracts have been formally published by governments, and these with “significant redactions.” And Scott thinks we need more action, less regulation, even than providing full legal indemnity while declaring the vaccine safe on the other side of our mouth? Booo. 4. I don't know much about Paxlovid. A ten second google reveals that it's not recommended for people with serious illness, liver or kidney issues, or people on medication. Telling people to pop it like candy seems fucking irresponsible. As far as the point is that our response and guidelines were insufficient, yes, point very much taken - but this isn't news. 5, 6, 7. Brooo.... People have been saying all of this since the "bad cold" of Winter 2019. You say it like it's news because it just happened to you. Did you not have friends who told you this? Did you not read a single account? ... Didn't your son get this 6 months ago??!! I'm sorry you fell sick guy, but it's a bit fucking tone deaf to complain about your "milder than a cold" symptoms 2 years and millions of deaths into a global pandemic. Not impressed by these "learnings" at all. Anyone who learns anything from this hasn't been paying any attention; and if people walk away with the impression that we need less regulation and faster blind action then that's bad, and Scott should feel bad. I'm left with a very strong impression that SA lacks empathy in a major way. I can't diagnose narcissism but I'd go so far as to suggest that he looks into it. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secrecy-in-pfizer-contracts-as-company-accused-of-profiteering https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secr... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/19/secret-vaccine-contracts-with-governments-pfizer-took-hard-line-push-profit-report-says/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/19/secret-vacci...
mlang79 4y ago
- s5300 4y ago
  > It exactly went as I predicted… I will never ever trust politicians and the media again. Anecdata & echo chambers, death of the nicer things about the human race they will be.
- LinAGKar 4y ago
  And the people in respirators, what, didn't drink enough vodka?
- badcppdev 4y ago
  - mlang79 4y ago
    - michaelmrose 4y ago
- jonathanstrange 4y ago
- michaelmrose 4y ago
  Do you know what the statistically likely result of driving drunk on a single occasion? Since it takes the average drunk 80 times to get arrested the answer is you will probably get home without incident but if you keep rolling the dice eventually little timmy ends up under your wheels and you end up in the back of a patrol car. There is no reason to conclude that because YOU had a mild infection that all the dead people are crisis actors.
  - 4y ago
Markoff 4y ago
NoPie 4y ago
Paxlovid for vaccinated non-risk groups most likely is useless and the suggestion to distribute it like candy is simply irresponsible. Initial studies were done with non-vaccinated risk groups and it showed a good efficiency. Since then most people have already been vaccinated and the benefit for them is probably lesser. The post-marketing studies showed that it doesn't help people under 50 y.o. The other issue is with covid rebound when using Paxlovid. In the studies rebound was something like 2-3%, in practice it happens much more often which can also indicate that the study population that was benefitting from Paxlovid is different from the one that is taking it now.
- guelo 4y ago
  It's only irresponsible because of the limited supply. Safety-wise it's fine to take, even if it's basically a placebo for the under-50s. Also the published stats are about hospitalization, we don't seem to have data on other possible benefits such as shortened sickness or reduced long-covid risk. Though I read somewhere that the long-covid research is being done.
  - NoPie 4y ago
    If you are a health young male then it is probably safe but it is not safe for some people (people with other medications, liver problems etc.). For example, someone taking immunosuppressants due to organ transplant may have treatment failure which can lead to transplant rejection. This is the reason why it is the prescription only medicine and is prescribed only after assessing the patient. Those other benefits are minor compared to potential harm.
mettamage 4y ago
I wish I could downvote this submission. I do not find it interesting enough. I wouldn’t want to downvote to a negative number, I applaud HN submissions, but I do want to vote that this shouldn’t be on the front page. I’ve had covid twice, I’m fine. With that said, my experiences are entirely different. It’s fine that he writes about this. It’s his blog after all. I simply wish I could downvote it on HN. IMO, this submission doesn’t belong here as it isn’t that novel (if at all) and the opinion is pure subjective. So a non-novel subjective opinion is what I’m seeing. Allow me to vote that it doesn’t belong here.
- disgruntledphd2 4y ago
  That's what the flag button is for.
- arinlen 4y ago
  > I’ve had covid twice, I’m fine. With that said, my experiences are entirely different. The submission reeks of ignorant survivorship bias. Even though fatalities were a fraction of contagion, and even though long COVID seems to only bother those who suffer from it, it's highly ignorant to in the same breath complain about basic public health measures like lockdowns and pretend everything was ok because a) the author survived, b) vaccines were unexpectedly rolled out afterwards.
pb060 4y ago
I'm jealous of people who manage to have an almost normal life. I live in a constant latent distress who might be devastating me. My 1 year old daughter had a good time by being with her parents 100% of her time but I'm very concerned about her future, both health and mental wise as she will soon need to make friends and have a social life. I try not to go out and when I do I avoid crowded places and keep far from people without a mask even when outside. I'm sure I'm transmitting my distress to my family. Furthermore, the feeling that my behaviour is not understood and judged extreme by people around me, including colleagues and relatives and maybe my wife, is making me feel more isolated. I think that this only happens to the western world, where people misunderstood freedom for something else. I have recently been to South Korea and I felt much more at ease there, as for example not wearing a mask in public is considered socially deplorable and you might be reprimanded by other people. This might be the first time I stated it explicitly, but I think that though not having been infected yet, probably my life got ruined irreversibly.
- gotaran 4y ago
  It seems like you flew to South Korea recently? So you haven’t been a complete shut in. Also, Omicron spread like wildfire there too, despite South Korea being one of the few countries where people wear not just surgical masks but high quality KF-94 respirators.
  - pb060 4y ago
    No it wasn't a complete shut in, and I consider getting on an airplane a major achievement. Re Omicron, my simplistic explanation is that its spread is mainly caused by people eating in restaurants. At least irrationally I felt protected by everyone wearing high quality masks.
- elviejo 4y ago
  > my life got ruined irreversibly. Not yet, we humans are resilient creatures. I'm pretty sure you can rebound from this. Maybe you can try to find psicological help, to help you deal with this problem. Best of luck
senectus1 4y ago
I haven't had it yet... I've had four shots (2x Pf 1x Mod 1x Nov) and both my kids have had covid but the wife and I seemed to have missed it completely. I looked after the kids when they got it and my wife is super careful about testing and mask wearing etc I suspect I'm one of those lucky few who just are not suspectable to it.

23 points by nsoonhui 4y ago

I find it odd that I’ve never had COVID symptoms, even though post vaccination I’ve more or less lived my life like it was 2019. I don’t wear a mask unless mandated. I go to my open plan office 5 days a week. I go to the gym or fitness classes 5 days a week. I dine indoors and visit bars twice a week. I fly twice a month. And while I was a bit more careful during the January Omicron wave, I still did all of the above but at a lower frequency. And I’ve tested myself after exposures (of which I’ve had countless). What’s even weirder is that I haven’t even had a fever or the sniffles since 2020, when I used to fall sick every other month pre pandemic. Maybe it’s because my office is much less crowded than it was in 2019? Or that there are just fewer colds in circulation?

michaelmrose 4y ago
Maybe your grouping of people has normalized staying home when you are sick? It used to be normal that coming to work making everyone sick was a sign of motivation and dedication whereas now its deemed by many myself included as a sign that your an inconsiderate jerk who doesn't mind killing Susan in HR's grandma.
remarkEon 4y ago
You're not alone. One of my good friends is a bartender in LA, refused to get vaccinated (for religious reasons that aren't germane to this discussion) and has yet to get covid. You would think that a guy that interacts with people every day at a bar would get it, but nope. He never has. Probably never will. Makes me think that the CDC should seek out people like this and study them to determine why. I got my proper vaccinations, and still got it a couple months ago. It was a pretty decent flu, but honestly no worse than my worst seasonal flu I had back in 2014. He travels internationally a lot, and I have to wonder if doing that primed his immune system in some way.
- CogitoCogito 4y ago
  He could have had an asymptotic infection. But yeah maybe he was just never infected. Of course everyone isn’t going to get it. Edit: What’s your reasoning for this claim? > Probably never will.
  - remarkEon 4y ago
    >Edit: What’s your reasoning for this claim? More or less the same as yours. If he had it, he was asymptomatic. If he gets it, he'll be asymptomatic because see above.
    - CogitoCogito 4y ago
      In the case where he has _not_ every been infected, I see no reason to assume any future infection would be asymptomatic. Besides you can always have it asymptomatic once and then worse later. My girlfriend had a light (well it was still comparable to a bad flu) case in the beginning of the pandemic and then a year later a much worse case that took more than 6 months to fully recover from.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
g42gregory 4y ago
Everybody seems to be different and we don't know why. There seem to be not much research into why there are such differences in people's reaction, how virus actually spreads, the treatment protocols (stay at home and rest, unless you get really sick then come to the hospital and we will begin to look at you). Availability of treatments seem to be poor, again unless you are very sick at the hospital. We are only allowed to talk about vaccines. It feels like Pfizer bought off the entiriety of Western governments.
- bawolff 4y ago
  People responding differently to the same disease happens in every disease. There's plenty of research into this, but we are still far from unraveling all the mysteries of the human body. Similarly the treatment protocol of - if you have a minor infection with no additional risk factors, rest and drink fluids, if the infection is major talk to a doctor, is how we handle pretty much all infections, and the obviously sensible thing to do.
  - g42gregory 4y ago
    Yes, but every other disease does not shut down the world for 2+ years and does not cost $trillions to deal with. It's not like the flu: it's not seasonal so there is no break in the Summer, vaccines barely working, it's much more contagious, and it affects world's productivity in a very substantial way. We got lucky with Omicron's being very mild. What will happen with the next variant? Who is working on the real solution?
    - bawolff 4y ago
      To channel the mythical man-month - 9 woman can't make a baby in 1 month. For virus based diseases, generally vaccines have been the most effective thing. Other treatment options have generally been very difficult. Best success story for non vaccine treatment is probably AIDS, and that took decades. Its not for lack of trying.
- mandmandam 4y ago
  > It feels like Pfizer bought off the entirety of Western governments. They did though [0]. Out of 73 contracts with governments, only 5 were published, and those had "significant redactions". All vaccines were bought on condition of full legal indemnity. > There seem to be not much research into why there are such differences in people's reaction, how virus actually spreads, the treatment protocols Why research any of that when you can say that you just need this totally safe and effective [TM] vaccine, no you can't see the safety data, and if you question us then you're a murderous plague rat who hates old people!! So far they're getting away with this; if anything people's trust in pharma has gone up. Ugh. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secrecy-in-pfizer-contracts-as-company-accused-of-profiteering?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secr...
jmopp 4y ago
One thing that has come out of the pandemic is people became a lot more diligent about washing hands and keeping away if they are visibly sick lest it be covid - not to mention everywhere being less crowded in general. While it isn't enough to stop the spread, it has limited the circulation of the common coughing and sneezing diseases.
- arinlen 4y ago
  > While it isn't enough to stop the spread, it has limited the circulation of the common coughing and sneezing diseases. It should be noted that that's exactly the whole purpose of basic higiene and public health measures: lower contagion rates by putting in place low-effort measures that hinder contagion rates.

zeroth32 4y ago

I had covid, pretty mild, flu was worse. Damage from all the lockdowns was devastating. My business and marriage fall apart, lost many friends, became alcoholic and now I have heart problems from overweight.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
michaelmrose 4y ago
6.5M people died you know unlike the flu. Describing lockdowns as devestating when we barely did any here in the states doesn't make much sense. Virtually all decrease in commerce was down to people not wanting to hang out together and sicken each other. I used the extra time together with my wife to make our relationship better because we spent more time together and started doing walking for exercise. If you became a fat friendless alcoholic with a failed marriage that is completely and totally on you. Nobody made you trash your marriage. Nobody made you have that drink. Nobody made you eat that twinkie. The sooner you take responsibility for crashing your life the sooner you can get back up on your feet.
- shmel 4y ago
  Do you not find that your self-righteous comment about lockdowns is just about tone deaf as "I had covid, it wasn't that bad"? First of all, here are a couple more countries on the planet except the US. Second, yes, great, you improved your marriage, I am really happy for you. But many people had it really bad. I can tell you what my life was in 2020-2021. In the first lockdown I watched my gf at the time going into a full-scale psychiatric meltdown and slowly losing grip on reality. I believe it was mostly caused by the stress of lockdowns. It completely destroyed our relationship because I didn't have experience nor expertise nor resources to be a full-time mental health nurse on top of everything else. All energy I had at that time I spent on trying to keep her from suicide (luckily I succeeded). There were also periods when I was alone, totally alone, not seeing anyone IRL for weeks. This soul-crushing loneliness (together with lack of understanding from literally everyone) was the worst that I experienced in my entire life. If I could swap this horrific time for having covid five times in a row, I'd have done it without hesitation. If you told me that would mean 10% chance to die, I'd have done anyway. The only contact I had was occasional video chats with friends. Many of them were having more quality time with their partners and couldn't really relate why I was so miserable. Almost all of them recommended me more netflix to deal with this. It built up an awful lot of resentment. I lost some friends over this. Getting over a good friend telling you with a straight face "it is your fault you were unprepared for a global pandemic, if you started a family and had kids, you would have had it a lot easier" was pretty hard, believe me. So for me lockdowns were devastating. Covid? YMMV, of course, but for me it was just a bad cold.

mandmandam 4y ago

Without any disrespect, I feel that these "learnings" betray a void of empathy from the author. How are any of his points news to anyone, two years on? And there's some very dangerous stuff in there. 1. This was obvious very quickly. The idea that we would vaccinate the virus out of existence with leaky vaccines was always absurd. And yes, sickness is inevitable. Did SA really think he could avoid an airborne global pandemic, rife across the planet for years, without living in hiding? No? Then how is this a learning? 2. This isn't a very helpful thing to "learn". Before a test result or major symptoms, there's no real way to tell foreboding from paranoia. A feeling of foreboding is often described by patients before major events, for good reasons, and they are often pooh-poohed by doctors, especially if the patients are female, old, young, or poor. 3. Hold on. We need less oversight and care of novel vaccines? Rather than more open, more distributed, more scientific and consistent analysis? Large pharma companies refused to share their safety data. Accurate statistics on Corona, mortality, and vaccine side effects are still impossible to find, partly because our institutions failed us, partly because we don't expect companies to share their data and work together in the common good. For all the praise they've gotten for "speedy" development of vaccines, the fact remains that in the non wealthy parts of the world, most vulnerable people don't have even one shot. In wealthy countries, the shots are being pushed at children, supposedly to protect their grandparents who are on their fourth shot. This is demented - and the solution sure af isn't fewer delays and less regulation. If the sprays are very effective, and shown safe (I'm not saying they are or aren't - I haven't looked into it as they're not even available to me), then how do we know there isn't a clause in Pfizer et al's contracts forbidding their use? We don't know the text of Pfizer's contracts in most cases; the excerpts we've seen are ridiculously draconian and onerous. [0], [1] > Pfizer has formalized 73 deals for its coronavirus vaccine. According to Transparency International, a London-based advocacy group, only five contracts have been formally published by governments, and these with “significant redactions.” And Scott thinks we need more action, less regulation, even than providing full legal indemnity while declaring the vaccine safe on the other side of our mouth? Booo. 4. I don't know much about Paxlovid. A ten second google reveals that it's not recommended for people with serious illness, liver or kidney issues, or people on medication. Telling people to pop it like candy seems fucking irresponsible. As far as the point is that our response and guidelines were insufficient, yes, point very much taken - but this isn't news. 5, 6, 7. Brooo.... People have been saying all of this since the "bad cold" of Winter 2019. You say it like it's news because it just happened to you. Did you not have friends who told you this? Did you not read a single account? ... Didn't your son get this 6 months ago??!! I'm sorry you fell sick guy, but it's a bit fucking tone deaf to complain about your "milder than a cold" symptoms 2 years and millions of deaths into a global pandemic. Not impressed by these "learnings" at all. Anyone who learns anything from this hasn't been paying any attention; and if people walk away with the impression that we need less regulation and faster blind action then that's bad, and Scott should feel bad. I'm left with a very strong impression that SA lacks empathy in a major way. I can't diagnose narcissism but I'd go so far as to suggest that he looks into it. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secrecy-in-pfizer-contracts-as-company-accused-of-profiteering https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/05/wall-of-secr... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/19/secret-vaccine-contracts-with-governments-pfizer-took-hard-line-push-profit-report-says/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/19/secret-vacci...

mlang79 4y ago

s5300 4y ago
> It exactly went as I predicted… I will never ever trust politicians and the media again. Anecdata & echo chambers, death of the nicer things about the human race they will be.
LinAGKar 4y ago
And the people in respirators, what, didn't drink enough vodka?
badcppdev 4y ago
- mlang79 4y ago
  - michaelmrose 4y ago
jonathanstrange 4y ago
michaelmrose 4y ago
Do you know what the statistically likely result of driving drunk on a single occasion? Since it takes the average drunk 80 times to get arrested the answer is you will probably get home without incident but if you keep rolling the dice eventually little timmy ends up under your wheels and you end up in the back of a patrol car. There is no reason to conclude that because YOU had a mild infection that all the dead people are crisis actors.
- 4y ago

Markoff 4y ago

NoPie 4y ago

Paxlovid for vaccinated non-risk groups most likely is useless and the suggestion to distribute it like candy is simply irresponsible. Initial studies were done with non-vaccinated risk groups and it showed a good efficiency. Since then most people have already been vaccinated and the benefit for them is probably lesser. The post-marketing studies showed that it doesn't help people under 50 y.o. The other issue is with covid rebound when using Paxlovid. In the studies rebound was something like 2-3%, in practice it happens much more often which can also indicate that the study population that was benefitting from Paxlovid is different from the one that is taking it now.

guelo 4y ago
It's only irresponsible because of the limited supply. Safety-wise it's fine to take, even if it's basically a placebo for the under-50s. Also the published stats are about hospitalization, we don't seem to have data on other possible benefits such as shortened sickness or reduced long-covid risk. Though I read somewhere that the long-covid research is being done.
- NoPie 4y ago
  If you are a health young male then it is probably safe but it is not safe for some people (people with other medications, liver problems etc.). For example, someone taking immunosuppressants due to organ transplant may have treatment failure which can lead to transplant rejection. This is the reason why it is the prescription only medicine and is prescribed only after assessing the patient. Those other benefits are minor compared to potential harm.

mettamage 4y ago

I wish I could downvote this submission. I do not find it interesting enough. I wouldn’t want to downvote to a negative number, I applaud HN submissions, but I do want to vote that this shouldn’t be on the front page. I’ve had covid twice, I’m fine. With that said, my experiences are entirely different. It’s fine that he writes about this. It’s his blog after all. I simply wish I could downvote it on HN. IMO, this submission doesn’t belong here as it isn’t that novel (if at all) and the opinion is pure subjective. So a non-novel subjective opinion is what I’m seeing. Allow me to vote that it doesn’t belong here.

disgruntledphd2 4y ago
That's what the flag button is for.
arinlen 4y ago
> I’ve had covid twice, I’m fine. With that said, my experiences are entirely different. The submission reeks of ignorant survivorship bias. Even though fatalities were a fraction of contagion, and even though long COVID seems to only bother those who suffer from it, it's highly ignorant to in the same breath complain about basic public health measures like lockdowns and pretend everything was ok because a) the author survived, b) vaccines were unexpectedly rolled out afterwards.

pb060 4y ago

I'm jealous of people who manage to have an almost normal life. I live in a constant latent distress who might be devastating me. My 1 year old daughter had a good time by being with her parents 100% of her time but I'm very concerned about her future, both health and mental wise as she will soon need to make friends and have a social life. I try not to go out and when I do I avoid crowded places and keep far from people without a mask even when outside. I'm sure I'm transmitting my distress to my family. Furthermore, the feeling that my behaviour is not understood and judged extreme by people around me, including colleagues and relatives and maybe my wife, is making me feel more isolated. I think that this only happens to the western world, where people misunderstood freedom for something else. I have recently been to South Korea and I felt much more at ease there, as for example not wearing a mask in public is considered socially deplorable and you might be reprimanded by other people. This might be the first time I stated it explicitly, but I think that though not having been infected yet, probably my life got ruined irreversibly.

gotaran 4y ago
It seems like you flew to South Korea recently? So you haven’t been a complete shut in. Also, Omicron spread like wildfire there too, despite South Korea being one of the few countries where people wear not just surgical masks but high quality KF-94 respirators.
- pb060 4y ago
  No it wasn't a complete shut in, and I consider getting on an airplane a major achievement. Re Omicron, my simplistic explanation is that its spread is mainly caused by people eating in restaurants. At least irrationally I felt protected by everyone wearing high quality masks.
elviejo 4y ago
> my life got ruined irreversibly. Not yet, we humans are resilient creatures. I'm pretty sure you can rebound from this. Maybe you can try to find psicological help, to help you deal with this problem. Best of luck

senectus1 4y ago

I haven't had it yet... I've had four shots (2x Pf 1x Mod 1x Nov) and both my kids have had covid but the wife and I seemed to have missed it completely. I looked after the kids when they got it and my wife is super careful about testing and mask wearing etc I suspect I'm one of those lucky few who just are not suspectable to it.