3 ms·

Sigh, this is my fault for not stating in bold print that I wasn't trying to make a backhanded argument that COVID is no worse than the flu. It wasn't that type

Sigh, this is my fault for not stating in bold print that I wasn't trying to make a backhanded argument that COVID is no worse than the flu. It wasn't that type of comment.* I'm really only wondering about whether or not other infectious diseases cause also cause long term issues but it just hasn't been detected before at the level of Covid. To put it more simply I'm wondering if every time we get sick, it decreases our overall vitality just a little bit. Maybe even catching the common cold is chopping a month or two off our lifespan and we never noticed before. * Having said that, of course covid is comparable to the flu. You just did compare it by stating one is 10x the other. Things don't have to be equivalent or even the same order of magnitude to be comparable. I know we're getting into the weeds of what people typically mean when they say "comparable," so again, 100% my fault for not being more clear.

NoPicklez 4y ago
Just because I feel the need to say it, I didn't get that vibe from your comment at all. Some people just want to have an argument. But I do wonder the same thing, COVID has obviously been studied enormously around the world. It also seems to impact relatively healthy people in vastly different ways unlike a cold. However, I do wonder if you took a group of people who have been hit with the flu, if you would observe similar long term impacts, albeit perhaps not to the same degree.
- nradov 4y ago
  The clinical symptoms of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) appear to be very similar to HCoV-OC43. That is another betacoronavirus which is classified as one of the hundreds of endemic "common cold" viruses. It is now suspected to have caused a worldwide pandemic which killed many people starting in 1889. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13889 https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13889 There hasn't been much research on long-term sequelae from HCoV-OC43. I'll bet that if we studied it as closely as COVID-19 we would find similar effects.
smallnamespace 4y ago
X and Y aren’t comparable is a rather common expression meaning X is much greater than Y (or vice versa) along some dimension. I suppose the logic is that you wouldn’t actually weigh them against one another because the result is so obvious - compare here perhaps implicitly meaning to weigh both carefully. One can quibble with the logic of the phrase, but GP used it correctly.
twic 4y ago
Yes, influenza, and other viruses, causes myocarditis. I had myocarditis from some sort of gastric flu (which is not influenza, i know!). This is well-known to doctors. It's only the general public who think that COVID causing myocarditis is novel and strange. (FWIW i understood your comment)
doix 4y ago
> I'm really only wondering about whether or not other infectious diseases cause also cause long term issues but it just hasn't been detected before at the level of Covid. To put it more simply I'm wondering if every time we get sick, it decreases our overall vitality just a little bit. Maybe even catching the common cold is chopping a month or two off our lifespan and we never noticed before. They do, just look at the prognosis section of influenza on Wikipedia [0] (I know, Wikipedia isn't the best source). I had a colleague that had a bad flu one year and then never properly recovered. The doctors say he now has "chronic fatigue syndrome". This was before COVID was a thing. I'm not claiming that flu is as bad as covid, just that this stuff does happen without covid to unlucky people. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza#Prognosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza#Prognosis
quickthrower2 4y ago
“Not comparable” can be used casually in everyday speak to mean “Not on the same order of magnitude” which adds confusion.

NoPicklez 4y ago

Just because I feel the need to say it, I didn't get that vibe from your comment at all. Some people just want to have an argument. But I do wonder the same thing, COVID has obviously been studied enormously around the world. It also seems to impact relatively healthy people in vastly different ways unlike a cold. However, I do wonder if you took a group of people who have been hit with the flu, if you would observe similar long term impacts, albeit perhaps not to the same degree.

nradov 4y ago
The clinical symptoms of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) appear to be very similar to HCoV-OC43. That is another betacoronavirus which is classified as one of the hundreds of endemic "common cold" viruses. It is now suspected to have caused a worldwide pandemic which killed many people starting in 1889. https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13889 https://doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.13889 There hasn't been much research on long-term sequelae from HCoV-OC43. I'll bet that if we studied it as closely as COVID-19 we would find similar effects.

smallnamespace 4y ago

X and Y aren’t comparable is a rather common expression meaning X is much greater than Y (or vice versa) along some dimension. I suppose the logic is that you wouldn’t actually weigh them against one another because the result is so obvious - compare here perhaps implicitly meaning to weigh both carefully. One can quibble with the logic of the phrase, but GP used it correctly.

twic 4y ago

Yes, influenza, and other viruses, causes myocarditis. I had myocarditis from some sort of gastric flu (which is not influenza, i know!). This is well-known to doctors. It's only the general public who think that COVID causing myocarditis is novel and strange. (FWIW i understood your comment)

doix 4y ago

> I'm really only wondering about whether or not other infectious diseases cause also cause long term issues but it just hasn't been detected before at the level of Covid. To put it more simply I'm wondering if every time we get sick, it decreases our overall vitality just a little bit. Maybe even catching the common cold is chopping a month or two off our lifespan and we never noticed before. They do, just look at the prognosis section of influenza on Wikipedia [0] (I know, Wikipedia isn't the best source). I had a colleague that had a bad flu one year and then never properly recovered. The doctors say he now has "chronic fatigue syndrome". This was before COVID was a thing. I'm not claiming that flu is as bad as covid, just that this stuff does happen without covid to unlucky people. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza#Prognosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza#Prognosis

quickthrower2 4y ago

“Not comparable” can be used casually in everyday speak to mean “Not on the same order of magnitude” which adds confusion.