
She got ill when the pandemic hit – and still is, six months later - open-source-ux
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-53948028
======
seibelj
Focusing on the long tail distribution in any disease isn’t usually helpful
for making policy. If you look at any disease the possible side effects and
symptoms extend to an absurd array of often contradictory outcomes
(constipation / diarrhea). But usually there is a majority of side effects,
symptoms, etc. that can guide things.

With COVID the media scaring us is never ending. Anecdotally the people I know
who got the disease ranged from “mild cold” to “bad flu” and I don’t
personally know anyone that died, although there are many of course.

We also don’t know how many deaths caused by COVID were actually caused by
COVID. For example, if you die of a heart attack then your corpse tests
positive for COVID, it will be marked a COVID death but that is entirely
unknown if COVID was the primary cause of the heart attack or even a
contributing cause. We don’t have much data, what we have isn’t always
reliable, and the media jumps on any news immediately to scare us as they do
with any story they cover because they need clicks.

Sweden was criticized by almost everyone for being calm and staying open with
reasonable restrictions. Their economy wasn’t hit as hard. They had elevated
deaths compared to some countries, but they certainly weren’t the worst, and
some of the countries previously praised as “gold standard” are now having
outbreaks because we have no cure and the virus always seems to spread
throughout the population anyways. Ideally we are getting herd immunity while
the hospital system is not overwhelmed.

In summation, health authorities still don’t know what is truly happening and
any anecdotal data about people being sick for long period of time (like in
this article) after getting COVID are rare situations at best or entirely
unrelated (undiagnosed fatigue related illness) at worst.

~~~
_Microft
This made Sweden's outcome sound a lot better than it actually is.

Here are numbers: Sweden still had an economic contraction of ~ -8.3% (Germany
~ -11.7%) while having 5.5 times (i.e. 550%!) the deaths per million
inhabitants (Germany: ~ 110/1M, Sweden: ~ 575/1M).

You can compare them to e.g. the UK or Spain though and justifiably claim that
they had a far better economic outcome per casualty than them if you like.

Or compare them to e.g. Denmark or Lithuania and see that Sweden got 10 times
the casualty rate _and_ a worse economic contraction.

Source: [https://ourworldindata.org/covid-health-
economy](https://ourworldindata.org/covid-health-economy)

------
abraxas
Far more plausibly she has a health anxiety and never had the coronavirus to
begin with. She isn’t well but it is most likely a psychological rather than a
physiological condition.

~~~
EricBurnett
Why is this more plausible? You don't know her, and are applying a
psychological condition to her with no basis whatsoever. Just because you
don't want to believe it's true, I assume?

My wife has something similar. Caught it in late February - at the same time
as me - and _still_ has debilitating coughing fits some days, and no energy to
move some days. Unless you're also going to tell me that's in her head too,
and mine.

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wolco
I was expecting a different story. This may or may not be covid related.

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tinus_hn
A very long article describing an anecdote about a woman who is ill and has
never tested positive for COVID-19.

