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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Doctors who treat Covid describe the ways the illness has gotten milder and shifted over time to mostly affect the upper respiratory tract.

Doctors say they're finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish Covid from allergies or the common cold, even as hospitalizations tick up.

The illness' past hallmarks, such as a dry cough or the loss of sense of taste or smell, have become less common. Instead, doctors are observing milder disease, mostly concentrated in the upper respiratory tract.

"It isn’t the same typical symptoms that we were seeing before. It’s a lot of congestion, sometimes sneezing, usually a mild sore throat," said Dr. Erick Eiting, vice chair of operations for emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York City.

The sore throat usually arrives first, he said, then congestion.

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[-] Nasom@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago

As a person who is on the tail end of COVID infection, this describes my current symptoms.

[-] Albbi@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 year ago

I never tested myself because I just thought it was a cold, but that describes my symptoms too. Started with sore throat which wasn't too bad and went away. Then the next day congestion and exhaustion, with just a little bit of sneezing.

[-] dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

These symptoms lasted nearly a month after my covid infection.

[-] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Same for me as well

Do the old covid tests still work? Ive had this cold several times this year and always covid negative.

[-] PatFussy@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago

The answer is yes they are still as effective, dont let anyone here convince you otherwise. The base protein has not mutated and that is what is being checked when you do this chromatography style test.

[-] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 year ago

They have a much higher false negative rate now than they used to. Thats probably due to changes in the virus itself and lower viral load as people have higher levels of immunity now. However if you test positive you can still be pretty certain you have covid.

[-] Foggyfroggy@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, also recognition that some people may have symptoms and test negative or feel fine and test positive. That’s also why there is no recommendation to test again. If someone pops a positive recommendations say to stay home for 5 days then mask for 5 more. There is no benefit to additional testing because of natural variation in antibody production and function.

[-] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Mind the expiration dates.

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[-] ImFresh3x@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 year ago

I simply had the worst sore throat I’ve ever had. No congestion. Then I lost my sense of smell for about 6 months. That was awful. Very grateful it came back.

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Is this propaganda? My wife just recovered from covid and it knocked her on her ass. Yes upper respiratory was true, but nausea, fever, fatigue, fainting, body pain, loss of taste all happened

[-] Stuka@lemmy.ml 78 points 1 year ago

Just because an individual case doesn't fit the trend does not automatically make the news propaganda.

[-] darq@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

This article is a bit of propaganda though. That doesn't mean it isn't true or anything. But running an article in the news about how much milder the disease is, is still going to have an effect on how people respond to it.

[-] Stuka@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I think you might be using too broad a definition of propaganda. The result of influencing opinion does not make something propaganda. Propaganda needs some intent to persuade or push an agenda.

The article might be propaganda, largely that depends on the motivations for writing and publishing it. But the fact that the content of the article might change people's opinions does not make it propaganda.

[-] darq@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

I think you might be using too broad a definition of propaganda.

Nah.

The result of influencing opinion does not make something propaganda. Propaganda needs some intent to persuade or push an agenda.

A bar this article very easily clears. What to publish is a choice. A choice was made to publish this article, with obvious influence on opinion and action.

The article might be propaganda, largely that depends on the motivations for writing and publishing it. But the fact that the content of the article might change people’s opinions does not make it propaganda.

Nah. Intent a nonsense metric. We can bicker forever about intent. Because we cannot know anyone's mind.

Using intent as a metric gives a lot of propaganda a free pass. Because we can't prove intent.

[-] Stuka@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 year ago

So you just don't know what propaganda is, got it.

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[-] cloaker@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

It's not a free pass. Something doesn't have to be propaganda to be bad.

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[-] ramble81@lemm.ee 27 points 1 year ago

There will always be outliers in any population distribution, your wife being one it seems. This is talking about the general outcome now.

[-] Bipta@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is a ton of, "COVID is mild now" propaganda which is not supported by the science. More evidence points to increased immunity than a reduction in the lethality of the virus itself.

Omicron is less severe than Delta, but that's really misleading because Delta was the most dangerous variant.

[-] dulce_3t_decorum_3st@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

I’m not sure you know what propaganda means

[-] TBi@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

I think what they are trying to say is that harsh reactions are becoming less common. Which is good for everyone. Although it can still affect people a lot, like it affected your wife.

Although it could be propaganda, at this moment I hope it’s the former.

[-] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

I just wouldn't want people to get the impression that it's nothing, or that it's like a common cold. My wife is really happy to be alive. I was really scared of losing her.

[-] ryannathans@lemmy.fmhy.net 10 points 1 year ago

There is more than just one strain in circulation

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[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

What sort of propaganda do you think this would be?

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[-] qooqie@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

So is there any real way to say if this is because of widespread vaccination or because the virus itself has lost some lethality genes

[-] Hoomod@lemmy.world 40 points 1 year ago

Not a scientist, but I'd guess mostly B, maybe helped along with some of A.

The goal of a virus is to replicate, and it does that better when it's less lethal

[-] justdoit@lemm.ee 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just a very small correction- as with all biology, natural selection will drive a virus to replicate more effectively, that’s it. This does NOT mean a virus will automatically become less lethal over time. That’s an older hypothesis that scientists found was not in line with observation.

The newer hypothesis is known as “virulence-transmission trade-off”. The oversimplification of the idea is that if a mutation increases both transmission and virulence, it will also tend to be selected for. COVID is inconsistent with both hypotheses in certain ways though, so really predicting its virulence in the short or long term has proven difficult. Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10066022/

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[-] DigitalNirvana@lemm.ee 33 points 1 year ago

Viruses don’t have goals. You are anthropomorphizing them. What viruses do is mutate. If mutations have more fitness, they will spread more effectively. That says nothing about mortality nor morbidity. With this disease it spreads in the early stage, which long before the person who has caught it either dies, recovers, gets long COVID, etc.

[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago

The downvotes you are getting are stupid. This is exactly correct.

[-] hihello@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

True yeah, but it was kind of a “no shit” response.

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[-] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

It helps that it already killed millions of the more susceptible early on before immunity started.

Not sure how statistically significant this is in the overall numbers, though.

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 24 points 1 year ago

Scheduled next boost for next week.

I finally caught it earlier this year. Thanks to vax, it was similar to a cold / flu. Was mostly better after a few days.

Medical science is awesome. I couldn't be happier about how it turned out. What a relief.

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

That was the basic progression when I had it a few months ago if you add fever and chills.

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 year ago

Huh, I have exactly that. Dunno if covid though of just some flu

[-] 121mhz@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago
[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 11 points 1 year ago
[-] atri@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Don't know why you're getting downvoted. I can't afford to pay for a test every time I get the sniffles either. Also, America showed me they dgaf a couple years ago, so now I just throw on the mask and go about my business.

[-] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

Maybe they're disappointed I'm leaving them hanging? I really dunno

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this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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