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Comment by endorphone | Hacker News Reader

When we talk about underlying conditions, note that a pretty significant percentage of the population qualifies.

Elevated blood pressure, childhood asthma, obesity, diabetes

High blood pressure alone captures 1/3rd of the public, and it qualifies as a underlying condition. 1/2 of the public has "cardiovascular disease". It goes on and on.

It just seems like at this point people are just trying to comfort themselves. A 51 year old gentleman near me passed very quickly from COVID-19 and the report claimed he had a pre-existing condition. Later the wife was interviewed and she described him as completely healthy...but he had bronchitis when he was a child.

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That’s a good point. I imagine many populations have large numbers of people with these ‘underlying conditions’, minor or not. Many folks are at high risk of severe reactions.

I still think it’s important for people to understand that the other conditions do appear the be strongly correlated to severe cases. I don’t think it’s just a false comfort. There is so much misunderstanding out there. Many friends and family I talk to seem to have a distorted view of the realty of what the disease actually is.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/99-of-tho...

There is no doubt that the other conditions make people more vulnerable to this disease, and others. That correlation is incredibly real.

What is the false comfort is people's belief that noting this ensures their own safety. My comment was that underlying conditions afflict the vast majority of us, yet people are taking the news as if it means these people all had stage 4 cancer or something and were already on death's door.

Yeah that makes sense.

It does drive me crazy though, when I hear friends that have let themselves be consumed by fear or misunderstanding. It can unnecessarily affect their live in very negative ways.

For example, my co-worker had a falling accident a couple days ago and severely hurt his shoulder. He is afraid he tore his rotator cuff. He is early 30s, a very smart person, but has been consumed with panic about the disease. He refuses to go see a doctor in fear of catching covid-19. It’s like he thinks it’s some sort of death sentence. He lives in a relatively rural county in SC, where according to the state health department there is 1 confirmed case.

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