Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DoreenMichele | Hacker News Reader

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I do know that "bet paid off for us."

I know that because it wasn't a one time incident. We continued to consciously and intentionally consume zinc-rich foods at a greater rate than normal and it successfully alleviated symptoms that had us concerned. It did so consistently for some period of time until those symptoms finally resolved. We pay very close attention to our diets because of the medical situation. So I know we were consuming abnormally high levels of zinc for some weeks.

Your framing seems to suggest you think I am saying zinc helped "cure" us of the infection. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it helped mitigate the worst of our symptoms, which is a completely different claim.

You are correct that I don't know for absolute certain that we had Covid-19 because that was never verified by testing. I've already made that clear and also made it clear that I'm not suggesting treatment to anyone else.

I'm aware there are people promoting zinc as a means to cure Covid-19. I'm not remotely suggesting that.

Even if you accept that I'm correct about having it and I'm correct about zinc helping us, the only takeaway here is that zinc may mitigate some symptoms in some populations, especially populations prone to nutrient deficiencies.

If you have any reason to believe you are zinc deficient, zinc is a good thing to take to treat your deficiency. If you aren't deficient, I'm not recommending it for any purpose.

This is a consistent stance of mine and has been for many years: It's a good thing to determine if you have deficiencies and redress those deficiencies. Otherwise, I absolutely don't recommend any kind of supplement at all. I think it's a dangerous practice to take supplements if you aren't deficient.

> successfully alleviated symptoms

Again, you don't know that. You can't establish causation, particularly when N=2, and even more so when you do not know whether or not you had Covid-19.

Yes, I understand you fully acknowledge you may not have had it, but that acknowledgement contradicts that claim that zinc consumption alleviated its effects. What you can say is that you may have had Covid-19, and increased zinc consumption may have helped.

Look, I don't know what the disconnect is here.

I have a genetic disorder. My son has a genetic disorder. We use diet to mitigate health issues regularly.

I do know for an absolute fact what I have stated as clearly as I can figure out how to state: that increased zinc consumption mitigated the unusual problems we were having that aren't typical for us and which we firmly believe were due to Covid-19.

I have stated clearly that we were never tested, so, no, I can't prove we had it. I can still believe we had it and I don't think it should be anywhere near this much drama to say I believe we had it when I've stated clearly that this is a belief unverified by testing, so I certainly cannot prove it.

I have stated clearly -- and repeatedly -- that my anecdote isn't a recommendation for treatment.

I think it did mitigate symptoms from Covid-19. I admit I can't prove it was Covid-19. I've stated that repeatedly.

And whatever was wrong with us, zinc helped.

You are entirely free to think it's worthless data because we were never tested. I've done everything in my power to distinguish as clearly as I can my opinion from verifiable fact. I am telling you "zinc helped" is in the category of fact in my mind and what it helped with was "probably Covid-19" is my opinion.

I'm planning to walk away at this point. It never ceases to amaze me how much other people have some big problem with me having opinions about my own health status like me thinking about my own health is some kind of serious crime on the order of impersonating a surgeon.

The disconnect is that we disagree on how to establish causation. I follow what I believe to be the generally accepted standard that when dealing with only two people, it’s not valid to assume that medical intervention x, later followed by health status y is not enough to establish that x causes y. It appears you do think that’s a valid way to establish causation, hence we disagree.

That's a reasonable position. The problem here is you and other people hound me and insist I must be wrong and have no right to state my opinion about my health, no matter how carefully I qualify it.

That's not a reasonable position.

I get that you disagree. I expect people to not be convinced that I'm right. Skepticism is warranted.

What's not warranted is harassment.

Repeatedly insisting that I cannot possibly know what I believe to be true when I have already agreed with you that my statements are opinion, inference, etc and unverified by testing is harassment.

I have my reasons why I am confident in my conclusions. No one cares to hear those reasons. They just want me to capitulate, admit defeat and announce that I'm wrong and stupid -- both factually and morally -- for engaging in the same behavior many other people engage in on a regular basis without being similarly mistreated. (That behavior being telling an anecdote about my health and stating a personal opinion about my own experience.)

I'm not capitulating. No one is required to agree with me or be at all interested in what I think about my own health or about health generally. But, like any other human, I am entitled to have an opinion about my own health. I'm not going to pretend that I think you are right when I don't think you are right just because you insist over and over again that my opinion is, in your opinion, factually wrong.

You are not more right than me. Just as I cannot prove I had Covid-19, you cannot prove I did not. Thus you cannot prove my opinion is factually wrong anymore than I can prove it is factually right, yet you feel some strange compulsion to try to insist that your unprovable opinion about my life is somehow more right than my unprovable opinion about my own life.

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