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Comment by Trasmatta | Hacker News Reader

One side effect of following COVID precautions is that I haven't had a cold at all this year. Usually I have 3 or 4 a year. I'm wondering if I'll get them less even after COVID, due to being more cognizant of stuff like washing my hands and not touching my face.

Hopefully all this will also normalize more people staying home or wearing a mask if they feel sick.

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My mother is notoriously immuno-compromised and gets sick two or three times a month for extended periods of time. This year, due to the increased amount of mask wearing, standing apart, increased cleaning, and seeing people on a limited basis she has only ill a handful of times at all this year.

She's going to likely be wearing masks from here on out.

I think I'm going to be mostly socially distancing forever now. Not seeing people anymore is an acceptable tradeoff for never getting sick.

That's a mistake if you have a +-normal immunity. Ie childhood immunity is in desperate need of opponent so it can train itself. If you keep your kids in sterile environment, its more or less guaranteed they will end up with nasty allergies for the rest of their lives. I would expect this should be true in lesser form for adults too.

Anyway it doesn't make sense at all, most of the time folks are sick its not flu - its due to bacteria/viruses we already have in ie throat or nasal area that spot a weak moment (ie getting cold or eating too cold food) and attack. I basically get sick only like that during winter. One time I had pretty bad case of food poisoning from stale mayo and was so weak, I had sore throat and running nose almost immediately.

If you're an otherwise healthy individual,eating cold food or being moderately cold have no clinical relevance to internal body temperature or how often you get sick from viruses. You're passing off an old grandmother's myth as a medical observation.

That inspires me to check in with someone I know who fell I'll frequently and see how they've been through this period. I want to say they to have had significantly less illnesses this period.

I started to take d vitamin when Covid started and was wondering if that is why I have not had a cold this year.

But most likely it is the social distancing.

I started taking vitamin d when I started my professional life as a software engineer after my studies. I had a minor winter depression, and I’ve never stopped taking. Since then I’ve had no colds at all. Of course this is anecdotal, but I think a LOT of people in western society could benefit from taking 2000-4000 IU daily throughout the year

vitamin D deficiency is rampant. head of cardiology at one of the most renowned hospitals takes 5000 IU daily, been for decades.

Don't hesitate to take 10-15k a day for an initial period of couple weeks if you think you might be deficient. Vitamin D requirements are notoriously understated and the supplements underdosed

I think that copying the behaviour of hospital department heads could lead to propagation of some truely idiosyncratic behaviour.

Same, haven't gotten a cold since I started taking vit D supplements; or when I did get anything close to cold symptoms it was very mild and didn't last more than a day or two. I had done the blood test for vit D and I was very deficient -- like many people.

It's worth noting that it may well be the only vitamin where deficiency is common in developed countries and where supplementation has plausible benefits. In fact the only thing missing to positively say that supplementation is beneficial is that while deficiency is known for certain to be associated with major issues, and that supplementation has recently been shown to be beneficial in some cases, it's not been demonstrated that supplementing in the general case translates into better outcomes. However, since it's certainly not been demonstrated that it doesn't, it seems quite a bit more plausible than it does than otherwise.

The question is, what are the risks of supplementation? For almost everyone, and at doses that are not completely insane to begin with, the risks seem to be close to zero. But there may be some genetic factors that make a small minority susceptible to overdose.

> Same, haven't gotten a cold since I started taking vit D supplements; or when I did get anything close to cold symptoms it was very mild and didn't last more than a day or two.

Funny, those "I never get ill" claimers always do get ill if you follow up, "just very little, it's nothing".

Sometimes I get a runny nose, my throat is slightly sore ... and it's gone the next day. Could be an allergic reaction, too much vaping, inhaling something, or an infection not taking hold; no idea. It's an entirely different experience from getting an infection with a fever, fatigue and so on.

That’s actually a pretty good outcome.

I've been taking D as well, and got two colds almost back to back from my kids as soon as they went back to school. I'd agree it's probably the distancing.

Are there other reasons you'd continue to take it?

I wasn't taking it to prevent colds in the first place. The main thing that spurred it now is that Vitamin D has been shown to reduce the severity of covid infections. But being up in Canada I assume I'm deficient, so it should have multiple potential benefits. Eventually I'm planning to test my level to confirm, but for now I figured taking it is safer than not.

Avoiding public transport goes a long way when avoiding colds. Could that be it?

I know I get sick every time I take a plane :/

I read that typically about 20% of passengers will catch a bug on a commercial flight. The main problem seems to be contaminated surfaces, not air recirculation. A flight steward told me that wearing gloves drastically cut down on infections among the staff.

I would certainly think so except I live In Tokyo and people commuted in some of the most crowded trains in the world all through March 2020 until now. The numbers finally started rising in November 2020 but the morning rush hour trains have stayed packed in like sardines the entire time. IIRC at the highest amount of commute avoidance passenger numbers were down 20% (last April) but if you've ever been on a rush out train in Tokyo you know even 50% down would still be considered over crowded in most other cities.

I have no idea why that didn't cause spread like crazy. The only thought that comes to mind is nearly full face mask compliance but who knows?

Masks and opening the windows seem to be enough to make it safe. The issue is not having air circulation just as much as it is being near people.

I suspect the US loves telling you to wash your hands to distract you from how they've designed all office windows to never open.

They get sued if someone jumps out. Many of thee older buildings that could open have them fixed shut now.

It’s more because of cost/energy savings due to air conditioning.

The issue is people switch to permamently closed windows, but „forget” to track co2, which causes a ton of issues with office work.

I've experienced the same. I got sick with something in the summer and distinctly remember feeling achy and tired for about a week. Outside of that time I've been 100%.

Usually it's a constant flow of feeling mostly ok and an unexplained runny nose every now and then, especially in the throes of Winter right now.

I’ve had 2 or 3. I wonder if this is a good guide as to how effectively one is following best practice? Ie, I’m doing badly.

Honestly, I've been the same. I've been working from home since March and hardly go out. My partner does most of the shopping etc.

I blame my very own live in bio-terrorist, also known as my 2 year old child.

Hypothetically, if the entire world population physically distanced for an entire month (or some appropriate time period) would cold viruses die out altogether?

Strange, but interesting idea. It would be a net positive economically.

And likely a net negative for many peoples mental wellbeing.

I'd imagine HN is a pretty significant selection bias for individuals who are not so interested in social interactions with people in person but that's not necessarily true for the rest of society.

I personally find the current situation very mentally taxing but not because I want to necessarily talk to people but rather from a prevaling sense of exclusion, and lack of personal freedom and choice. You may think this is acceptable but for me it's actually quite painful psychologically.

Not to mention small businesses that are being sacrificed to appease the Gods of infection rates.

Randal Munroe tried to answer that in the book 'What If?' Basic conclusion is no. Virus would linger in a few hosts long enough to restart.

Also it would destroy the economy and potentially damage our health. 'It's possible mild infections serve serve to train and calibrate our immune system'

Virus can linger in host for months. Also animals can spread some viruses. There are terrorists who could preserve it... Even (re)creating virus is feasible.

You’d have to get animals to distance as well.

A big difference around here is that sick people cannot go to work until healthy, specially in supermarkets and shops that did not close. It was quite common to come across cashiers with obvious strong colds if not worse. That is now named and shamed, sometimes even in the news.

I'm glad that covid has made wearing masks acceptable. Now if I feel a little sick or suspect that I may be coming down with a cold I will wear a mask in public without people thinking that I have the plague. I think others will do the same which should reduce the rate of common cold in the winter months.

I've been wondering about this. will it lead to:

- nothing

- next time - you get a cold, but have an easier time because of a healthy and unloaded immune system

- next time - you just get a cold

- next time - you get a cold, but have a harder time

- next time - you get a 3 colds at once from many directions (either separately evolved or lots of micro-populations)

I expected the same, but caught cold in November - even wearing ffp2 mask in elevators and outside, and minimising human contact.

Made me rethink all the security precautions, and I’m way more paranoid now :,)

Id you can stop touching your face, and wash your hands more often, then yeah you might get a cold less often.

One hope I had, is that companies will stop incentiving workers to work when they are sick. But I've heard nothing from the government. Perhaps once they stop hating trump, they'll do something useful.

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