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Comment by pragmatic8 | Hacker News Reader

Well, if the person is healthy and young, I can’t imagine why it’d be the latter.

I had a fairly mild case of Covid, with some consequences (heart extrasystoles, muscle twitching) that are almost resolved by now.

What messes with me is the missing human contact in person. Skype/Zoom just isn't enough.

Because young and healthy only lowers the probability of dying and not the probability of long term effects. "COVID-19 patients also suffer kidney and lung damage at above-average rates, with kidney failure occurring in more than a third of those who become severely ill. In a few cases, the virus has even been found in spinal fluid. This can trigger an immediate infection in the brain known in medical terms as meningoencephalitis. This can also have long-term consequences, such as permanent cognitive problems and memory impairments."

Your quote doesn't say anything about probabilities, so it does not support your argument.

> Because young and healthy only lowers the probability of dying and not the probability of long term effects.

Young and healthy lowers the probability not just of dying, but also of a severe course of the disease. Long-term COVID symptoms largely correlate with how severe the course of the disease was. This is something that tends to be emphasized by the actual research, but left out of mass-media reporting, perhaps for the sake of sensationalism.

I know otherwise healthy people in their 40s who died from it, leaving behind children without a mother or father. Can you imagine being one of those kids? If so then you can imagine why it would be the latter.

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