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Comment by whiddershins | Hacker News Reader

Can the common cold also be a rhinovirus?

yes, the "common cold" can be carried by rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, influenza viruses (maybe a mild case of 'flu' mistaken as a cold), and adenoviruses.

this list is not comprehensive.

I've never really understood the link between "being cold" and catching the "cold". I assume it's because your immune system is somehow slower when you're cold, but the correlation seems pretty strong based on what I have observed. Other people and I very rarely catch a cold without being cold, and after being cold it's common to catch a cold. Are there *viruses floating (?) around constantly, and your body is severely less effective at fighting them off when cold? Is it just confirmation/survivorship bias?

From what I can find online, there's a correlation, but it's pretty light on details about how strong it is.

I'm pretty sure (unverified claim) that the "cold" description got linked with the illness in pre-germ-theory-of-disease days, where being outside in the cold for too long would imply one "caches a cold" when they feel ill the next day.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/cold

> Sense of "indisposition involving catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose or throat" is from 1530s, so called because the symptoms resemble those of exposure to cold; compare cold (n.) in earlier senses "indisposition or disease caused by excessive exposure to cold" (early 14c.), "chills of intermittent fever" (late 14c.).

Put less technical: shivering, runny nose, etc, are symptoms of both the common cold and being cold.

In the sense that people with rhinovirus symptoms usually say "I have a cold", yes.

It seems it's best to think of "cold" and "flu" as totally informal terms with a wide range of possible meanings. I've had Actual Real Influenza twice and both times it knocked me on my ass for a week, lost weight, etc. yet I hear people saying "I have the flu" when they have mild symptoms and only miss a single day of work. Hard to take such a wide range medically seriously.

> I hear people saying "I have the flu" when they have mild symptoms and only miss a single day of work.

They could have had influezna with mild symptoms. Two different people can have the same influenza virus enter their body and experience different effects. Anywhere from no symptoms at all to death.

Yes most common colds are caused by rhinoviruses or coronaviruses.

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