Hacker News Reader

Comment by ping_pong | Hacker News Reader

A lot of people were convinced they had COVID in Jan-March 2020. You're not the only one. Without a test though, it's impossible to say because the symptoms of mild COVID, which it sounds like you had, overlap a very large number of other diseases. There was also a very bad flu going around in early 2020 that a lot of people had caught so you probably had that.

View on HN

I think if you've had Covid, you'd disagree that its symptoms are similar to other common diseases. It feels quite different from any cold/flu I've ever had - unlike most flus I've experienced, there was no bronchitis, no throat pain, no sinus congestion, only a mild intermittent cough, little snot/phlem, etc.

But it has some distinct features: high fever/temperature which lasts < 24 hours, changes in taste (foods which I normally enjoy tasting bitter and disgusting, toothpaste tasting like bitter chemicals, etc), severe fatigue, mild-to-moderate nausea, shortness of breath, and muscle and joint pains. Some of these symptoms lingered for quite a few weeks.

I know some people who got COVID and said they felt fine, except for a stuffy nose. Almost everyone I know that had COVID said that the flu was worse. All the symptoms that you mentioned apply to the flu as well. There might have been one day where they felt really worn out, but that was it. I felt the same way after taking the vaccine. Change in taste can be attributed to blocked nose which radiacally changes the taste of food. This has happened to me with bad colds and bad allergy attacks too.

I only know 1 person who almost died from it, my friend's mother who had to be put on a ventilator, but she survived.

I’m fit and 33. I run, cycle and do adventure races. I got COVID and bronchopneumonia concurrently a month ago. I was lucky enough to not have to go to hospital, but I can honestly say I have never felt so sick in my life. Never has a flu even come close to that for me. Ofc it hits everyone differently, but this wasn’t “just flu” for me.

Yes, same here. My housemate was convinced she must have been infected, but her only symptom was losing her sense of smell & taste. Positive PCR test.

> "Almost everyone I know that had COVID said that the flu was worse."

I'm inclined to agree. I've had a few severe flus in my lifetime that felt worse and more intense, but again, in my experience the symptoms of flu feel quite different to Covid.

That said, I certainly don't recommend getting Covid!

> "Change in taste can be attributed to blocked nose which radiacally changes the taste of food."

I did not get a blocked nose/sinus from Covid.

This. If someone just thinks or suspects they Covid, it almost certainly was normal flu. Trust me, with actual Covid you’ll know quite clearly something foreign and new is attacking. You feel it in your cells and bones. Then the symptoms hit.

Did you also have a super-dry cough and/or an irritation in the lungs bordering on a burning feeling? That was like no other illness in my experience.

I didn't have any burning sensation. More like a sort of tingling discomfort, and the "shortness of breath" feeling where I'm breathing normally but it doesn't feel like you're getting the normal amount of oxygen from each breath?

Also I never really had that much of a cough. Just a mild, intermittent dry cough.

Thanks. Yes, a week later I was really out of breath walking at a slight incline, similar to being at high altitude, such as 5,000 meters.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com