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Comment by TylerE | Hacker News Reader

I've been watching over both my parents the past week. Both Omicron cases.

"Very mild" is... not accurate. It hasn't hospitalized them, but even without quarantining, they'd be incapable of living anything like a normal life.

The common cold it most certainly IS NOT.

(Both are double vaxxed and boosted, btw)

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Keep in mind, that between the "like the flu" and "mild" designator, folks are dismissing the severity of Omicron. But we must keep in mind that "mild" is in reference to "severe" which entails death and ground glass lungs.

The pandemic has taught me how little people care about words;

"Asymptomatic" now means "just a low grade fever", or "a cough that didn't take me to the hospital"

"Allergies" now means "I can barely breathe no matter what environment and I'm tired like I'm taking Claritin, just ignore the color of my sputum or my cough."

"It's just the cold or flu" now means "I'm just sick for a week, and I should definitely socialize like normal"

Was it worse than a flu for them, or roughly similar?

Normal flu for my dad, a bit worse than that from mom. She basically hasn't gotten out of bed for about 8 days except to use the bathroom.

Gee, 8 days is a lot, yeah that feels like worse than a flu. I hope they both feel better soon.

How old are they?

Early 70s, but in good health generally

Thanks for sharing. I hope they feel better soon.

Very mild is exceptionally accurate. It’s a nothing burger even for unvaccinated people.

Then why are our hospitals overloaded with covid patients?

They aren’t

Are you suggesting that the footage of crowded hospitals and horror stories from my own family members who work in healthcare are entirely fabricated?

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