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Comment by huntertwo | Hacker News Reader

Oh no you’re gonna trigger the Germans.

For sure. I'm from Germany (but with an AC) as well and am always amazed when people tell me that AC makes you sick. Even young people sometimes replicate this "Oh you gotta be careful not to get sick" and would rather be in 30+°C indoors. How come Germans get sick while the rest of the world seems to be doing fine and is even productive during summer (it feels like Germany grinds to a halt during heatwaves).

AC dries the air out and your respiratory system basically depends on moisture to catch air particles and pathogens in your respiratory tract.

Nothing unique about Germans in this case, sorry. ;)

You could run a humidifier as well to offset that if you're really affected by it, but most people seem to be fine.

Exactly. It is like never turning the heater on once the temperature drops to -10°C (then catching a cold and getting sick).

So once it is too hot, just turn the AC on and you won't get sick or risk a heat stroke either.

We'll come back to this in several months for a winter freeze to see if Europe has basic heating to keep themselves warm (or will they not turn the heaters on for some reason) and in a year, to see if the rest of Europe have learned their lesson to just have basic AC installed for the next heatwave.

In Japan people often claim to be "allergic" to AC too for some reason, and there have been many stories I've heard from foreigners whose Japanese wives refuse to let them run the AC during the night either.

Personally I think their "allergy" is just because most AC units in Japan are disgustingly moldy and never cleaned regularly.

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