throwaway374810

Going by the death rates, it's definitely deadlier than any flu of the past five years, but not by a magnitude. Not even close.

Saying that it would've been a magnitude higher without any of the measures is pure speculation.

> If you don't have a fever, it's probably not covid 19.

If you do have COVID-19, you're statistically more likely to not have a fever than to have a fever.

> If it was actually covid-19 community spreading in December, then we wouldn't be talking about a few thousand deaths now in April, we'd be talking about millions.

That's assuming the death rate is as high as it is estimated from known cases. If the actual death rate is a magnitude smaller due to huge amounts of undocumented cases, then the curve is wrong.

Going by some of the antibody tests performed, this seems to be the case, but the antibody tests might be erroneous as well.

That's pretty much my experience in terms of symptoms. I otherwise haven't had any cold symptoms whatsoever in the past five years. I'm waiting on reliable antibody tests to become available.

An acquaintance of mine told me of a friend that had died of viral pneumonia at the end of February, when there were very few cases identified in the west. Strikingly, he reported a loss of taste and smell.

> I've had coronavirus symptoms for about 6 weeks now without much change

I've been having a mildly sore throat for five weeks, with a couple of days of feeling unwell, and slightly elevated temperature (not fever) on occasion. No cough, but a "you're about to get a cold" feeling in the airways. I've had also had one "relapse" last week. Since I didn't have any "hallmark symptoms", I didn't qualify for a test.

If I really did contract COVID-19, it must be highly contagious, because I've been drastically minimizing going outside even before there were any cases recorded outside Asia. I'm also obsessive about washing my hands and not touching my face. I haven't had a cold in five years and have no allergies.