Ask HN: Have you had Covid? How bad was it?

Yes. I ran a high fever on and off for 2 days and then kicked it. I had fatigue for about a week. I also lost my taste and smell for a couple weeks, which was probably the worst and most annoying part. But I’d rather have had COVID than the flu. The flu sucks.

46yo, Unvaccinated, lean, healthy, active lifestyle, diet and supplements. Had covid, was feverish and miserable for 5 days. Can no longer smell and taste is blunted.

Was not as bad as getting the flu, for me. Which was much more painful and miserable for 10 days.

Got it for 1-2 weeks January this year. At first I thought it was the seasonal flu and some coughing especially since it was in the middle of snow season. But then I had mild smell / taste loss symptoms and decided to test to make sure. And for 2-3 days, man I don't know how best to explain this, but my chest felt like it was stuck in an old moldy cardboard box, but after a few days I felt better. Smell & taste also came back fully in a few weeks and was back to normal but it was a very ... interesting experience.

Felt somewhat worse than a regular flu but in some ways I'm glad I got through it without getting too much worse for the wear.

Sick for a week like flu. Still under the weather for second week. Lost taste/smell which both returned. Had 8 relatives with similar experiences and 1 was bedridden for 2 weeks. Ages: 20 to 45.

My niece had it and reports things don't taste as well now. I've been extremely careful about Covid-19 from the start. I often wondered if I was over-reacting, then I watched "City of Gold" about Los Angeles food critic Johnathan Gold and realized why I was so paranoid: I heard reports early on that people lost their sense of taste and smell. Losing 2 of your 5 senses is a big deal, more so for me because I'm a foodie and my life would be worse if I couldn't enjoy a good meal.

I don't suppose any people who died from it are going to respond here. I know a few who died and some who recovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias ?

I had Covid last March, before testing was a thing, it wasn't much worse than any other flu. Several co-workers came down with it as well, one very bad, but recovered.

I on the other hand, haven't been so lucky. I've had shortness of breath ever since. I used to work on my feet 8+ hours/day... now if I go grocery shopping, I barely make it home and through putting the food away, and have to rest for a few hours.

I ran through a ton of test last year, for all sorts of issues, nothing out of the ordinary showed up, thus the conclusion that it's long Covid.

Had it in September. Double vaxxed Moderna with second dose early May. It was bad. Intense fever, headache and I could feel it setting up in my lungs. Complete loss of taste and smell. Took me a solid 3 days to be up moving around and 8 before I was back to to good.

But what was worse was the fear. I don’t buy in to a lot of the fear mongering that’s done around this thing. I know it’s done to get people to take it seriously because there is a non-zero chance you will die. But the anxiety almost killed me. It was far worse than the illness itself.

I haven't had covid but if you are not going to be taking the vaccine, or even if you do, I'd recommend getting a half/fullface 3M respirator with p100 filter(2297 for example) for protection.

I got it right out of the gate! 50yr male

Was Feb 2020, later in the month. I was doing a fair amount of domestic, and a little bit of International travel for business prior. As things began to heat up, it was obvious Covid was going global. Italy... I have friends there. It was horrible.

Got mails from them early on, "It's just a strong flu, no worries, ONWARD!"

Then... "Stay home, we are losing our elders."

:(

With all that happening, I wrapped it up and prepared to transition things to a remote service model. Was doing travel to setup industrial equipment personally and basically nail each one. Was a get what you pay for model, and we were offering a lot. Needed to be more of a get enough, and make the price right climate rapidly upon us!

Had a partner in trouble, begging, so I took one last trip mid Feb. Got them sorted, was safe. In fact, that whole trip was nothing but masks, guards at the hotel checking for room credentials to keep the numbers down, and massive distance from everyone! I remember feeling it all so surreal. Being a people oriented technical person, this hurt! I like others. My more introvert friends were in heaven, and we had some good fun with that:

DAY OF THE INTROVERT! (truth for a lot of people, I am sure)

But, I digress:

Fact is, coming back was when I got exposed. Airline snafu saw my flight changed, and I ended up in the same terminal with arrivals from Asia. And was stuck there for a long time. Enough to reconsider flying that day, but maybe I was doomed anyway. Who knows?

What I do know is 5 days later, it hit. I felt rough one morning, and called in sick, our nice and shiny new Covid protocol in place meant a no worries, work from home scenario anyway. I called in to basically say I just need the rest.

By that afternoon, I was hammered! It came on FAST.

I won't detail the whole course, but will say I had two solid weeks of hell. In the middle of that, at peak shitty, I had to sit up in our nice recliner chair doing deep, deliberate breathing for a couple nights! If you have ever run low, your body tingles, and for me it's lips start first, and you can just tell your body isn't getting what it needs. Had an oximeter on my phone and used it.

I saw 89 once, and it was low 90's for a few hours, but climbing every little bit. Coughing, hacking up gak, just staying awake, making sure I engaged the process fully. This scared me.

I've never been that sick. Have wanted to die type sick, but never, "shit, I could really die" type sick. Do not recommend.

Some have asked why I did not get checked in, and the simple answer was fear. We did not know how to treat this, and people were getting isolated, slapped into ventlators and all manner of stuff as the medical people proceed to learn how to handle this the hard way, one sick person at a time. Made a call, and basically learned if I was staying lucid, and was in the 90's, I was likely going to make it, so that's what I did with people watching me, but trying to stay away.

Whole family got it anyway. My wife lost taste and smell, but that did return completely. Younger ones basically were tired for a couple weeks and everyone had massive body aches!

And that's the rough part. As I was improving, I had to nurse them through, and they didn't have quite the rough time I did, thankfully.

All told, we lost a month together, just in the worst of shape.

There have been some symptoms that persisted for a long time, and the biggest one is general fatigue and some inability to focus when I might normally expect to power through. These are improving slowly, but I am still just a bit impacted to this day.

Now, you are going to read us telling our stories. I've got friends who had a runny nose basically. I've lost a couple friends to this too, one after 40 some days on a ventilator.

When I got my case, the death rates were about 12 percent!! Talk about a fucking dice roll!

Today, it's ...

First time I got Covid in January. It was bad. Not as bad as a bad case of strep though. Nothing helped headaches and body aches were painful.

I just got Covid again. Double vaxxed with Phizer. It’s pretty mild right now like a light case of cold. Nothing compared to January.

It seems like it’s going to keep evolving like any other virus of the family. Everyone is going to get it eventually. Hopefully it will evolve to be more and more mild(it’s goal is to survive the longest and not to eradicate us). What really surprised me with omicron is that stats show that natural immunity is not as good as the vaccines(Moderna and Phizer) so make sure you are vaccinated.

Had we followed the Edward Jenner model, and sold the common cold (including NL63, with the other 3), this would now be over.

Edward Jenner used one disease to defeat another, with vaccina (cowpox) destroying smallpox (variola).

This reaction is possible.

34 years old. Got it in Feb of 2020. No sense of taste or smell for a a few weeks came back fine. Needed to take naps for a month after getting better. Had hard time going up and down stairs and breathing at night while sleeping. I feel like I've completely recovered by now. I'd say it's on the top 5 worst list of illnesses I've endured. I must of had alpha or beta though.

What's hilarious is I thought I had caught some very strange flu that wasn't COVID cause no one thought it was in America yet. I did go to the doctor to get tested for flu all came back negative. Also my whole family seemed to get sick. It was wildly different for each person.

Hopefully the new variant is as mild as they say. I'm still having Christmas with small amount of family. I'm triple vaxxed at this point.

Triple vaccinated, got probable Omicron recently.

Asymptomatic. Not truly - in hindsight I had a bit of a cough and felt slightly off for a day or two - but nothing above baseline (I get coughs every couple of weeks)

Could have been a secondary or tertiary exposure though, I don't usually bother testing.

I had a breakthrough case after being double vaxxed with moderna, I'm a programmer, I had the equivalent symptoms to a 3 day sinus infection and it was seemingly not a big deal....

BUT

It fucked up my cognition profoundly for a month, and it was 4 months before I was back to normal.

It was like nothing else I've ever experienced.

This is not something to get if you are a knowledge worker and want to keep your ability to work.

I'm in my mid 30s.

Had it March/April 2020 during NYC's first wave right after lockdown and literally just tested positive again this morning, assuming omicron. Early 30's, healthy.

So far, the first bout was more intense which I suppose makes sense. 102+ Fever which broke in ~36hrs and other symptoms which felt a bit "different" compared with those of a normal cold/flu. Loss of taste/smell occurred toward the end and was the most worrisome but has since fully recovered.

This round feels like a bad cold or slight flu. Tonsils a bit more bothersome, some fever but not notable enough to bother taking my temperature. More sore than what I remember. I'm a founder, just closed our A and worked all week as usual (quarantined from home). Took no OTC medication either time other than vitamins and zinc.

Likely an unpopular view, but getting sick early on the in pandemic was the best thing that happened to me. I remember the anxiety and stress I felt early 2020. As soon as I got sick, it completely went away and I haven't lived with it since. *For those of similar age and health*, I personally believe the emotional and behavioral toll I witnessed friends and family suffer on account of media sensationalism caused far greater harm than having Covid would have.

As someone who also unfortunately lost a family member (who was not similar age nor health) and supports getting vaccinated, I definitely believe the risk from Covid is real. I would suggest you take the time to actually look at data, understand context and draw your own conclusions. I wish there was a stronger narrative around improving overall health and preventable "underlying conditions" instead of the constant fear mongering, division and politics rampant today.

Protect yourself as best you can, don't put others at risk and take solace in knowing worry has diminishing returns.

got it early in 2020, march, and it waylaid me for about six weeks.

got vaccinated a year later once vaccines were available.

now have it again, but it's omicron and it's different. much more mild for me, but so far appears like it's going to last just as long. breathing after even a small bit of laughter has been hard since I caught it the first time.

each time I cought it from a housemate who wasn't careful when they left the house, and came back sick, coughing a lot. in a house, if you're sharing the same air as a covid sufferer you're kinda screwed.

mid-40s male

Dec 2020: Two weeks of horrible flu symptoms for me & my wife (in our 60s). After that she needed oxygen, so 2 weeks in hospital and 2 more weeks in Rehab. I have Long Covid symptoms of fatige and lack of stamina still, 1 year later.

I had it in August, just two days after getting vaccinated. Headaches, fever and body aches continued for three days after which I had complete loss of taste and smell for about a month. I don't know about you guys, but not being able to taste the food you eat was a big fucking deal for me. Lost a lot of weight that month. I wouldn't recommend getting any variant of this virus, especially if you live with a compromised loved one. However, compared to something like bacterial pneumonia, which I've also had in the past, COVID was very very mild.

My parents got it. Unvaccinated. They're both dead now.

Unvaccinated, early 30s with no comorbidities other than having a slightly high BMI.

Had it right after thanksgiving of this year. Two week deal. First week was the typical fever/flu symptoms, second week was brain fog and nausea coupled with a loss of taste and smell for about 2 or so weeks from start. Brain fog took 3 weeks to clear from the start.

I had shortness of breath but employed breathing exercises and later did some heavy lifting around the house and ended up doing some unexpected cardio. A more structured and disciplined approach would likely yield more measurable, positive results. No shortness of breath after three weeks from start.

Not a ride I’d want to go on again, but as other have reported, certainly didn’t live up to the media fear/hype.

Worth noting that I did employ a pascalian therapy in my approach (1). I was prescribed ivermectin, took large amounts of quercetin, vitamin c, d, zinc and so on. I think this probably led to me recovering so quickly and not experiencing any lasting side effects. This is totally anecdotal though.

1. https://astralcodexten.substack.com/

There will be a lot of survivorship bias in this thread.

Had it shortly before vaccines were available in my country. I had body aches and fatigue, runny nose and mild sore throat. No loss of taste or smell, no fever even.

The worst part was the waiting. Was this the day that the numbers on the pulse ox would start dropping? Would I get some kind of blood clot? But it ended up being fine, as far as I know anyway.

I do worry that there could have been long term damage that has yet to manifest itself. A few others that we believe were all in the same transmission chain had similar experiences, though one of us had quite a bit heavier fatigue and shortness of breath that has since resolved.

After I recovered, I started looking into reinfection rates and ever since I've been surprised to see the intense push for people like me to get vaccinated. Even from early 2021, there was published evidence that reinfections were rare. Of course, with omicron who knows now.

Reminder for anyone reading these threads that the people most likely to comment are those with a remarkable experience with Covid, and that for every person in this thread with a bad, or remarkable experience, there are tens of thousands with very mild or no symptoms who had unremarkable experiences, most of who would not comment on threads like this.

About a year ago. Had diarrhea for 5 days and sever fatigue. No respiratory symptoms, which is weird since I have asthma.