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by thebzax 2248 days ago
I don't know if you're being pedantic, or what exactly.

The definition of infection on wikipedia is "An infection is the invasion of an organism's body tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agents and the toxins they produce."

The infection killing patients is not "the coronavirus". The coronavirus is a particular kind of virus, specifically known as SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 is, by definition "an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)". So to be pendantic, COVID-19 is the infection that is killing patients. The question of, by what mechanism the particular disease causing agents are producing the deadly reaction, is in fact is perfectly described by the headline.

2 comments

Thanks for the explanation. As a layperson, the headline was very confusing to me, it gave me the impression that another pathogen was causing the pneumonia.
I guess I wasn't being pedantic enough. SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19 lung infections doesn't seem to be headline-worthy, let alone "silent".
It's "silent" because people weren't getting diagnosed properly before.

Why would you check for pneumonia in a guy that comes in presenting stab wounds and reports no difficulty breathing?

Only now because with increased testing and experience are doctors realizing that many people have a pneumonia that doesn't present like pneumonia.