[samsa]

The NY Post article you link to is about getting both Covid and influenza at the same time. That may be rare.

Getting covid a second time after having previously had it (which is what McCullough erroneously claimed was near impossible) is in fact increasingly common.

[AlphaOne1]

Yes, but in the subsequent podcast with Joe Rogan and Robert Malone, Dr. Malone specifically says that Dr. McCullough asked that he let everyone know that he was basing his information on pre omicron variant and that reinfections are actually much more common with this variant.

[pvarangot]

Nah a lot of Delta cases where reinfections, I can't believe we are still arguing about wether COVID mutations can reinfect only because of McCullough.

Of course if you only look at the "variants of concern" that the media talks about you basically have to wait years until you have like 4 or 5 variants that went all around the world to see how common it is for it to mutate in a way that can reinfect, but considering Delta reinfections where common and now Omicron is also reinfecting everyone, I would just not loose any more time listening to McCullough. Note he says its _impossible_, not rare or weird or strange, _impossible_. He actually called bullshit on Rogan because Rogan said his friend got it twice because he got Delta and the first variant.

[vorpalhex]

> Nah a lot of Delta cases where reinfections,

That is an amazing fact if true and you should alert the CDC immediately with your evidence.

[pvarangot]

The first serious reinfection study I saw for Delta was the NHS study, with like 350+ reinfections over more than 35000 health workers. I think the chances for a case on that study to be a reinfection was something like 1.2% to 1.5%

I consider that "a lot" special when compared to McCulloughs prediction of 0.0% because reinfection was impossible.

[vorpalhex]

Do you have a citation?

> Cases of reinfection with COVID-19 have been reported, but remain rare .

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/reinfe...

[samsa]

This particular CDC page reports it was last updated in August.

[geofft]

I agree that they are rare. Dr. McCullough's claim was that they were impossible, that Rogan's friend who got it twice actually had influenza or something one of the times - a diagnosis he made based on no information other than appearing to have gotten it twice.

If he merely claimed they were rare, that would not discredit him.

[dublin]

And as mentioned above, he later clarified that he was talking about pre-Omicron variants, where that was true. It now seems possible to get Omicron more than once, but since it has virtually no impact (most people never even know they have it, especially here in Austin in Dec-Feb "Cedar Fever" season), it really makes no difference, other than that it's not yet known if it works the other way, so that an Omicron infection may provide protection against prior variants.

[vorpalhex]

To recap, you are upset because a doctor on a podcast used the phrase "impossible" instead of "very rare"?

[akiselev]

What's the point of professionals and experts if they don't communicate clearly and precisely? Why even have him on a podcast?

[coderaptor]

Communicating technical concepts to lay audiences is difficult, and a universal problem these days.

Very rare and impossible are nearly equivalent wrt policies that broadly and significantly impact personal health and liberty.

[akiselev]

I agree that communicating these concepts is hard, but that characterization of "very rare" and "impossible" only makes it harder.

Pandemics are very rare. Flying unicorns shooting Ebola out of their horns are impossible.

[geofft]

I'm hardly "upset" - I just think the doctor is not a reliable source of medical information and not operating in good faith.

Are you upset because I hold that view based on observable evidence? Like, genuinely, I'm confused why you're so invested in arguing against me. What's the thing I said that you disagree with? Are you saying that the doctor is a reliable source of medical information despite his entirely unsubstantiated pronouncement that there was no possible way Joe Rogan's friend could have gotten covid twice, and one of those cases must have been influenza or something?

Attack facts and claims, not people.