That is: if I have a choice between 200 microCOVIDs now, or 100 now and 100 next month, does it matter which one I pick? (For bonus points: how big is the difference? And does the answer change if it’s 20000 vs 10000/10000?)
(Alternatively: what keywords would I search to find studies on this? I’m sure data exists, but I’m coming up empty on Google.)
On the one hand, straightforwardly no: in my cohort of infinite parallel selves, every microCOVID we take on makes almost exactly one-in-a-million of us get sick (at least until a substantial fraction of us are sick, i.e. I’ve taken on tens of thousands of microCOVIDs), so every microCOVID is equally bad. (Something something axiom of independence, and we’re all VNM-rational agents, right?)
On the other hand, maybe yes, because of complicated biology reasons, where if you inhale 1M viruses over the course of a year, at some point you’ll probably get COVID, but if you snort them all at once then you’re, I dunno, effectively giving the infection a head start of several doubling times, and you’re gonna get COVID real bad.
[Question] Is microCOVID “badness” superlinear?
That is: if I have a choice between 200 microCOVIDs now, or 100 now and 100 next month, does it matter which one I pick? (For bonus points: how big is the difference? And does the answer change if it’s 20000 vs 10000/10000?)
(Alternatively: what keywords would I search to find studies on this? I’m sure data exists, but I’m coming up empty on Google.)
On the one hand, straightforwardly no: in my cohort of infinite parallel selves, every microCOVID we take on makes almost exactly one-in-a-million of us get sick (at least until a substantial fraction of us are sick, i.e. I’ve taken on tens of thousands of microCOVIDs), so every microCOVID is equally bad. (Something something axiom of independence, and we’re all VNM-rational agents, right?)
On the other hand, maybe yes, because of complicated biology reasons, where if you inhale 1M viruses over the course of a year, at some point you’ll probably get COVID, but if you snort them all at once then you’re, I dunno, effectively giving the infection a head start of several doubling times, and you’re gonna get COVID real bad.