The article doesn't spell it out but it says "Several American patients who have had symptoms consistent with the coronavirus, but who have not been tested or are still awaiting test results, described losing their senses of smell and taste, even though their noses were clear and they were not congested."
That means that there's some non-obstructive issue here going on.
In any case, my point was that you were attacking OP while there were a lot of reports on non obstructive loss of smell.
You said it's the first you heard of it, which made me assume you didn't follow any news. Since without any judgment of the validity of these reports, it's normal to assume this is what a normal person has heard in that time.
Now after your second response I have to assume you're just arguing in bad faith. It's not gish gallop to post a time line of reports from March to June.
> That means that there's some non-obstructive issue here going on.
Maybe you are not clear on what neurological and obstructive means, but non-obstructive is not the same as neurological.
> It's not gish gallop to post a time line of reports from March to June.
It is gish gallop if you say "reporting neurological loss of smell" and the first two things you cite to support that does not make any mention of a single report of neurological loss of smell.
> During a Gish gallop, a debater confronts an opponent with a rapid series of many specious arguments, half-truths, and misrepresentations in a short space of time, which makes it impossible for the opponent to refute all of them within the format of a formal debate.
> reports on non obstructive loss of smell.
Gish gallop is not enough, have to move the goalposts also.
> You said it's the first you heard of it, which made me assume you didn't follow any news.
I never said this is the first I have heard of non-obstructive loss of smell.
> I have to assume you're just arguing in bad faith.
You gish-gallop and when I call you on it you lie and move the goal posts. Get a mirror.
There's a vast difference between a) someone stating something in a fairly colloquial way, particularly something they thought was widely known, then having to progressively clarify the specific thing they meant when challenged by someone who didn't have the same facts, and b) someone deliberately moving goalposts.
This is pretty obviously an instance of (a), and aggressively painting it as (b) does, indeed, feel like arguing in bad faith.
> someone stating something in a fairly colloquial way, particularly something they thought was widely known, then having to progressively clarify the specific thing they meant when challenged by someone who didn't have the same facts
"neurological" is not the colloquial phrase for "non-obstructive" and "non-obstructive" is not a clarification on "neurological". They are different things.
So ... I mean are there other options than (a) and (b) here? Because if it those are the only options, and (a) is not an option, then well ... it kinda seems like (b).
You are continuing to make a pedantic argument about semantics, rather than considering the spirit of the other poster's statement.
In this particular case, the fact that the anosmia is non-obstructive strongly suggests that it is neurological. It is not conclusive proof, but, colloquially, in a discussion where it is not yet clear that the minutiae of that particular point will be nitpicked to death, it is perfectly reasonable to read carlmr's earlier statement as "non-obstructive, thus implying that it is most likely neurological".
What is not reasonable is to insist that carlmr not using the absolute most precise language possible is somehow proof of his bad faith in a little no-stakes argument on a tangent in the comments of a HackerNews article.
Seriously, mate, just chill. He wasn't trying to put one over on you, and the more you insist he was, the more you come off as someone looking to start trouble.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/22/health/coronavirus-sympto...
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/lost-smell-and-ta...
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/loss-of-smell-confus...
https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/not-just-loss-...
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200622-the-long-term-ef...