• Hawke@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Gotta love that metric-conversion decimal dust.

        100.4 F is 38 C which is the actual measurement.

        • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com
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          2 days ago

          In defense of Fahrenheit, the resolution for human relevant temperatures is higher. Theoretically ideal for medical settings.

          But not if you use whole number Celsius and just convert to Fahrenheit.

          • Hawke@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            You are correct… kind of. It’s a weak defense because you can always use a decimal to get more precision, and thermometers are only so accurate in their measurements anyway.

            You can do about as well with increments of 0.5 degrees Celsius as you can with whole degrees Fahrenheit, and most medical thermometers are only accurate within about 0.1° – 0.3° C anyway.

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Yeah, pretty much anything in the triple digits is “call the pediatrician” levels when dealing with babies. Babies’ immune response is more focused on accepting immunizations from breast milk, and it will basically try to integrate things that have been filtered through mom first. The default response isn’t straight to “kill it” but rather “study it so we can protect against it later.” So babies’ immune systems really aren’t prepared for a full blown infection, because it won’t jump to actually fighting the infection until it is already pretty bad. If their temp is in the triple digits, it’s usually a sign that they caught something that didn’t already get filtered through mom’s immune system.