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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to get COVID flashbacks from the Meningitis Outbreak

60 replies

LawlessLeslie · 16/03/2026 20:29

The students who think they have been in contact with the virus are queuing up for antibiotics. Those interviewed on the news, are saying once they have the medication they will be heading home.
So thousands of people in contact with something that has killed plan to move across the country.
I don’t expect the government to enforce lock down on anyone but it doesn’t seem like an ideal situation for the rest of the country.

OP posts:
Original poster
LawlessLeslie · 16/03/2026 21:22

So why are they going home then, rather than staying put and studying?

OP posts:
mumofoneAloneandwell · 16/03/2026 21:22

Is it highly transmittable?

My dd is 6, and had the mmr vaccines, is she at risk? x

UpTheWomen · 16/03/2026 21:09

We locked down for Covid because we didn’t know what it was or how it was spread, and being novel, we hade no immune defences or vaccines against it. It was highly transmissible and we had no protection. Meningitis outbreaks have been going on since the 70s and we understand how much harder than Covid it is to pass on, we have good vaccines and can take established measures to make sure outbreaks among young people living (sometimes a bit too) closely together can be managed. Dispersing them is a good idea. Don’t snog a teenage stranger on a train and you’ll be grand.

EvangelineTheNightStar · 16/03/2026 21:07

Oh God please no! No mnet Covid level hysteria with talk. Of rounding up the infected and isolating them!
the posts before of “AIBU to lock my 8 yo in her room for 12 days as she coughed at breakfast”… that thread haunts me still of the poster who would only allow her child out of the room for toilet breaks at specific times…. I still hope it was a troll.

Londonrach1 · 16/03/2026 21:05

I went to another uni 30 years ago with a similar outbreak...you get the antibiotics and it was contained in my uni case. It is not covid!

MrsDoylesLastTeabag · 16/03/2026 21:03

Meningitis and Covid are very different beasts. Meningitis is relatively hard to transmit. It is not airborne in the same way. You can get it from kissing or if someone coughs directly on you but it is not literally floating around in the air that you are breathing and therefore unavoidable. Also, it is not a novel disease as Covid was. We know which antibiotics and treatments work for it. The viral forms are much less serious than the bacterial form. Students have been given antibiotics as a known, sensible preventative measure.

Peakypeck · 16/03/2026 21:02

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Peakypeck · 16/03/2026 21:01

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Original poster
LawlessLeslie · 16/03/2026 20:59

If I thought I had come in contact with something serious enough to need antibiotics I would go straight home and rest up, not hop on a train full of potentially vulnerable people.

OP posts:
IfWhippetsRuledTheWorld · 16/03/2026 20:34

Why on earth would there be lockdowns what a random thought to have. It is extremely sad for those involved, but Meningitis outbreaks are hardly unheard of.

What an odd thread.