Page 30 | Dementors can dement but we'll keep it positive here

Orangeblossom78 · 05/05/2020 12:35

I'm a bit worried about that app as mentioned today going OTT with Dementors reporting dramatic symptoms (not sure of you actually have to test positive or just have signs) and then it telling you to keep staying at home for weeks. Could be a nightmare. Or also being falsely reassuring. It says 25% of us would be 'too anxious' to use it anyway.

everythingisginandroses · 05/05/2020 12:43

Yes, @Orangeblossom78, it's a good time to avoid people! I feel sorry for people who are desperate to see their relatives and can't, but that really doesn't apply to us! MIL died last year and she was our last remaining parent, DH has 2 sisters but is avoiding one as they haven't got on for a while, and the other one lives in Canada. I didn't see a lot of my family anyway, not close geographically or emotionally. Shift-work and commuting killed my social life years ago, so overall I'm not missing much!

amicissimma · 05/05/2020 13:11

This thread is a breath of fresh air!

Here are some stats that you don't get from the Dementor Media.

85% of people who are so sick that they have been tested (and were positive) haven't died. (I can't find the numbers for recovered, so some could be still ill)

80% of people who have reason to be tested - strong symptoms, high chance of infection/exposure, etc - are negative.

Just over 50% of the people on the Diamond Princess who tested positive were asymptomatic. Once the sick people had been evacuated from the Greg Mortimor everyone was tested, although no one reported symptoms. 60% were positive.

Not everyone in close proximity to someone with 'moderate' (feels very ill but not hospitalised) symptoms catches it. AFAIK most 'evidence' is ancedotal and I can't find the data from Diamond Princess where it said that there were cabin-sharers where one was positive and one negative. Certainly a friend who had to be almost carried to the loo by her husband and tested positive, says he was never positive.

2/3 of care homes have no known cases. Most care home sufferers are not tested. Covid is put on the death certificate if the doctor thinks it was 'likely'. A manager I spoke to said she was sure she had no cases in her home and had quite a fight to prevent the doctor putting Covid on a death certificate as it 'could have been', despite the resident having no new Covid-like symptoms.

The WHO recommends social distancing of 1 metre.

I'm not denying it's a nasty illness, but there's no evidence that a MNer buying a Curlywurly, even eating it on a bench, means a certain death, nor that the NHS will be overwhelmed as a result.

Orangeblossom78 · 05/05/2020 13:20

Makes a lot of difference when you see the figures like that. rather than focusing on the Deaths and Doom all the time. My local hospital has seen around 20-30 deaths but gave an update on over 100 who had recovered (after being in hospital) - some with very significant underlying health problems as well. I can't find it now seems to have gone unfortunately.

thesuninsagittarius · 05/05/2020 13:23

It's good to read such positive and rational posts on this thread. I'm just back from the post office, returning some online shopping. We all stood obediently 2 meters apart, the staff wore gloves, everyone was very polite to each other. When I'd deposited my parcels and paid, I left and stood in a corner to put my purse back in my bag, find sunglasses etc. A man coming from the queue was so horrified at occupying the same square foot of space as me for a billionth of a second that he put up his hands in a sort of celeb-fending-off-media-gesture-no-photos type stance and did a kind of skipping dance to get past me.
I gave him a Baffled Look.
Do people think the virus is floating about in the air all the time and will strike them down if they walk past another human?

thesuninsagittarius · 05/05/2020 13:26

Forgot to say, we were actually just outside the post office, on the pavement

everythingisginandroses · 05/05/2020 13:29

Only anecdotal, of course, but I was in a 1-1 meeting for half an hour with a colleague in a small, poorly-ventilated room the day before I developed symptoms and she didn't catch from me (unless asymptomatic, of course). DH went out to the pub with a friend and we did a martial arts class with a bunch of people in the couple of days prior, again no-one caught Covid from us as far as we know, or if they did they reamained asymptomatic (lucky bastards!)

The80sweregreat · 05/05/2020 13:29

'Paddington stare ' to the dementors people!
It worked for me on a shop the other day : I was hissed at! Rules are needed but some people are taking it too far.

OutwardBound2016 · 05/05/2020 13:30

Well there was a picture floating around social media that gave exactly that impression, loads of scary ‘corona particles’ occupying every space (nonsense of course). I do feel that the government has capitalised and contributed to this hysteria and will have a tough time convincing people that actually it’s fine to go to get a takeaway coffee, again comes back to my point about the most scared people getting all their information from social media, Mumsnet and the mainstream media outlets.

Orangeblossom78 · 05/05/2020 13:35

a sort of celeb-fending-off-media-gesture-no-photos type stance and did a kind of skipping dance to get past me

That's hilarious. I had one in M&S the other day, just kind of jumped at seeing me in the aisle (looking for curry powder) and instead of just waiting like a normal person, ran away in his mask!

I really felt like chasing him arms outstretched.

ThatLibraryMiss · 05/05/2020 13:37

80% of people who have reason to be tested - strong symptoms, high chance of infection/exposure, etc - are negative.

And those are the people who actually managed to be tested. My daughter and her boyfriend, living in London, had strong symptoms and high chance of infection/exposure but weren't tested because they weren't ill enough to go to hospital. They're both fine now, but they're not counted in any figures.

We won't know what the real numbers are until there's a reliable antibody test and we test a large and representative sample of the population. The doom and gloom numbers that say x% will die are totally missing the vast majority of people who are either asymptomatic or who have it and get over it with a few days feeling rough followed by a week feeling tired.

Orangeblossom78 · 05/05/2020 13:38

I have started doing a cheery 'hello' and a smile at them that really freaks them out. You can see the strain between thinking they should be polite and return the greeting but also the stress as well. Sorry a bit mean.

DianneWhatcock · 05/05/2020 13:44

Well there was a picture floating around social media that gave exactly that impression, loads of scary ‘corona particles’ occupying every space (nonsense of course). I do feel that the government has capitalised and contributed to this hysteria and will have a tough time convincing people that actually it’s fine to go to get a takeaway coffee, again comes back to my point about the most scared people getting all their information from social media, Mumsnet and the mainstream media outlets

I saw that @OutwardBound2016 ! Did it say "If you could see it, would you still go out?" My answer was, yeah

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 05/05/2020 13:44

'We won't know what the real numbers are until there's a reliable antibody test and we test a large and representative sample of the population'

Even then probably not. There's a school of thought that some people are fighting it off with the T cell part of their immune system which doesn't involve antibodies.

Mascotte · 05/05/2020 13:44

People don't believe me when I tell them how low the chances of dying are. It's weird, people would be so happy if those were the odds for any other disease.

OutwardBound2016 · 05/05/2020 13:47

I though yes I would because it’s clearly a load of crap!

The80sweregreat · 05/05/2020 13:57

I was ' waved on' the other day in the street by someone I vaguely know.
She seemed to revel in it !
( I know she's a dementor; she was like it before all this! )

trappedsincesundaymorn · 05/05/2020 13:57

People don't believe me when I tell them how low the chances of dying are

Although my mum had contracted and died from C-19, my dad who was her main carer (and the only person in the house with her for the 2 weeks before she died), remained symptom free and still does. The fact that dad was exposed 24/7 for 2 weeks and caught not so much as a sniffle blew the collective minds of all the dementors on the thread.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 05/05/2020 13:58

Sorry for mentioning a Daily Fail story but they are running one today about an assisted living facility where staff put up pictures of empty coffins and something about 'your confined space or this one'.

Residents have been told they are isolating and not allowed to leave their apartments for any reason - I thought it sounded like a holiday park for dementors!

thesuninsagittarius · 05/05/2020 13:59

@Orangeblossom78 I'm going to start beaming at them and saying 'how are YOU today?' with great emphasis. Love the idea of chasing them with outstretched hands too!
I heard about the 'coronavirus particles floating in the air' picture but didn't see it. It does explain why so many people run away or cross the road when they think they might have to share a pavement with me. At least that's what I'm telling myself....

OutwardBound2016 · 05/05/2020 14:02

Trapped sorry to hear about your mum x

EskiSummerleaze · 05/05/2020 14:05

There's an article on bbc news about sage today, reporting that antibody tests would be a bit of an issue because people would stop washing hands or might seek out infection. Nothing I've read on bbc news recently has been particularly balanced. I also read their reporting of sturgeons plans. Honestly I don't know why I do this to myself...

trappedsincesundaymorn · 05/05/2020 14:07

OutwardBound2016

Thank you.

Orangeblossom78 · 05/05/2020 14:17

Look at this, just reading in the Times about Sage and their documents...

The documents provide an insight into concerns that the government’s initial messaging was confusing, leading the public to underestimate the threat posed by Covid-19, fears which led to the honing of the “Stay at home” slogan.

On March 22, Sage warned that “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group”.

It added: “The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging To be effective this must also empower people by making clear the actions they can take to reduce the threat.”

Orangeblossom78 · 05/05/2020 14:19

Documents released today make clear that the government’s decision in March not to impose a London-only lockdown was a political one based on a desire for the country to act as one, as Sage rejected scientific fears it would spread the epidemic if people fled the capital...

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/traffic-light-system-will-grade-risk-of-everyday-activities-krcs7jh5d

More in the link...kind of shocking really. They actually aimed to threaten and use emotions etc. The Dementors.