Coronavirus

[OhSoOuting]

AIBU to set out some facts because some of the threads about this are utterly ridiculous.

You cannot get coronavirus from having recently eaten Chinese food, sat next to an Asian looking person on the train, or walking on the opposite side of the road to a group of Chinese tourists.

You do not need to withdraw your child from school or university if one person in that institution is self-isolating due to being in contact with someone who in turn was a contact of an infected person. The person who is self isolating is 2 steps removed from the virus, your child is 3 steps removed - it’s not a risk.

The flimsy paper masks do not protect against Coronavirus. All they will do is make you look a bit of a twat on public transport. You either need to go the whole hog and get an N95 respirator which needs to be fit tested by a medical professional, or you could just make sure you wash your hands frequently and don’t touch your face.

If by some tiny chance, you think you may have coronavirus, DO NOT GO TO A&E OR YOUR GP. Call 111, and they will arrange for you to be tested.

If by some even tinier chance you have indeed got coronavirus, remember: the virus has a slightly less than 2% death rate of known cases. This being cases acute enough for medical treatment to be sought. As we’ve seen from the so called ‘super-spreader’, it can be extremely mild or virtually asymptomatic. This means the rate of cases is likely to be about 4 times the known cases and puts the death rate at somewhere under 0.5%. (Statistics from a variety of sources including LSE and the Lancet)

Of the deaths, 80% have been over 60 and 75% had a pre-existing health condition. There have been only 2 deaths outside China. It is almost certainly no coincidence that China has the highest rates of heavy smokers in the world.

We have NO IDEA what is going to happen, so why flap and panic until we have more information.

@flower worrying and panicking are not the same thing for most people.

woodchuck99 I cant keep explaining to you why people have mentioned the immunocompromised. they are more at risk. no this doesnt mean they are less important. yes people should be much more hygienic ive stated this several times and said it is disgusting they're not. the only thing I've differed with you on is my worry level. I'm not sure what else there is for me to say in response at this point? all any of us can do is wait and see really (whilst practicing good hygiene weve covered this a million times)

and btw even the immunocompromised are definitley going to die from this just that someone who's immune system isnt as strong naturally cant fight illness the same as a healthy person. again, sad, but fact

as for snide comments about people apparently being disposable I havent seen anyone say that, only pointing out the obvious that unfortunately as is the case with illness that the immunocompromised are more at risk. that's not insulting that's fact

When posters seem to think it is nothing to worry about because it will only (in their opinion) affect older people or immunocompromised it does suggest that they don't think those people are important as they are. If you do think they are important and not disposable and also think they are at high risk why would you not be concerned about the fact they might die?

cant keep explaining to you why people have mentioned the immunocompromised. they are more at risk

That's because your explanations are disingenuous. The posters down paying the risks of this virus aren't mentioning the immunocompromised because they think they need to know the risk. You would have to be stupid to not think they don't already know about hygiene or don't know about the risk. They mention the immunocompromised because it makes them feel better about the risk to themselves.

woodchuck I do think you are deliberately trying to start a completely different debate now. of course people are not saying they dont care about people who are at high risk (my own grandparents are over 70, one with diabetes) so you are seriously barking up the wrong tree there. it's been brought up to outline that a large majority of the country should be able to fight it off and that a lot of the people who have already died from it were immunocompromised. that is the last time I'm explaining that point

oh and my grandparents also live in Worthing!

Thanks op but think I will take direction from the WHO, peer review studies and respected doctors in this field rather than a random poster on Mumsnet works in an admin/maintenance role in a hospital.

I do think you are deliberately trying to start a completely different debate now. of course people are not saying they dont care about people who are at high risk

Of course they are not specifically stating that but it is the implication if someone says that they are not worried because the death rate is low in healthy people and most of those affected are older or immunocompromised.

Fgs, recognising that it’s generally those with underlying conditions who are the worst affected doesn’t mean that nobody cares about those people. Are people really that hard of thinking?

Driving your car down the road is likely to have a bigger impact on those with respiratory illnesses, but do you call for hysteria involving cars? In fact have you stopped driving yours because of the risk you are causing to other people?

Any virus is a bigger risk to immunocompromised people, it’s a fact. But we don’t panic when there’s a spate of the flu going round or even a nasty cold, even though a nasty cold can kill an immunocompromised person.

In the vast majority of cases people are going to have little or no consequence to having contracted corona virus, so there really is no point worrying about it for yourself.

In fact I have a serious heart condition and nearly died of the flu three years ago, we’re talking being on life support nearly dying. But nine confirmed cases in the UK does not,IMO, mean we need to panic.

Bearing in mind that everyone presenting with any kind of symptoms in China is now being labelled as having corona virus, so the numbers are already inflated. But even if others have it, if their symptoms are so mild that they don’t even realise it, then that just reiterates the fact that it is not worth worrying about at this stage.

AlternativePerspective thank you! couldnt keep repeating myself anymore

Fgs, recognising that it’s generally those with underlying conditions who are the worst affected doesn’t mean that nobody cares about those people.

If they stated in the context of not being worried about the virus yes it does suggest they are not that worried about older people or those with health conditions. I appreciate that often they may just not have given it much thought though and they might actually care if child in their children's class dies but that is why I'm making the point. If you don't get that perhaps you are the one who was hard of thinking.

woodchuck you're being ridiculous

most people know someone who would be considered immunocompromised. if you really want to help then start spreading the word on good hygiene practices rather than going over and over again on here that people dont care

@Hefzi - excellent post, thank you.

Well this is alarming (if it's true) and so different to the experience of the UK super-spreader who had only mild symptoms and recovered after only five days.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8004615/Student-Wuhan-reveals-like-coronavirus.html

The famously unsensationalist daily mail reporting there.

Thank you, OP

Uphere I have to say though his account of how he felt sounds a lot like me when I had swine flu

It sounds like most people feel when they have flu, (proper flu, not when people have a cold and call it flu) when you ache all over and can hardly get out of bed. You feel absolutely terrible, even though it’s “mild”

I just spotted this, sadly doesn't start until 23 March but may be of interest to some of you. They did a similar course on flu a couple of years ago and it was very interesting:

www.futurelearn.com/courses/covid19-novel-coronavirus

woodchuck you're being ridiculous

I am not being ridiculous. You just seem unable to understand what I'm saying. People don't have to state that they don't care but if they state that they are not worried about the virus because it will only affect older people and those with health conditions pretty much implies that they don't care that much. This is perhaps because they think anyone who is immunocompromised has 1 foot in the grave anyway but if they do they are quite ignorant. To suggest they are just making this point so that people who are immunocompromised know they are higher risk is pretty ridiculous. I can't believe you actually think that.

woodchuck99 what on earth are you actually twiddling on about? I'm literally loosing brain cells

They take it seriously. It was genetically engineered. everyone bought all the mask in the world and Chinese getting shot in the street. OP 60% world expected to get ill. high chance viral pneumonia and 400000 expected death in UK. if 80 % of the dead are old people and 20% are mostly adults and children with aids or asthma already then I guess maybe that's not so bad

if 80 % of the dead are old people and 20% are mostly adults and children with aids or asthma already then I guess maybe that's not so bad

I'm guessing your child hasn't got asthma then if you don't think it "so bad"