AIBU to be a bit surprised that nobody in my RL seems to be bothered about coronavirus?

[Dennisreynoldsduster]

Maybe it’s because I have an eight week old DS but I’m getting quite concerned about the virus and the impact it could potentially have.
I know there’s been a bit of hysteria on here and I’m not trying to I whip up more but I’m genuinely surprised that people in my day to day life do not even seem slightly concerned about it.
Most seem to be taking the attitude that it’s just another flu, which it categorically is not - and there’s a lot of questionable personal hygiene about!

AIBU to be surprised at this? Do people not read the news anymore?

To be honest, I’m more concerned about the quarantine / public order side of it. If my small town, for example, had a few cases and people were asked to self quarantine, I think the shelves in the local shops would be bare pretty quickly. I’m trying to make sure we have enough food in to get us through a few weeks of being in the house.

The problem is.. worrying or talking will make no difference.
Its everywhere in the news so it's not like it is being ignored.
But apart from becoming a total recluse, you can only be vigilant with cleanliness.

If you get it.. you get it.
Worrying or talking about it isn't going to stop it.

I am concerned to a degree, not for me but for older family members, a couple of whom have had pneumonia and wouldn’t get through this easily.

Leading virologists are saying they’re scared, So I’ll take it seriously.

I don’t give a shit either. What are we supposed to do? Life goes on. We still have to wake up in the morning, go to work, cook food, see our friends, go out, do our shopping etc..
I can’t even be arsed thinking about the coronavirus. If I catch it I will throw it in the bin!

So Far flu kills more people. But flu has been around for generations, and this virus is 2 months old.

I know we have seen new viruses spread and be contained in the past-SARS, MERS, etc.

But I don't recall ever seeing whole cities quarantined in our lifetime. This is a new thing. A pretty big chunk of the Chinese workforce is currently unable to work, and that's going to have a knock on effect on the world economy.

I'm not saying we should panic, but we need to be aware that this is a new phenomenon and that we can't predict all the ways it will affect us.

@rantyanty hand sanitiser doesn't kill germs.

You need soap and water, and to be washing your hands in warm/hot water for a good twenty seconds or more, going over the wrists.

There's a reason hospitals have a "nothing below the elbows" policy for doctors. Sleeves rolled up and washing your forearms right up to the elbow is policy before going on the ward.

There have been more cases of racism against Chinese people in the UK since the outbreak began than there have been confirmed cases of COVID-19. I'm far more concerned about that, frankly.

I would be worried if I was contacted officially to tell me I had been in contact with someone who was positive for the coronovirus.
I was worried last weekend however it cannot stop my life.
I might think twice about going to the cinema but it wouldnt stop me travelling on public transport.
I have clocked a few Chinese people around too, they must be scared, mainly of people's attitudes.

@WhoWants2Know
And a huge economic impact on small businesses in China which cannot open at the moment due to govt restrictions and have no income.

My BIL in another east Asian country is having huge difficulties at the moment as his business is dependent on a service from China (connected with the film industry) and everything was shut down for a few weeks. His business failing is more stressful than the prospect of catching the actual virus for my extended family.

3luckystars it is a respiratory virus like flu but with the potential to kill many many more people worldwide because until about 8 weeks ago, no human in earth had been exposed to it. That makes the whole worlds’ population a naive population in which any virus spreads more rapidly, causing a pandemic.

For each case, it is currently estimated to be at least 10 times more fatal than seasonal flu.

It seems extremely transmissible and there is no herd immunity which means the total number of people who could be infected is way higher.

We hardly know anything about it but it’s closest relatives are SARS and MERS. There are four coronavirus in existence which cause the common cold but they are quite different and affect the upper respiratory tract. COVID19 is a beta coronavirus affecting the lower respiratory tract like SARS and MERS.

I don’t know who was talking about a vaccine but there will be nothing available to people for at least a year. That would be an absolute record for a virus which is so new. If we are lucky it might go into phase 1 clinical trials in the summer. That is completely irrelevant in terms of “people receiving the vaccine”.

It is way more concerning than a novel strain of flu, as we know so much more about influenza viruses and can develop vaccines to novel strains much more rapidly.

@RantyAnty Yes I have seen so many threads on MN where people defend awful hand hygiene and say it does not really matter. Hand hygiene makes a massive difference though.

everythingthelighttouches do you have a reference for the estimate? Everything I've read puts the morality rate at 2% which is the same as seasonal flu.

9 people out of 3000 people tested in the uk have been positive. 68,000 cases confirmed, but experts think the real amount is 10x that because loads of cases will have gone unreported due to mild symptoms. So 680,000 with 1700 deaths. If that last figure is true, that is a less than 1% mortality rate.

Literally watched the news last night. My above post is what they had to say about it.

The death rate for the flu is about 0.05% of the population who catch it each year
The Rate based of the figures supplied by the Chinese govt Covid-19 is higher at 2-2.5% and has a rate of around 16.5% of cases needing hospitalisation.
It’s doubtful that any healthcare system in the western world could cope with an increase of that amount of population if at current “Flu” infection rates.

The developing world would never cope and the death rate would be much higher.!

What is me worrying about it going to achieve?

I'm currently more stressed about the stomach bug doing the rounds here as it's much more likely to ruin our half term travel plans! And really even that's a stupid thing to worry about. Either we'll get it or we won't.

Either way we're practicing good hand hygiene. Especially when our and about.

mordreds the case fatality rate for seasonal flu is

I do think we should temporarily close the border to flights from China. It was a Chinese tourist who took an Uber to A&E after she felt unwell!

Nothing to do with ‘racism’ (people playing the racism card is tiresome - the case originated in China, all of the British cases have a direct Chinese link) it’s practicalities. Particularly given the long incubation period, and the fact that the virus makes some people symptomatic and others not, there is no way of telling who is infected.

The knock on impact to tourism and the economy will be felt for sure but it is the right thing to do to protect public health.

Modreds flu does not have a 2% death rate swine flu in the end was 0.026%

Anyone have any theories as to why, on a world map of spread of the virus, there is nothing at all showing for Africa?

It's just a flu. Nothing more. You have more chance of dying from the regular winter flu which kills 1000s each year.

Unless of course China is lying, the mortality rate is actually way higher, and we will end up quarantined with entire cities cut off, roads closed, streets empty.

But I wouldn't worry.

Seriously.... there is information being written on this thread that directly opposes what the scientists and medical community are saying!!!

Watch the news, listen to the experts who are saying today that we should be more worried about measles, mumps and flu than this virus. That is a direct quote from an expert on bbc news this morning.

I don't see anyone isolating people who haven't been vaccinated against measles etc.

But pre-the availability of vaccines, it was routine to quarantine anyone wo had, or had been in contact with anyone wo had, a communicable disease like measles, mumps, whooping cough, etc.

littlemeadow the death rate is also expected to be underreported.

Thousands of people have been dying in Wuhan of pneumonia which they don’t know the cause of. There have been far too many to test for coronavirus.

It is impossible to say whether coronavirus or other viruses like seasonal flu are the cause but there has been a massive upsurge in pneumonia deaths in Wuhan.

It is now considered to be far more likely that if you have pneumonia in Hubei Province (where Wuhan is) that it is caused by coronavirus rather than anything else. hence the Chinese government’s decision to count all CT-diagnosed viral pneumonia as new coronavirus cases.