To say some people are being ridiculously hysterical?

[YoyoYOO]

It's a serious situation, of course it is and I understand the need to slow the spread. And I understand why those at particularly high risk would be extra careful.

But honestly, some of the threads on here at the moment. It is just a constant, endless circle of people slagging off their friends or family for some perceived flouting of THE RULES, panicking and losing sleep because you're not sure if you disinfected your Amazon parcel well enough, quarantining a carton of milk for 72hrs, being called a serial killer because you sat down on some grass for 10 minutes after going for a run, stopping to talk to a family member out the window after your supermarket trip is akin to the worst crime known to man.

I've never ever read or witnessed such mass hysteria before. AIBU to think that some people are going absolutely crazy?

The report I read on surfaces basically said that the risk of catching was predicated by lots of factors. Like how ill the person transmitting it was, how long they touched it for (and did they just touch it or sneeze on it), how long between them touching it and the next person etc.

So yes, if someone very sadly lay down and died from CV on a bench and then someone came and sat on it 10 mins later, the risk is high. If someone asymptomatic sat on it for a bit, and then a few hours later someone else sat on it the risk is much lower.

Same with shopping. Someone in the full throes of CV sneezes directly on to a tin, then a few mins later you pick up said tin, put it in trolley, then use that hand to wipe your eyes or put something in your mouth without having washed it then yes, high chance of infection. But the likelihood of each of those things happening in turn is quite low.

YANBU. For context, if you get CV19, your risk of dying from it is the same as your normal risk of death over the next year (Source: Prof David Speigelhalter, interviewed on More Or Less.) Most of us have a personal risk that is very low. The few that don't should probably take careful precautions (although some people, particularly those with pre-existing life limiting conditions, might want to balance that against their overall quality of life). The risk we are trying to mitigate by lockdown is that of overwhelming the NHS, it's not that (for most people) you yourself are particularly likely to die.

The harm comes with comments like

DO YOU THINK IT JUST MAGICALLY DISAPPEARS WHEN IT COMES INTO MY HOUSE?!?!?!?! DO YOU THINK YOU CANT CATCH IT FROM PACKAGING?!?!

As if people are crazy for suggesting that actually no, you're very unlikely to catch anything if you don't bleach your shopping once you get home.

Do you not see how dangerous that is? Not washing your own shopping but hyping up other people into also panicking about their shopping, quarantining their parcel in the garage etc...

We should be encouraging people to actually read proper guidelines about this stuff and I won't be apologising for pointing that out. If it helps someone feel less anxious around their shopping then good

@MamaBearLockdown I know quite a lot about the Black Plague as it happens, thank you, but comparing Covid-19 to the Black Plague is ridiculous.

The surface around food is just a surface too, experts won’t say it reacts differently. So yes the coughing in the supermarket scenario could happen. Maybe unlikely. You might want to put it all away then wash your hands instead but it’s the same underlying reason as the person who wipes it.

Also I think it would be a shame if people felt anxious and couldn’t ask a question for fear of being made to feel hysterical or whatever else.

People can ask the question. But the answers should be given based on fact and evidence and guidance from experts. Not our own made up ones.

People are dying, many are scared. I think a bit of hysteria is to be expected really.

Also I think it would be a shame if people felt anxious and couldn’t ask a question for fear of being made to feel hysterical or whatever else.

MN really isn't the place to ask questions right now!

If I didn't have vulnerable people in the family, I wouldn't be overly worried, but because I do, I am.

Little it’s a chat board so you get a range and people are free to say no that’s wrong. I’m not sure your answer was that robust. Experts wouldn’t suggest food surface acts in a different manner just because it’s food. If you pick up any object after someone has coughed on it it doesn’t stop the same process happening just because it’s a food carton.

I understand that. I have absolutely no problem with individuals washing their shopping. But what I don't like is them acting as though it's recommended, advised, based on any sort of evidence or fact when it isn't and hyping others up with comments like Hears.

But there is evidence that it stays on paper, plastic, cardboard and metal for various lengths of time, so why isn't it obvious that it could be transmitted via food packaging?

If you don't want to believe it's a possibility then that's up to you but equally I don't think that people who do consider it a possibility are wrong.

There's no strong evidence either way right now. We know that it can last for hours on various surfaces which is enough, for me, to think that there is a risk.

Also I think it would be a shame if people felt anxious and couldn’t ask a question for fear of being made to feel hysterical or whatever else.

But what happens is someone asks a question and the thread is taken over by lots of people who make up their own more stringent 'rules' like those that say you can't go in the garden, or go out for more than an hour for anything and that anyone who doesn't follow those 'rules' are killing people.

I don’t think people have been ‘abandoned’ in care homes. I have few relations and none now in care. My grandmother lived in a care home for a long time as she was over 100. People need a lot of care, feeding, washing, dressing - let alone other care. Even if they have their own rooms The not spreading this is, I would say impossible. Regardless of PPE and hand washing.

People are demanding immediate and unequivocal saviour by the state and science

I so agree with this statement. There are so many people who seem to think that the science is exact (and not evolving) and there is some magic wand to be waved to make this all ok and the government are being deliberately 'incompetent'

Yet this is despite us having many diseases that we cannot cure or cannot control. Take cancer, we have been searching for a cure for decades and still we cannot cure it universally. This exists every day, 1 in 2 of us get cancer - so I can't compute how this has spooked so many people - do you really think there are no deadly risks that you encounter on a normal day?

It makes me think that a high proportion of the population have been totally and unhealthily shielded from the reality of life - which is that you will die of something, there isn't a knight in shining armour to come and rescue you, it might be you and it might seem 'unfair' but most of it is out of our control - it just is what it is!

If you want to disinfect your shopping, go for it, but be careful inhaling the bleach fumes!

But what happens is someone asks a question and the thread is taken over by lots of people who make up their own more stringent 'rules' like those that say you can't go in the garden, or go out for more than an hour for anything and that anyone who doesn't follow those 'rules' are killing people.

How is that any different though to people saying it's fine to out for four walks a day, it's fine to go and sunbathe in the park - there's no risk from sitting on the grass, of course you can't catch it from grocery packaging? They too are making up their own rules aren't they?

Interesting @LittleMcJiggle. You are anti-hysteria but have taken what I said out if context and re-presented in hysterical style block caps and excessive punctuation... Almost like there were no posters taking the line you claim is a problem 🤔

Sylvanian apologies

I’m in the group that wouldn’t be saved if they got it either. I’m just bit bothered and I didn’t realise that would upset you. I apologise.

I feel strongly that our children shouldn’t inherit a world affected so badly by the reaction to this, with people begging for government control. That isn’t a world worth saving.

*not

Not bit!

I think that some of the ways people are acting over this aren’t healthy.

It’s all very well to say that if people choose to bleach their shopping or quarantine their parcels they should feel free to do so, but at some point lockdown will end and people will need to return to normal. And it’s incredibly easy for something which starts off as a habit to turn into a lifestyle and then what? Who is going to pick that up when we end up with a generation of people who feel that their shopping should be bleached etc.

There is actual evidence to suggests that people who live in more sterile environments are more prone to illness because they never come into contact with any germs. So while the means currently justify the end for some we’re running the risk that this level of self-enforced sterility will have its own impact on the NHS either through people ending up with MH conditions such as OCD or people who lose immunity to a lot of other illnesses and become more prone to other infections.

I do look at these people who flock to the beach, have friends over etc and think that they’re a bit bloody stupid for doing so. But it’s their life to do with as they choose. I’m personally vulnerable and have been told that if I do catch coronavirus I will be unlikely to survive, so I’ll avoid them and the outside world as much as possible.

But calling people murderers and serial killers is barking.

YANBU. There are people on my local Facebook page calling for teenagers to be tried for murder and given the death penalty for daring to go on a bike ride in the local park.

Most people are still operating under the assumption that staying inside for x amount of weeks will rid the country of the virus forever.

hamstersarse

But I try to mitigate the risks of me dying at age 50. I don't smoke, don't drink, eat healthily, watch my weight and my cholesterol, I wear a seatbelt, I don't drive like a maniac, I look both ways before crossing the road. Why wouldn't I do what I can to not die from C19? I don't smoke 40 cigarettes s day whilst playing chicken in the centre lane of the M25 - you do t call me crazy or hysterical for not doing that. What's the difference?

@hearhoovesthinkzebra

You really are soooo unlikely to die from Coronavirus if you do all those things...you do know that? Or don’t you believe that?

It's ok @LilacTree1 I'm not upset, but genuine thanks. Weirdly I am not that scared about getting it. I just know that getting it would be bad and dangerous so doing my best not to. I am probably a bit sensitive as MN seems very polarised at the moment and I feel at times people like you and me are seen as dispensible cannon fodder!

I can only hope some good comes out if all this, but share your worries about government over-reach etc.

YANBU

There’s hyperbole on both sides. These threads happen almost daily with Nazi Stasi etc very OTT

People are just mostly trying to get through this and to the other side, one hopes, and knowing the guidelines is useful. Lots of other noise isn’t. I definitely feel life is worth living now and after, for sure.