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?

What I find even worse than hysteria are the rule enforcers. Four weeks ago they were enforcing herd immunity. Three weeks ago they were enforcing not driving to walk your dog. This is ambrosia for them. I find that disguised hysteria really chilling.

Schuyler

No one knows what the problem is because I had been referred to the respiratory consultant by the cardiologist literally as this all happened. All we have are results of blood gases to go on and daily oxygen saturations, so no one really knows what the situation is.

What I know is that people are struggling when their oxygen saturation drops below 90% and that's when they are admitted to hospital so that's now for me. I don't have much leeway to sit at home for days with C19 to see what happens because I'm going to be in difficulty sooner than most people. Whether it will be taken seriously and acted upon by 111 and my local hospital, who knows? There's a patients account in our local hospital about watching another patient die on their ward and them all calling for staff who didn't come until it was too late - so, who knows?

I felt quite calm (Hcp), felt we were reasonably well prepared but now 3 people I know are intubated (2 nurses, 1 relative of a friend) and it’s devastating. Finding it all really hard to process.

I would imagine the person saving biscuits for the children was a) not easily able to get out to do shopping any time soon and b) not sure about what stocks the supermarkets would have once she got there. So instead of merrily chowing down on everything in sight safe in the knowledge there’s always more round the corner, she was letting the kids have the treats and being cautious about not using them up herself. Shops have had sudden, unpredictable shortages - Look at the current lack of baking ingredients - so it’s not stupid to think that something might not actually be easy to buy in the future.

You sound like one of those people a few weeks ago laughing at the very idea that anyone would struggle to get a supermarket food delivery...

You sound like one of those people a few weeks ago laughing at the very idea that anyone would struggle to get a supermarket food delivery...

Nope.
But I am laughing at the worry that we'll run out of biscuits.

A couple of months ago we’d have laughed at the idea we’d run out of loo roll, pasta, hand soap, flour...

And yet we're all still managing.

I'm not going to ration the biscuits just yet.

Well it's a Pandemic. People are understandably scared. 100 + people in China who've had it already are testing positive again. And Wuhan wet market where they think it started, reopened today They're called wet markets as blood from slaughtered animals runs uncleaned in the street, there are no H&S regs at all. And I was fine til I watched something CV related a few nights back on what happens when you sneeze or cough. New research has shown micro droplets can reach over twice the distance originally thought, so 2m might not be enough. On top of that a lot of peoples lack of knowledge on v v v basic hygiene has left me horrified. China are 'drafting' a policy to ban eating cats & dogs, but not bat's, snakes, rats, baby birds, baby mice etc(the last two eaten raw) . Bat's are thought to be the source of CV & also spread rabies & Lyssa virus to humans. Why haven't wet markets been banned for the duration & H&S measures put in for reopening? Are we going to go thru this again in a year's time?

I'm more concerned about the other health problems including surgery which are being out on hold. Surgery like keyhole not being allowed due to gases used etc and only open...I've a surgical condition which can flare up (and has several times in the past) and they will operate to save lives but only the briefest at this point- the impact on surgery candidates must be huge and the backlog..

But on here only the Virus seems to matter and talking about other impacts is not allowed. I think it is really bad for anyone with depression or worried at the moment as you come on here with worries and it just makes things worse due to the hysteria

For example I know to try and stick to facts, like for most this is a mild illness and most do not need treatment (virus) and some new hospitals like the Nightingale ones were built to take the less complex cases with a good chance of survival.

Come on here it is 'deadly' in nearly everyone and those big hospitals are 'where they send the worst to die' etc etc- then you have all those thoughts and worries to check and reframe - I think a lot of people on here could maybe benefit from something like CBT perhaps but in the meantime unless they are speaking the truth and have fact checked what they are saying, should not share all this stuff as it just worries others further- spreading hysteria as mentioned upthread.

It can also make it very hard just to discuss facts as well. I started a post about health regions in the UK and was immediately attacked for no apparent reason and told I 'wanted people to die at no inconvenience to me' it makes any normal discussion very difficult.

MN deleted the comment, but you can see what I mean www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3879492-Health-map-England

Orangeblossom I agree. The level of nastiness, not to mention ignorance and hypocrisy, is very unhelpful. It is the society we live in though, and we have been seeing a worsening of the tone of public discourse for years.

@Orangeblossom78 I agree. This has been an eye opener for me: a lot of people are pretty horrible it seems.

YANBU, I totally agree.

Yes, well of course it is compounded because on top of that you can't complain about how it is impacting your mental health as you;d be screamed at for that also. Not surprising if people's mental health is impacted further by it all. But there we go. There are other sites cut as those run by Mind I suppose where people do tend to support one another and seem, frankly, a lot more sane than those on MN a lot of the time.

This thread on here seems to be the only normal one most of the times,

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3869352-the-positive-mental-health-thread-pt-5

Worth a browse.

on here only the virus seems to matter

On here, it's been pointed out to you that failing to clamp down on the virus will mean other services aren't protected. Why can't you understand that?

loo roll, pasta, hand soap, flour...

All of which I've been able to get for the last 2 weeks now since they put restrictions on stockpiling so no, I'm not going ration the biscuits.

failing to clamp down on the virus will mean other services aren't protected. Why can't you understand that?

I think people understand that perfectly well. It doesn't mean no one is allowed to discuss the impacts elsewhere in the system for the time being though or be concerned about those. We don't have to solely reserve our discussions and concern for CV topics.

The truth is that some people are not critical thinkers so don’t understand what and why but these same people LOVE to exert power over others so use the rules (that they don’t fully understand) to judge and criticise others where they feel they can. Such people are a bit stupid.

Following the guidelines is extremely important. Certain guidelines are more critical than others. Following all grey areas of guidelines is difficult for many as it goes against human instinct and reflexes and even common sense in some situations.

People putting others in danger should always be criticised. But risk has a very very wide range here.

It's really made me question, or maybe begin to understand, how seemingly peaceful societies can descend into totaliterianism quite easily

Agree, and if you think about it, it’s quite disturbing how quickly some people moved to the judgemental, attacking, authoritarian, worst case mindset

Checking on their neighbours, abusing people they think not complying, writing letters, demonstrating an inability to critically assess risk, going on line and propogating worst case at every opportunity and lashing out, arguing they are just being prepared, following the guidelines, whatever, when called out on it.

You can see how if something like this went on too long, how society would descend into an uncontrollable violent revolt that the government would need to control.

On one side you have people deliberately flouting the rules, and the other side you have people being nasty abusive and scaremongering. Both should have a look at their own behaviour, not understanding or fear does not justify it.

One poster commented that she was no longer eating biscuits as she was saving them for the children. 😂😂😂 some people love to play the martyr don't they! And many people helping others want a bravery medal for it! Apparently if they don't post a video of what they did it didn't happen!

@Orangeblossom78 I agree. You can't say anything about how it's affecting you without the same people waiting to pounce because people are dying so nothing else matters. If you happen to say "I'm missing my family member" that's equivalent to saying you're wishing people dead.

The level of stupidity has been staggering
Some of the comments regarding the "lockdown" beggars belief
People really don't understand why we are doing it or what is impact will be
Lockdown will not make the virus "go away"
We will all mostly get it over time
And don't get me started on the virtue signaling

One poster commented that she was no longer eating biscuits as she was saving them for the children.

So what? If it makes her happy. And she feels she's doing something nice for her children.

Maybe she doesn't have a lot of money to spend on things like biscuits, or maybe she's living in a particular biscuit deprived area.

Hardly something to make someone laugh tbh.

One poster commented that she was no longer eating biscuits as she was saving them for the children

Wow you're really a nasty person if you find this distasteful for some reason, what on earth is wrong with saving the biscuits for the kids? I've done that lots of times even when I could have easily gone and bought some more, at the moment there are still shortages in the supermarkets and we're meant to be avoiding making unnecessary trips.

@hobnobsaremyfave

Nobody thinks the lockdown will make the virus disappear - you're the ignorant one by the sounds of it. The lockdown aimed to get R0 below 1 so we could maintain a functioning health service and ensure that the significant proportion of us who need help when we catch it (and the even larger proportion of us who happen to need medical help for any other reason) are able to get that help.

There's no biscuit shortage.

And if you run out you can pop in and buy some if you're already out for a reasonable reason (daily walk for e.g).

I had this conversation with someone else today already. Obviously it’s a deeply concerning situation but some are behaving like normal, civilised human being while are totally giving into fear instead of being rational. What’s the point in being capable of rational thought when a large proportion of our species panics at the prospect of an uncontrollable risk of death to someone somewhere relatively near by. I understand why we’ve evolved to have irrational fears, I have some myself, but when you see it en masse like this you wonder why we bother with education at all. Although perhaps it’s just a case of a few panic stricken voices crying far louder than the calm majority. I can’t say that I know anyone freaking out over this in real life. People I know are following rules and are worried proportionate to their personal risk so some are much more worried than others but I don’t know anyone loosing their head over this.