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 ONS figures are for ALL deaths.

People do seem to be turning their anger on each other rather than towards the government who have mishandled the situation and failed to provide adequate protection for those on the frontline. I guess it's because people feel helpless and are lashing out in the wrong direction - although there are a few idiots whose behaviour is not helping! Personally I couldn't care less if people are say taking more than one walk per day as long as they are following social distancing rules.

I think I've finally decided to completely ignore comments from my family and on here as to what does or doesn't constitute breaking the 'rules'.

I risk assess everything we do, we are keeping our risk of transmission to the absolute bare minimum. I need to just keep reminding myself of that and ignore the hysteria because it's driving me nuts and hurting my relationships in RL.

*It's the extreme language that's been getting to me.

Someone described as being "vile" for walking their dog twice a day. VILE!!!*

There was a poster a few weeks ago who called pensioners going for the paper every day “selfish cunts”. In what world is that OK?

And everyone is “scared” to some extent. Clearly some people are extremely high risk and it’s completely understandable that they would take every single measure possible. But other than that I’d guess that everyone is scared/worried/anxious as well

@TheCanterburyWhales

Yes it is happening in care homes but no one has actually suggested a solution . I have just lost my uncle and my aunt is seriously ill . But I still can’t see what the answer is .

@AdoptAdaptImprove where are you getting your number of 2000 deaths a year from? Are you talking about England? Because that’s not what the gov.uk stats say. Link: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/839350/Surveillance_of_influenza_and_other_respiratory_viruses_in_the_UK_2018_to_2019-FINAL.pdf

That’s a pretty cruel thing to say that the plan was for it to run through care homes . So what would you have done to stop that . Practically

Pulled out all stops to source PPE- including actually answering emails from manufacturing firms offering to provide it. Not only are care home staff in a situation where they will be spreading infection from one inmate to the next: they are also at serious risk themselves.

If a Care home is privately funded, who is responsible for sourcing PPE? Should it be the care home management rather than the government?

MigginsMs, yes, re extreme reactions. was on a thread and posted what I thought was fairly uncontroversial comment, not taking sides just about how still lots we don't know yet about the virus and was jumped on by one poster for contradicting myself and if everyone followed advice we'd all be in parks all day. How the poster managed to extrapolate that from what I'd said I don't know.

Washing things down isn't hysterical if you are aware of current understanding of how this virus transmits, and you don't want to get it.

It's probably a bit frustrating if your neighbours are disregarding regulations. It's not only them that it affects. I'm shielding, but my friends and colleagues at work today in the NHS are taking massive risks, and making massive sacrifices. So I'd feel annoyed if my neighbours were potentially adding to this. Luckily none of my neighbours are idiots, as far as I've seen.

It doesn't do any harm to recognise that some if the slightly OTT behaviours we are seeing come from fear and loss of control.

Dh's firm sent a large consignment of latex gloves to a nursing home last week and they were enormously grateful. Just let that sink in: they are dealing with highly infectious patients, then moving onto the next patients, then going home to their own families (some of whom may be vulnerable)- and they don't even have enough latex gloves! Yet there is nothing like a national initiative to organise PPE! Several manufacturers have complained that their offers to turn to production have gone unanswered.

I think people actually think that the government should be stopping the virus completely and if they don't and people die then it is a national disgrace.

This. Sad and tragic though it is lots of people were always going to and still will die.

If a Care home is privately funded, who is responsible for sourcing PPE? Should it be the care home management rather than the government?

If needs cannot be met because the country is running low, then how can an individual care home order manufacturers to start producing more? This is a national crisis. And it needs to be dealt with quickly. In WW2 (since war metaphors seem so popular with our current rulers) the blitz was not dealt with by individual streets deciding to cobble together anti-aircraft guns in their backyards.

I think people actually think that the government should be stopping the virus completely and if they don't and people die then it is a national disgrace.

It is a national disgrace if it can reasonably shown that a higher death rate in this country can be linked to the government ignoring advice from the WHO and experience from other countries.

Equally annoying is the "mass hysteria" of posters slagging off other posters for complaining about rule flouting.

More often than not they are just being goady.

@corythatwas Did I say they could? Let me rephrase my question. If a care home is privately funded, who is responsible for paying for PPE?

I obviously understand they cannot source what isn't available.

PPE is being ridiculously misused by people who don't understand it though. There are gloves disguarded all over the place here and people driving in their own cars wearing gloves and face masks. What are they protecting themselves from?

I had an emergency opticians appointment last week, which I was very grateful for. I waited outside until they were ready and had their PPE on, the verbal part of the consultation was done at a good distance. The optician checked me over, touching my face and eyes with her gloves, which she'd also worn to open the door. Then she wore the same gloves to use her pen and computer to update my notes and fetch the drops I needed. So, if I did have it, she'd put it all over her office to be transmitted to the next pair of gloves and most likely herself.

I think there is too much hysteria about this from a lot of people. Not about the rules so much (although people should focus on their own behaviour more than that of others IMO), but the excessive fear of catching it.

Again, that's because we're not used to facing a threat like this. When I was in Africa, no one freaked out every time they saw a mosquito for example, they just lived with the risk. I learned to do the same, i.e. take whatever precautions I could, like taking prophylactic medication, wearing insect repellent and sleeping under a mosquito net. I forgot that once when going into the village and ended up with malaria, thankfully with prophylactics they limit the severity of the disease.

Yes it's scary and you should take the precautions necessary, and not put other people at risk of catching it from you, but obsessing about COVID-19 as a possible killer won't do our mental health any good and won't make us any less likely to catch it.

It is a national disgrace if NHS staff die after having had to work with highly infectious patients using bin bags for protective gear.

It is a national disgrace if these shortages were known about 3 years ago, yet no attempts were made to fund better equipment and ensure that there was a pandemics plan.

It is^ a national disgrace that government officials assured us that we were well prepared for a pandemic when they knew perfectly well (pandemic modelling exercise of 2016) that this was not the case.

It reminds me of the death of princess diana. Same sort of communal hysteria and no one allowed to question if it was appropriate.

Everyone went mad for about 2 weeks. I remember going to the optician and the receptionist was weeping. No one asked what was wrong because everyone knew. She was crying about the death of someone she'd never met.

I reported me neighbours... I am not bothered we live in a house converted in to to flats, the neighbours teenage daughter has friends coming and out all day long. I have a medically vunerable child who is in shielding and I can not even open my door to get the mail.

MN has a higher proportion of mental health issues such as anxiety and OCD than is apparent in an off screen world. Partly its an annoymous place where it's "safe" to disclose personal fear, but it's also a social outlet for introverted, socially isolated people that don't socialise much in the presence of others.

Given the previlence of recurring themes about the frequency of changing sheets, shoes off and toilet brushes, the average MNer is more fastitious and risk adverse over hygiene than the regular population. So it's not that suprising that food is being bleached and books quarentined. (But oh how ironic over the uproar over the thought of chloronated chicken...)

If someone is blatently flouting the law and putting others at high risk of harm, report them through the official channels. No need for bitching on community groups, especially over imaginary rules.

Alas after a decade of teaching teenagers in a variety of communities, I'm not that shocked at the general level of weakness of "common sense" logical and critical thinking across society. There is a reason why tabloid papers are written for a reading age of 9 years old.

What also doesn't help is the UK's attitude towards denying the realities of death. We all die. Guarenteed. Obviously we don't want to die or lose loved ones, particularly prematurely or if they're in good health. I lost a parent suddenly in childhood. It taught me to appreciate a life well lived. I've lost relatives at a chronologically young age but at the end of long illness when they'd reached the limit of the joy they could have in life. I have elderly relatives on good form, and of course I'm concerned about them. They should have enjoyable years ahead of them, but there are also fates worse than several weeks of Covid 19. They are looking after themselves and have some family support, but if they decide that there's no point in prolonging existance just to sit alone in the house, I'm not going to denounce them for going out or even seeing a friend. As MM loves a bit of whatiffery, what if you spend months and months self isolating just to end up with a DVT or stroke or heart attack or cancer because your body is continuing to age through it all.

The reality of many care homes is that people will end their lives there even without Covid 19. Hospitals aren't magic places to fix people. If a body is worn out beyond healing, people die. It is sadly one of the few guarentees and equalities of human existance.

The difference that a pandemic makes is that some will die completely prematurely (as people do from the road and workplace accidents that aren't currently happening) and many will be accelerated from the medium term overriding underlying issues.

All I can do in the meantime is follow sensible protective meaures and hope, but what-iffing over an Amazon package is poor risk assessment compared to the weekly reality of doing the food shopping.

@Mittens030869, that is one of the most sensible posts I've seen on here for months

@corythatwas Did I say they could? Let me rephrase my question. If a care home is privately funded, who is responsible for paying for PPE

Quite frankly, since the spread of infection is a threat to the nation as a whole, I don't think the most important thing is who pays for it: more deaths will cost taxpayers' money and affect the economy as a whole. In any case, the question of payment is academic if the stuff is not available.