Coronavirus

[outofthemoon]

Am I being unreasonable to ask if the government has panicked re Coronavirus? The Nightingale hospitals are empty. I know no one who knows anyone who has had it. The figures are so fluid, with so many unknowns, they are virtually meaningless. I don't even understand the emphasis on testing, since a negative can be a positive 12 hours later. I think lockdown has sent me nuts.

Better to have the Nightingale hospitals and not need them, than to need them and not have them.

I'm surprised you know nobody who knows anyone who's had it, unless you genuinely have a very small circle of friends. I don't consider myself to know many people yet I know about 15 people who've had the classic CV symptoms in the last 6 weeks, plus two friends of friends who have been in hospital with it. I only live in a small town too so it's hardly a hotbed.

I have Coronavirus and my father has been in hospital for two weeks with it. I would rather they panicked and saved his life than were laid back about it and he died!

Very expensive though. And if we are being told the truth about 20 seconds handwashing destroying virus, why can PPE not be washed. The environmental impact must be appalling.

I know people who have had flu like symptoms that they now retrospectively think may have been CV19. I don't know of anyone with a +ve diagnosis.
I know 2 very elderly people who died in the last month, but both in their 90s, both long expected deaths.

yearinyearout half the country has 'corona like symptoms' every winter/spring.

The vast majority of people tested don't have covid 19.

I don't know anyone with it either.

spanieleyes I hope you and your father are well again soon. Do you think the extra precautions have helped?

No I don’t think they have panicked about it. I would rather have too many beds than not enough beds! I still don’t think we have hit the peak yet.
I know 3 people who have likely had it. They haven’t been tested as they have had it mild but colleagues if there’s have had a positive diagnosis and been in hospital through it.

One of my relatives is a doctor and therefore come into contact with a lot of people who have covid

It's better to have the nightingale hospitals than not.

Disclaimer
The following is just my opinion.

The virus hasn't worked it's way through our country/the world yet, it's only just begun. The lockdown is to slow the spread not stop people getting it. It was put in place purely to stop the nhs being completely and utterly overwhelmed. People are still going to get this virus. It will spring up periodically in pockets of the country until such time as their is a vaccine available to all. Except the anti vaxers who I assume will refuse it.
China have got new cases in the north now so haven't got rid of the virus and they had the strictest lockdown of us all.

Our government will have more difficulties managing the general population if they don't scare us daily about the virus. If we aren't continually told about how bad it is we will get complacent and resent the lockdown even more than we do now and start to flaunt it. Hence the daily press conferences. So I think the 'overreaction' by the government is to stop civil unrest within society rather than caring about each individual life lost through cv.

I think that if they had the attitude of " oh it's just flu" he would be dead already. The hospital has procedures and resources in place- perhaps not enough but better than nothing!

YABU because there is a whole specific topic for this.

And if we are being told the truth about 20 seconds handwashing destroying virus, why can PPE not be washed.

Gloves would perish after a wash or two and have you ever tried to wash a surgical mask? I can tell you it would t go well.

Panicked? If anything this government did not panic soon enough and this has led to unnecessary deaths. They have left care homes to fend for themselves leaving hundreds possibly thousands of people to die. They have failed to prepare and provide enough equipment and PPE for NHS and frontline workers also leading to many unnecessary deaths. So no I do not think they panicked nearly enough. As it stands it appears that social distancing and our compliance is helping and the NHS are 'coping' but that does not mean that everything is going well.

No they aren't.

Current estimate is perhaps 60000 will die. Down from 250000 if allowed to just run its course.

I'm very very glad noone you know has had a serious course through this, or has died unexpectedly. I'm not so lucky. And my town is not badly hit yet. But, this is rather the point of lockdown. To ensure fewer people get it, so that the nhs can cope with the numbers who do. It gives those with the worst cases a greater chance of survival because they aren't on a ward when they might have got an itu bed.

I hope you continue not experiencing the reality of how varied a disease this can be. How terrifying it is to not be able to breathe as your lungs stiffen. The pain of the clots. The fear of the delirium. The otherworldliness of the myocarditis.

PPE has been designed for single use only. It would not survive being washed.

Meant to add the hospital PPE that is. Not sure about PPE in general.

powerbunting because of severe childhood asthma I do know a little bit about the fear of not being able to breathe. And I am not underestimating the horror of the other symptoms you describe so graphically.
But I was up and down to London, on the underground in rush hour all through winter, until about Feb 12th, (and I am 61) and if it is as infectious as we are being told, and as deadly, I really do not understand why half London is not dead (including me).

I don't think it had really taken hold of London until March so you probably just missed it.

I know lots of people who either have it or have had it (am in South East, not London). If these hospitals are so empty, how come my friend who is really struggling to breathe has been told she has to manage it at home until she can’t speak for breathlessness?

But my similarly aged colleagues didn't and they are in London still, and not infected.
I am told the London Nightingale has less than 20 patients, and they were moved there more for the look of the thing than real need.

I'm not belittling. I'm just longing for the truth.

I think you probably missed it, you say you stopped going to London on the 12th feb. I think the first cases caught with in the U.K. rather than being imported weren’t confirmed until the end of feb.

You were lucky.

I am just dismayed at some people thinking we are all going back to normality slowly but gradually.

This virus has the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of people in the UK and hundreds of thousands of people in other countries unless scientific evidence is adhered to. That evidence includes building significant capacity if we need it. This virus will be around for 18 months and will return in waves. Those hospitals will be used in due course, probably to capacity next winter.

There will be no significant let-up until a vaccine is available and then it takes time to administer. This is a very long distance race. The scientists are telling us this.

Chimpd0g

Who has told her that?
ANd yes, the Nightingale hospitals are empty. That is easily checkable fact (+ I know of someone who works in the London one.)

I know one person (in his 50s, not in a vulnerable group) who has been in intensive care for 2 weeks. Another friend/colleague in her 20s has been in hospital for over a week. Quite a lot of other people who've had symptoms but stayed at home and recovered.

I don't think we're at the end of this. Honestly, I think we're just at the beginning. But if it ends up looking like they panicked and overreacted well, I prefer that scenario to the one where they hadn't done enough and hundreds of thousands of people died preventable deaths.

Avalanchekit

People have to go back to work, those able to do, to earn the money to pay the tax that will fund those who cannot. DH and I have to go back to work. Sitting in the garden with bags over our heads is only a short term solution. Or else the NHS will be absolutely shot, together with the rest of the welfare state.