Healthy people why are you so scared of catching covid 19?

[wakeupitsabeautifulmorning]

Serious question. I’m interested in why healthy people with no underlying problems are so unhappy about starting to get back to normal. I’m not talking about shielded people who need to stay shielded. But everyone else.

if you are that scared are you also losing weight and keeping fit? That’s going to make far more expensive impact on your overall longevity than staying indoors forever.

Only COVID is likely to give me a BMI-related death in the next two years.

I have lost weight before, I know what it takes to do it. If I had to do one or the other, never leaving home for the next two years, and in fact never being the same room as another human being (ignoring the fact I live with two) would actually be a considerably easier and more attractive option.

(FWIW although I think exercise is good, it's contribution to losing weight is negligible, more than 95% of the losing weight is eating right.)

I mention two years as that seems to be a reasonable time-frame for vaccines or treatments. If they don't emerge, then it might be time to reevaluate.

I'm pretty sure I had it in Feb though not confirmed, was a bit annoying but not that bad, was very tired for a bit, awful sore throat.

I had bacterial pneumonia two years ago and it was far worse.

Bit worried about spreading it to the vulnerable eg my elderly parents. But I'm an ITU nurse and do realise that, very unfortunately, young people do die from all sorts of causes but because they are young their deaths do stand out and frighten people.

I'm not scared of it. Yes, as a healthy, not overweight 40-something there is a small chance it could kill me but that is true of flu and other things, like travelling by car. I don't cower at home in fear of those. From what I have heard from friends and relatives who have had it and read in the media, the most likely outcome is that I get a mild illness that I shake off in a week or so. I might get more severely ill for a few weeks, like some of the posters on this thread. Of course I don't want that but I don't think avoiding that possibility is a good reason to give up any semblance of normal life for the foreseeable.

However, I'm following the lockdown rules because I understand the need to protect those more vulnerable, such as my own parents.

There's emerging evidence that, even after people recover from coronavirus, they can still be very ill. www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-some-patients-may-suffer-lasting-lung-damage It may cause lasting damage among people who were previously healthy. I don't want to run that risk, and I think downplaying it has given some people an idea that it's just like a cold.

Let's make a proper comparison between dying in a car crash and dying from Covid.

Imagine you take an average person with no special fears.
Then you create a lockdown in their country during which they are only allowed to go near a car in an emergency. They are told that they have to avoid cars at all costs or their friends or relatives could be killed in one. Government ministers stand at podiums with signs saying #AVOIDCARS. You show them footage of car crashes every day on the news. Every few hours on the radio, you describe what happens in car crashes and tell them the latest updated car crash statistics. You tell them how experts think car crashes are best avoided, and what the possible causes of car crashes are. They learn all sorts of car-crash-related new phrases. Their friends send them links to scare-mongering articles on Fox News that make car crashes sound especially deadly for people like them.

Then, you tell them that the car crash lockdown is being eased up.
And when they show signs of being worried about getting in a car, you say "But why are you scared?"

I’m not scared of getting it. I am scared of infecting other people with it. In general I recover from things like the flu pretty quickly, but my DP, although he’s not deemed ‘at risk’ has a really terrible time with illnesses. The last time he got flu he ended up in hospital on a drip and attached to a heart monitor.

PrimeroseHillAnnie, it makes sense that a ICU Nurse will see under 40's, they are the patients suitable for such care. Are they seeing strokes? Because if that's the case it's being under reported in the UK.

People have been dying because we didn't have any treatments that we knew worked and because we were overwhelmed, people were refused hospital admission.

The Scientists would like limited movement etc for another month. By then we will have triple treatment approaches with anti-virals, anti-inflammatories and immune response support, which will give people a better chance. As it stands around 12% of healthy people will die. Out of those that don't die there's another % that will be left with lung and organ issues. That's beside of a stay in hospital, which might involve bed pads and having a catheter (which can also bring problems).

The cancer deaths need consideration, but this virus is a negative game changer for curable cancers. It's a new added in threat for a range of conditions that may not have shortened our lives.

If we can avoid infection for a month, it will make a big difference to outcomes.

But we're all meant to be isolating at the moment, so presumably most of us aren't seeing our mothers. (Intergenerational households not being the norm in UK.)

Healthy younger people should not be concerned. There have only been 277 deaths so far in the UK from covid among people under 45. (Though over 5000 people under 45 have died since Jan to put that in context.) So it's much more likely a young person will die from something else, in the unlikely event that they die at all.

The car crash analogy is bollox. When you have a car crash you don’t give another three or four people a car crash.

When you have a car crash you don’t give another three or four people a car crash.
Not always, but there's usually at least one other person involved!

Only COVID is likely to give me a BMI-related death in the next two years.

See I think this is the problem because everything is in the media about it people think that somehow it is worse. But it isnt flu is just as much of a risk:
www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/uritheflu/76725

IF you get it. And that is the difference. The infection rate and lack of immunity means that this is like a wildfire of a virus rather than a contained house fire. Everything seems worse because of the numbers who are getting it. And because it is hitting those who are normally vaccinated.

I think I have had it (GP for DD hearing cough and describing symptoms). DD found it the worst thing she had ever had (at 11) me personally I found swine flu much much worse as that took me 6 weeks to even feel normal and 6 months to feel back to normal

I know two perfectly healthy people who have caught it so far. Once ended up in hospital. The other is dead.

Because I don't want to pass it on to others.
Because I don't know if I have any underlying health conditions.
Because I have 3 children to care for.

Because healthy people have died 😥

I agree with you op. I'm not worried. Most of us - yes most. Will be fine

I think it's 13.5% of those infected will die. Not 12% of the non infected population.

No, it's nothing like 13% of those infected.

That is just misinformation. The death rate looks to be around 1% of those infected or maybe slightly lower.

PS the idea that 12% of healthy people die isn't just nonsense, it's dangerous nonsense. It's important not to spread disinformation, even if it's naively done -- i.e. not with malicious purpose. I hope anyone who believes this will take some time to understand the data better.

The mortality rate expressed as known fatalities / known cases runs at about 12% in the UK, but what makes you think that most of the people who are hospitalised are healthy? The threads on people with symptoms illustrate how sick you have to be with this virus to get anywhere near a hospital. Almost all healthy people, especially those under 45/50, end up recovering at home.

That is not to say that this isn't a very dangerous disease for unhealthy people, but that's a different point. There may be a very small number of people who look and feel healthy but in fact have a grave underlying or emerging condition. But most of us have a pretty accurate idea from our age, medical history, and ability to do basic things if we are healthy or not! Therefore it is mawkish and hypochondriacal to be excessively worried about it (just as it would be to worry every day for many hours about getting breast cancer when you have no history/ symptoms). Direct your worry elsewhere. God knows, there's enough reason for it.

Where on earth is 13.5% from antibody tests across different countries puts it at under 1%. New York is looking at around 0.8%

It is simply not possible to eliminate all risk from life.

You risk dying every time you get in a car, you could choke to death on something you eat, or have some other accident in day to day life. Smoking, drinking alcohol, eating unhealthy food, and allowing yourself to become overweight, all carry considerable risk of developing life threatening diseases, but people still do it nonetheless.

People seriously need to get a grip and realise this disease is not going anywhere soon, and in the grand scheme of things you're more likely to die from other things than covid 19. Prior to this pandemic most people didn't not live life worrying about the risks of day to day life and the possibility of dying - this illness is just one of many many things that could kill you. The fear is totally irrational.

I don't know enough about the long term implications on my health if I catch it, so I will go out of my way to not do so. It sounds bloody awful even if you don't end up in hospital and suffer at home. Until I know how likely a genuinely mild case will be (for example, nothing more than the effects of a cold), I'll be staying in.