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.

I think the main reason that people are so terrified is because there is so much uncertainty. Yes the risk to otherwise healthy people is small but nonetheless healthy people have still died from it. The info about it is changing regularly, there's no known cure or vaccine and unlikely to be one for a while plus add the hype from the media and of course people are frightened. Personally I agree that lockdown can not go on for much longer but it's natural that people would be scared healthy or otherwise.

The car comparison is dumb.

If I get in a car and go somewhere and arrive safely, I don't feel like shit for several weeks. Worst I'll feel is car sick. It won't mean I can't work for a few days or struggle to look after my kids.

If I get mild covid, I will.

Tbh, when the kids in DS's class got norovirus in November, I wasn't thrilled and yes I was scared of getting it, cos its fucking horrible. When he got it my heart sank, and lo and behold, I got it too a couple of days later.

shrugs

@justasking111 but it just isn't 1 in 3 bullets. it is with 30% testing postive with a death rate according to WHO of 1-3.4% is actually a range of russian roulette of all those tested of at worst 1.02 bullets per hundred guns and a best 1 bullet in 300 guns obviously that is overall risk it goes down with youth and health to much less and up with age and poor health so while the overall death rate of those infected ( not whole population) maybe 1or 2% it is less than 0.1% if young and thought to be between 10-15% if over 80
that still means that even over 80 you are much more likely to survive than die

Yes it’s exactly like doing Russian roulette with just one bullet and three goes. So you honestly think our chance of contracting and dying from this is 33%?

Some seriously strange perceptions of risk and statistics on this thread.

I think people are just very bad at assessing risks - there is lots of research on this, particularly long term risks. You could tell people until you’re blue in the face that the risk of a healthy person under 60 getting seriously ill with Covid is less risky than getting in a car, and people would still feel scared or come up with other reasons that they should be careful.
I don't need telling any of this. But having eaten, breathed and lived Covid warnings and horrible stories for six weeks, while unable to be with people who might take my mind of it or do things to make me feel good, I don't feel blasé about catching it. It's not bad risk assessment. It's simply not wanting to be ill. I also don't want to be in a car crash or catch D&V - but I haven't had those subjects rubbed in my face for months on end.
I'm not so terrified that I won't go out, but I object to the idea that if I feel any discomfort about this situation then I'm hysterical or something.

It isn't 1 in 3 bullets. Only those people with symptoms are even being tested. So (if it's 1 in 3 of those ill), even if you have good reason to think you have Covid, there's a 70% chance you don't have it!

We need to have antibody testing as soon as possible so we realise how many of us have already had it and didn’t know

As it can kill healthy younger people as well..

Because being healthy is no guarantee that my immune system might go into overdrive and kill me if I do get it.

Because I know of two friends of friends in my age group (30s and healthy) who have died. There's about a 0.2% chance of death in my age group, which sounds low, but that's a 1 in 500 chanve which makes it a bit more scary.

Because I can't stay safe at home as I'm a nurse on a "covid ward."

Aghh we know! But already the deaths of young people (20-30) is DOWN due to fewer accidents. 40-50 about average for this time of year as we took are having fewer accidents, heart attacks etc.

Of course it’s awful but not everyone will get it badly - they’ve always said this. We don’t test everyone!

Oh, and it might leave me with permanent lung damage and decrease lung function of 20-30%. I am a none smoker, fairly fit and enjoy things like walking, running and cycling. So I would be a bit gutted if I ended up with knackered lungs tbh.

I’m worried about passing it on to my parents who are shielding. I’m doing shopping for them and collecting prescriptions. Leave everything on the doorstep, but I’m still worried about passing it to them.

Yes if you get it badly it is shit

But most wont

This is really interesting to me:

“ I'm not even slightly worried for myself, but I'm prepared to put up with a lot of inconvenience to stop other people dying or even just getting really sick. I am really struggling with having my children at home, but if that keeps the elderly grandparents who pick up other children at our school safe, so be it.
I also don't think I want to live in a society that just says 'Well, they're old/disabled/fat, they were going to die anyway, so let's just go to the pub'.
Each of those deaths is of someone who had years of life ahead of them and people who loved them.”

People were dying from poverty-related illnesses in this country before Covid19 was even heard of. What “inconvenience” were people prepared to put up with to stop poor people “ dying or even just getting really sick”. Higher taxes? Giving up some of your own privileges? Very few (and I include myself here) would have changed their lives to this extent for this reason. So clearly some people’s lives are more important than others. When it’s a threat to people who aren’t poor, people are prepared to say “ 'Well, they're old/disabled/fat, they were going to die anyway, so let's just go to the pub'. ”

I’m sorry to pick on this post, as I think you mean well, but really people are repeating this stuff without thinking about what it really says about us as a society

I work freelance and my income was badly hit. I can't afford to be I'll as I won't get any pay. I have heard of people feeling rough for 3 weeks with it - that's assuming you don't get more serious complications.
I also don't have faith that I would be admitted to hospital in time. Waiting on hold to confirm that my lips have turned blue and I can't breathe doesn't appeal to me. It isn't as if I could call an Uber and take myself to A&E.

DIana - if you get it now then being able to talk to a gp or go to hospital is MUCH easier than a month ago. Numbers of those in hospital are down. We have spare beds and ventilators. It is much better than it was and more lives will be saved.

Because healthy people have still died from it.

Also hospital based trials are happening right now for covid using meds and blood transfusions and are already getting some positive results. I don’t want to be in that situation of course but we have a far higher chance of getting over it than a month ago

Because it kills healthy people too, and people I know who had it said it was horrendous. My friend was hit hard and is now suffering from bacterial pneumonia

I'm bloody terrified. I have health anxiety and I can't see this with a clear head. I think it'll be a disaster. I'm normally a really level headed person but this has blown me away.

OP - you mention getting back to normal.
In the old normal we sat together in small, cosy meeting rooms at work, commuted on packed trains, got in Uber taxis with a driver who may have been exposed to 500 strangers that week, flew on metal tubes in the sky with recycled air.
I can't go back to that normal. If I do, probably half a million people in the UK will die by Christmas as a direct result (sorry, no idea of the real figure, just a guess).

So if I can't go back to that normal, I'll wait patiently for shops and offices to put social distancing measures in place, just as supermarkets have done. For public transportation to be organised so that it doesn't put drivers/staff at risk.

Do we know how many 'healthy' people have died of it? Surely we have only what's in the media. There will always be a small proportion of people who don't know they have a heart condition (like when you hear of a footballer dying or someone dying doing a marathon or a teenager who for no reason dies in their sleep). These freak cases occur pre Coronavirus. Then you have people that the media portray as healthy but who have higher than normal BMI and/or are obese. So it really depends on what we mean by healthy. If we took those two factors into account the number of genuine healthy people (ie healthy BMI, no umc, non smokers) who died I suspect it is minuscule relative to the numbers infected. But all we hear are scare stories.

YANBU - the hysteria is shocking.

Because I may die/pass it to my children who may die.