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 am genuinely not in the least bit anxious and I work in an acute hospital every day and am on Covid 19 wards sometimes.

What I am not convicted of is that now this is a global pandemic that R will never be 0 (or near enough to 0) for the virus to die out. I would be interested to hear if there is a reason why governments would aim for this and if it is therefore part of the strategy.

@OutwardBound2016
I'm far from an expert and just thinking out loud. Other recent viruses that aren't at pandemic levels such as ebola, bird flu, swine flu are not causing us problems because their r rate eventually fell below 1. No single measure solved these problems. Distancing, quarantining, cleaning, drug treatments and many other things contributed to getting the r rate to below 1.

The lockdown is one part of the effort to do this with corona. Because of the nature of this virus it seems to be much more difficult to do than with some other viruses but that is what is being aimed for. I don't know if it will work but people who are way smarter than me have recommended we do it. I don't like it, it's sending me half stir crazy some days but I'm trying to suck it up.

Silversquid, not many of us on here are experts! The original comment came from a suggestion that the government strategy was to eradicate the virus. I did not believe this to be the case, social distancing is to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed which I think we all agree is desirable.

You aim for eradication, you get containment.

I will carry on washing my hands and using hand sanitizer and not spending time in groups ow crowds. But that's kind of it. I can't control it, so I'm not worried about it.

"Don't listen to Twitter saying 1 person could pass it on to 59,000 people 🙄"

Why do you say that?
It's explained here:
www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vs-flu-social-distancing-infections-spread-explainer-video-2020-3?r=US&IR=T

and on Twitter here:
twitter.com/C4Dispatches/status/1241803403619172359

"Equally - 'mild' can mean barely or not at all noticing it. As seen in many positive tests."

Yes, but you don't know whether you'll get the genuinely mild case or the 40 days plus still having trouble breathing and feeling weak type.

I think the continued lockdown when the number of hospital admissions had decreased to a trickle is a plan to try and eradicate. If the number of new infections can be got low enough to make contact tracing realistic, I think that is what they will do using the app that does the contract tracing. So everyone needs to maintain social distancing so it is easy to identify all their contacts. If life went back to normal now that would not be possible .

Because it can kill you. Those with underlying conditions stand a higher chance of dying but it can kill those without any just as easily.

I have also heard people talk about children being hospitalised because of covid 19. Yes none have died, but no one wants their children to go through that scary experience.

@silversquid There is a vaccine for ebola. But before that existed we isolated the few infected people and stopped it spreading.

Because it can kill you. Those with underlying conditions stand a higher chance of dying but it can kill those without any just as easily.

^
This

Children have died from it though?

Because it can kill you. Those with underlying conditions stand a higher chance of dying but it can kill those without any just as easily

This is rubbish though. It doesn't kill those without underlying conditions just as easily. They make up a very small proportion of deaths.

I'll have no choice of when I return to work. When schools return to having other children in I shall have to go back to teaching them. I work in an infant school so social distancing is going to be a nonsense.

I'm not in the shielding group, just the original vine table group. There's too many of us around (around a third of our teaching staff) in that group to allow us all to be off work. I suspect lots of people don't really realise how many people are in that group.

So when we go back I guess I take the chance and hope for the best. Same as when Dh returns to work and the risk of him bringing it back into the home. Dd is y13 so she won't be going back to school regardless.

It's a worry. 10 years ago, before I had any health condition or medication to make me more vulnerable, I got pneumonia. I was really ill. I was in hospital. I had four different antibiotics. I was off work for just over 7 weeks. That was when I was 10 years younger and healthier. So now it and other illnesses, like CV19, are likely to hit me harder.

Of course it's a concern and of course I'm worried. I know things can't go on indefinitely but I do think two weeks is too soon. Based on the fact that my friend who works in a school in China still isn't back in school normally I think people are a little bit naive in thinking we will return to normal anytime soon tbh.

Cantor -children have died. Nowhere near as many as adults but you are incorrect in stating none.

Gwynfluff - you want social distancing and no mass gatherings, but schools open. How do you propose to do that latter, if the other two concessions are needed?

Schools are a mass gathering of people - adults and children together in a confined space.
Social distancing really isn't possible in schools. Under the current situation our school - which is open, just not to every child - we can fit a maximum of 8 children in our largest classrooms. Even then it's impossible to maintain a 2m gap between them all once they start moving.

R does not have to be zero for the virus to die out, just below 1. If you have a calculator, start with a large number, 100 will work for an example. Press x 0.7 and then keep pressing equals. Although the answer will never quite reach zero, it will “tend towards zero”. As the engineer says to the mathematician, 0.4 cases is “close enough”.

Check out the Lungs threads.

Covid is killing thousands whilst in lockdown, once the lockdown lifts it will kill many many more.

I have it (healthy 39 year old, no medical issues whatsoever) and it has floored me now for 5 weeks with no end in sight. It's a terrifying illness and I feel like it's slowly killing me most days.

I've had constant excruciating chest pains, tremors, shakes, heart palpitations, trouble breathing, cold sweats, I can't sleep - for 5 weeks! It's not bloody flu!!

But I'm not sick enough for hospital apparently. Paracetamol and rest at home!That's the truly terrifying part. The Nhs literally don't know what to do with me because this virus is so new and it's dangerous and fucking scary.

I have it I'm healthy normally it's horrendous. It's a lottery on how bad the symptoms will be but for me I've needed paramedics and oxygen. I'm also alone as children are isolated away from me so I won't see them or another person till I'm better. It's frightening i can't breathe I can't walk have pain in the strangest places and as wonderful as the medical profession are they just don't know how to fix it. I have found taking liquid iron supplement is helping me. I noticed my gums going white and decided to try.

I’ve now had it 42 days. It’s horrendous.

I’m less worried for myself than for asthmatic DS, heart-problem DH, student DD’s very lovely singing voice and DS’s brassplaying career. This stinker of an illness sounds like it could be life-altering for any of them.

(Me, I’m an unmusical fairly healthy middle aged type. I suppose Sod’s law says I’ll be the one to keel over with it now.)

@SimpleKindofLife

I'm in the same boat, it's 7and a half weeks for me now. It's really grim, isn't it? Every time I think I'm getting over it, it comes back at me again. I've had breathing difficulties, with my airwave blocked with mucus, and my DH has called 999 a couple of times, neither side f us had ever done that before.

I thoroughly identify with you, that it feels as if it's slowly killing me.

No test, though. That is something I feel angry about, as I caught it from my DS2 (8). We were told to take her to A&E, and all they asked was had we been in an infected area' overseas? The medics had no PPE. This was 6th March, and she had a high temperature, chest pain and very bad headaches. She was really unwell for 4 days. They should have done tests on anyone presenting with flu symptoms.

I became unwell with this 3 days after our trip to A&E. there was then no attempt to tell us to self-isolate. It's no wonder it spread like wildfire!

Hope you recover soon.

Egghead68 I thought I was going to be seeing the light after 4wks. Try the iron