AIBU to ask if people still think COVID-19 is fake

[doodledo92]

Just heard my elderly neighbour speaking to a mother neighbour saying "it's about time all this SHITE come to an end now". The other neighbour agreed saying "yes, people should have realised by now it's all FAKE"

AIBU to ask do people still believe this virus is fake?
I couldn't believe what I was hearing from the 2 of them.

I don’t think it’s fake, but I do think it’s been HUGELY exaggerated.

The government deliberately scared the public shitless to terrify them into complying with lockdown; and now they are finding that this worked too well, and people are still too terrified to go out and spend.

I do think the government are seizing the opportunity to test the limits on how much they can control the public, treating it as a massive social experiment, for future reference; which is why I think we are not doing ourselves any favours by being too compliant, accepting roolz with little or no resistance, and asking no questions. Today’s “mandated masks for your health” have paved the way for “state imposed dress code”. I’m not saying this will happen, but it could now happen more easily; a precedent has been set.

@ClearTheDecks this article explains in layman's terms why pigs act as mixing bowls to create new flu viruses. Basically, bird flu's don't usually infect humans but they can infect pigs. Pigs can be infected with human flu too. If they have both types of flu at the same time, the two different flu strains can swap genetic material to create a new flu strain.

www.sciencemag.org/news/1998/09/pigs-serve-flu-mixing-bowls

Usually if a virus is endemic in one species and then infects another species for the first time (without there being a "mixing bowl" like the pigs creating a new virus), it isn't very easily transmissable in the new host because it is not adapted to infecting that host. Mutations might occur that make it more easily transmissable in the new host but that takes time. MERS, and SARS 1 and 2 are not as easily transmissable between humans as SARS-CoV2.

Not fake, but very overplayed.

I've started removing people from Facebook who consider the virus fake or that refer to masks as 'muzzles'.

I've just decided life is too short to expend any of mine on them anymore 🤷🏻‍♀️

Most of the debunked sites are owned by the same people so I don’t believe a word they say.

Governments are well known for hiding the truth about things and it really wouldn’t surprise me if this was man made. We will probably never find out the truth.

I do think event 201 is interesting. America run a faux virus epidemic conference in New York which was run by Bill Gates three months before the outbreak in Wuhan. As we know Bill Gates is heavily invested in the COVID vaccines. Lots of very important people were invited. Lots of videos of the conference on line and even on their website. The ‘dubunking site’ said it was just a coincidence because Bill says so.

I’d the virus real? Absolutely.

I don't hear people saying it's fake but many people including me think complications are far rarer than first thought so perhaps the risks don't warrant the disruption to everyone's lives. People have died but best estimates are the vast majority had not got much time left on this planet (85% according to an Italian study had less than 6 months to live before catching Covid). If only we could identify which younger people are likely to be badly affected

The short answer is genome sequencing @LastTrainEast. This article should start you off on the long answer:

theconversation.com/heres-how-scientists-are-tracking-the-genetic-evolution-of-covid-19-134201

I had the misfortune to read a comment from an American lady yesterday who declared that’s it’s all been faked worldwide just to stop Trump getting re-elected.

I don't think its fake but I think hysteria is all around and people are unduly scared of a virus that while is nasty, is not dangerous for the vast majority of healthy people

I only know one person who thinks it's fake and they are so fucking dim I wouldn't expect anything else of them. They don't know anyone who's had it so it doesn't exist - that kind of bellend.

wanderings I agree.

I am a healthy adult who has adhered to social distancing etc but have to quarantine (stricter than lockdown) for 14 days because of the government ruling on where it is supposedly safe for me to go.

I had to disclose personal data and tell them where I will be for the next 14 days. I'm not being offered any test to see if I actually have it even though we apparently have fantastic testing capacity. There will therefore never be any 'data' as to whether these measures were necessary.

I have expressed that this is a restriction on freedom on here and have been castigated for being so stupid as to take a holiday in a pandemic.

I have no doubt that C19 is real, of course it is, but we are being played now.

It is funny how things are OK so long as they support the UK economy (pubs before schools and UK holidays before we go abroad).

@wanderings yes I agree.
I don't think it's fake but I do think there is a lot more to this then we know and most likely will never know

@cantdothisnow1 Oh indeed, Boris wants us to do things to support the economy, even if they clash with everything else he has said. (So can we have our netball back then?!?!?!?!) Eat out to help out, in the same breath as "you're all too fat". And if holidays abroad are so "dangerous", why allow them all? Because Boris doesn't want to be blamed for the collapse of the airline industry, so he tempted the public with "you can go abroad, but I'll move the goalposts so you'll have to quarantine on your return". Shafting the risk from himself.

I work in healthcare and my workplace is currently a green zone. We were red from the end of March until about 6 weeks ago. Several of my colleagues became infected with COVID-19. Several of my patients passed away from COVID-19. I had to move out of my home to protect my DH who has an autoimmune disease. I haven't seen my DM since Christmas. I have only recently seen my adult DC for the first time since February.

If it's all fake then bloody hell, whoever is behind it is GOOD - and I wish they'd own up, because working in these temperatures in PPE is stifling.

I assume they mean ‘fake’, with regards to how serious it is.

It clearly exists but the reaction by many is way OTT

@doodledo92

What makes them think this, I don't understand??

Some people watch a lot of YouTube videos/other social media posts which suggest that it is a conspiracy to control us and then bring out a vaccine in which there will be a chip to control us..... yes it sounds extreme but it appears a growing minority subscribe to this type of thing.

It does help of course that Covid-19 death figures have actually been inflated by adding in people who have died WITH COVID as well as FROM COVID. It adds to the overall mistrust that exists with a generally competent government.

Imagine every country in the world coming together for a mass virus conspiracy - I mean they can barely manage to talk to each other at the best of times.... Oh well.

@WhatamessIgotinto

I had to laugh at your post

'I only know one person who thinks it's fake and they are so fucking dim I wouldn't expect anything else of them. They don't know anyone who's had it so it doesn't exist - that kind of bellend.'

I know a couple of people who suggests it's fake and they are also fairly dim....yet post things like 'do your own research people, don't trust MSM'.... by research they mean look at YouTube videos.... figure that one out!

wanderings how do you think it’s been hugely exaggerated?

We went into lockdown (which didn’t restrict us in the way it has in many other countries) and went into lockdown quite late

That alone creates anxiety, never have we experienced a lockdown

@TableFlowerss

I assume they mean ‘fake’, with regards to how serious it is.

It clearly exists but the reaction by many is way OTT

Not the fella I know. He thinks that the whole 'nonsense' is fake and the government paid people to pretend they have it. I shit you not.

Several people I work with have lost parents to it. Not sure they'd agree that it was fake.

I do think we need to put it behind us and get on with a normal life, with no restrictions.

at 'put it behind us' - it's not a little row you had with a boyfriend, it's a virus. If you get on with a normal life with no restrictions it will spread again.

Definition of madness = doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.

Definition of madness = doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result.

Indeed @latticechaos.

A 94 year old relative with no access to social media thinks it's all made up to sell newspapers.

I've said this so many times. It isn't just the deaths. You can read the long-term Covid thread on the Coronavirus board. A lot of us have had symptoms for over 5 months and still haven't recovered. I'm still having flare-ups, bad chest, coughs and temperature (though that does seem to have stopped). I already had CFS as a result of flu which turned into pneumonia so I was already vulnerable, but a lot of other posters on there had no pre-existing issues.

I also appear to have neurological issues as a result, I forget words and names unexpectedly. And I have a permanently bad chest.

No one knows how long-term these issues could be, so it would be prudent to try to avoid catching it and passing it on. I'm not saying that we should stop living and I'm desperate for my DDs to be able to go to school in September.

Finally, there's a vaccine against flu, which isn't against Covid yet.

@ClickandForget

A 94 year old relative with no access to social media thinks it's all made up to sell newspapers.

Isn't this sort of outright denialism due to being scared and unable to deal with it? So pretend it doesn't exist.