Coronavirus - sick and tired of the hysterical scaremongering

[Ashtower]

I work in an office and I've overheard a number of people blowing the outbreak all out of proportion. One colleague has ordered facemasks off Amazon - we're in SE England ffs. I wish people would educate themselves (from reputable sources) and stop winding everyone up.

Of course, a healthy amount of caution is important but it's made me aware of how mass hysteria ie witch trials occurred in the past. Just takes one ignorant person with a massive mouth (yes I'm talking about you Sue in budgeting).

I think we were all a bit "OP" at the start. It seemed to be yet another media "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!....maybe, probably not" kind of story. And we have had so many of them before that who can blame her, or any of us, for not taking it seriously in the early days? It was on the other side of the world, cases were being tracked and contacts isolated....here we go again... blah blah.

Its only been very recently that its become clear how serious this all is, Italy and Spain being so hard hit brought it home for all of us.

This thread is amazing to read. Not in a good way.
I'm a total sue... saw the first reports in dec/Jan... said to dh we need to keep a eye on this.... we prepared but didn't panic.
Terrifying.

The Guardian reported today that the average age of a person dying of CV in Italy is currently 78. Average! While in China there has been a third day with around 100 new cases confirmed (according to WHO website, feel free to check) after they had no new cases for days. Does it mean there will be a new wave? Will we be in a lockdown for a year while a vaccine is being developed? Sooner or later Boris's strategy 'Let gran die' might prevail.

What is the long term plan, I mean beyond summer. Because CV won't die in hot weather (see Australia, South America now) when the summer arrive here. We won't eradicate it even if nobody is allowed to leave their house under any circumstances. Eventually someone will bring it from somewhere. Then what?

Sure, the death levels aren’t very high, YET. But, If they keep ramping up the way they are going, they will be soon.

Er op, we are not even anywhere near the peak yet, come back on when we are.

I have not seen any forms of hysteria anywhere so perhaps it is just confined to your office. Everyone around us, and our friends and family are adjusting their life calmly and doing what they can to stay safe. No drama, certainly no hysteria, no mask buying, and no frantic food shopping.

If someone is feeling really worried, perhaps the kind thing would be to reassure them rather than post on here??
It is not like their is a killer virus out there that might kill them and their family or anything Your empathy is off the scale op.

*there

Actually I haven't seen hysteria, I've seen the exact opposite - people paying no attention to government advice, continuing to queue in large numbers outside shops, sit in large numbers outside cafes, walk in large numbers in parks, basically do everything they can to continue life as much as normal inspite of the government measures. Life shouldn't be normal right now. I always thought something like this would show me the good in humanity - actually it's just shown me how selfish some (not all) people are.

This thread is hilarious and terribly sobering in equal measure. It explains exactly why we are where we are now. People being told a message with no hysteria whatsoever and yet they assume hysteria because it's the press that's telling them it. A grand and deadly case of crying wolf by the press for so long.
My dear old Dad used to say of a fair swathe of the press that he doesn't even believe the date printed on the top of the page!
There has been NO exagerration, hysteria or scare mongering of this by the press. None at all. We got super prepared very early on because I noticed this. It had a totally different vibe to it. I lost a friendship over it because I refused to believe her version of it all being hyped up and she got angry with me. Like a PP, I said to her that people are dying and she should should show respect and even in the face of the bald statistics she would not back down. I assume she is somewhere spreading the virus right now or maybe, eight weeks on, she sees what I see. I have no way of knowing and she is the least of my worries. I have seen no hysteria or hype in the press or on the news.

Plenty of dipshits here, predictable.

Try and get this into your thick fucking heads. You may be fit and healthy and can bounce back from contracting it, but hundreds of thousands can't, due to age, medical conditions ect.
Social isolation is to protect the weak and vulnerable not the healthy.

Also consider if all intensive care beds are tied up with coronavirus patients how will other medical emergencies be treated?

You might not get ill with coronavirus, but you could spread it to someone that takes an intensive care bed you or someone you care about ends up needing for something unrelated to the virus.

People are going to continue having heart attacks, car crashes and a multitude of other life threatening events requiring intensive care.

Also to add.

Due to people not giving a fuck and following polite advice, soon it won't be polite.
It will be ordered.

Expect to face a massive fine if you move around without a care in the world.

It's bound to happen.

My friend in Spain said the masks are good as a reminder not to touch your face 🤷
I don't get the issue you have

The mortality rate is not low btw. I think flue is 0.1% and covid19 is around 1% although likely higher. It's 10% in italy....

There's a few regulars that must be wishing this particular thread hadn't been resurrected.

Just read this thread.

Thank goodness everyone was overreacting, eh?

I think the CFR is about 0.6-0.7%, vaguely comforting when you look at the scary numbers.

The best research comes from the Diamond Princess where everyone was tested. A full 18% or so were asymptomatic and many others were very mild. The Worldometer is only showing tested cases, which are mainly in hospitals. Of course, everyone on the Diamond Princess got treated, so the rate may be higher now.

The flip side to this is that the number of infected is already enormous, especially in the big cities. And if even 30% of the world ends up infected, with a CFR of 0.7% that is still about 150 million deaths.

The problem is many people still think like this two months on. A post popped up on my twitter feed about vandalism of 6 ambulances in Kent on Friday night. A reply came that they’d had youths break into a hospital in another area setting off 20 fire extinguishers.

I was and still am #Sue.

The flip side to this is that the number of infected is already enormous, especially in the big cities. And if even 30% of the world ends up infected, with a CFR of 0.7% that is still about 150 million deaths.

By my calculations, 14.7 million.

7B people, .3 infected = 2.1 B
death rate .007 = 14.7M

What's with Sue?

YANBU
Masks are pointless. Expecting anyone on MN to actually read up on stuff is pointless. And trying to talk the 90% of people on MN to give up their addiction to being hysterical is pointless.
Sharing this link is definitely also pointless
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-51881555/coronavirus-do-face-masks-actually-work

If 7 billion people are on lockdown for one year (extreme) or six months (less extreme) this translates into 87 million lost lifetimes/43.5 million lost lifetimes, respectively.

Try and get this into your thick fucking heads. You may be fit and healthy and can bounce back from contracting it,...

lol It's not even about the message, it's about how you put it across effectively.

While in China there has been a third day with around 100 new cases confirmed...Does it mean there will be a new wave?...Will we be in a lockdown for a year while a vaccine is being developed? Sooner or later Boris's strategy 'Let gran die' might prevail.

New wave.. no. Same old wave. We're just getting started. And of course Boris' strategy, while not being 'let gran die' but more 'hide gran' will prevail. It's unlikely there will be a vaccine soon.

I'd save my hysteria for a couple of weeks when we have 2.5k dead and still young folk will be having parties.

Can’t believe people still deny the U.K. Government was following herd immunity (aka, kill the elderly) strategy for two/three weeks with Cummings the big proponent. Even the Sunday Times reported it yesterday. Like something from Mao era China.

Can’t believe people still deny the U.K. Government was following herd immunity (aka, kill the elderly) strategy for two/three weeks with Cummings the big proponent. Even the Sunday Times reported it yesterday. Like something from Mao era China.

Who's denying this?