The 'Positive Mental Health' Corona virus thread

[RapidRainbow]

There are a lot of posts of people worrying. I thought it could be helpful to share positive and assuring information in one thread.

For me, the most reassuring thing so far is the fact that of approx. 1500 people in the UK suspected to have and tested for CV have come back as negative.

I'm off to Thailand and Malaysia in August, hopefully over by then but a lot more worried about failing temperature checks / things being cancelled than getting coronavirus. Currently those two countries not cancelling anything but noticed Japan started. I do monitor daily but doesn't make me anxious but if it does agree its best to stop.

Once the plane is still going I will be on it - won't be any hesitation from me tbh! As likely to be stabbed in London on my way home than I am to catch the Corona Virus because I went on holiday to Japan!

Life's too short to be so worried about things all the time

Once the plane is still going I will be on it - won't be any hesitation from me tbh! As likely to be stabbed in London on my way home than I am to catch the Corona Virus because I went on holiday to Japan!

Life's too short to be so worried about things all the time

I think on the preppers thread and on the other 'worried' coronavirus thread there are some people who actively seek the excitement of disaster - I don't mean they know they want it, or think about it like that, but there are certainly some posters who ignore verified statistics from trusted organisations and post unverified worst case scenarios. And there are definitely conspiracy theorists.

We don't know how bad it will be but in this country right now I can't see any reason not to live your life normally. By all means have 2 weeks worth of frozen veg in and wash your hands carefully, but don't postpone a trip to the cinema.

Even those scientists saying 60% of the UK population could get it don't mean all at once, like all next month. It would probably be over a couple of years, and of course that also means that 40% won't get it. We also know that at least 80% of hospital identified cases are mild, so I find all of this rationally reassuring.

TLDR: On a societal level it is a big risk but on an individual level the risk in the UK is currently tiny. The guy who got it at the Singapore conference was one of only about 7 people out of 1500 or so who got it. He was unlucky but most people there weren't.

I think on the preppers thread and on the other coronavirus thread there are some people who actively seek the excitement of disaster - I don't mean they know they want it, or think about it like that, but there are certainly some posters who ignore rational statistics from trusted organisations and post unverified worst case scenarios. And there are conspiracy theorists.

We don't know how bad it will be but in this country right now I can't see any reason not to live your life normally. By all means have 2 weeks worth of frozen veg in and wash your hands carefully, but don't postpone a trip to the cinema.

Even those scientists saying 60% of the UK population could get it don't mean all at once, like all next month. It would probably be over a couple of years, and of course that also means that 40% won't get it. We also know that at least 80% of hospital identified cases are mild, so I find all of this rationally reassuring.

TLDR: On a societal level it is a big risk but on an individual level the risk in the UK is currently tiny. The guy who got it at the Singapore conference was one of only about 7 people out of 1500 or so who got it. He was unlucky but most people there weren't.

Once the plane is still going I will be on it - won't be any hesitation from me tbh! As likely to be stabbed in London on my way home than I am to catch the Corona Virus because I went on holiday to Japan!

Life's too short to be so worried about things all the time

Once the plane is still going I will be on it - won't be any hesitation from me tbh! As likely to be stabbed in London on my way home than I am to catch the Corona Virus because I went on holiday to Japan!

Life's too short to be so worried about things all the time

Don't know why it posted my last response 4 times - ooops

KaptenKrusty Haha it's a great response so I dont mind it being posted 4 times lol!

lifes too short to be so worried about things all the time

absolutely!

Some people enjoy horror stories, they like to frighten themselves over nothing.

Some people want to think they know more than everyone else - and will repeat any old rubbish as a result.

The press have moved on to writing about the floods because they are well aware that there isnt any basis for scare stories. There is only so long you can go making things up before even those who like to be scared get bored of it.

"Prepping" in the sense of having some soup in should you get flu is not a bad idea - but the prepping threads tend to go into over-reaction.

Keep calm and eat dark chocolate :)

The reason it is not in the MSM will not be a gagging order; it will be because "new cases in China down to 350 in a day" is not exciting any more than "dog bites man" is, unless dog has bitten man's face off or they were both falling off a cliff at the time and miraculously survived.

globalnews.ca/news/6571196/china-349-new-coronavirus-cases/

is the first place I found it mentioned apart from last night's World Service broadcast, in just one of the news round-ups.

And it is way down the article here:
www.malaysiakini.com/news/511530

British papers? nope. BBC? If it is it isn't immediately obvious. Maybe I am just bad at searching, or maybe it isn't on the first page of my websearch.

Oh, at last: Reuters.

www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-hubei-idUSKBN20D2UO

My message posted about 4 times too - think there was a glitch at the time!

The press have moved on to writing about the floods because they are well aware that there isnt any basis for scare stories. There is only so long you can go making things up before even those who like to be scared get bored of it

This. Where is this corona pandemic then? Last week people on MN were talking about how to make the most of their last days on earth and this week we've hardly heard anything about corona virus in the news at all. I'm not minimising the damage its caused in China but in the UK, its hardly at pandemic levels is it? Despite all the scare mongering last week.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime Wow what an amazing bit of research to add for us! So Europe and other continents away from Asia have had very few new cases in 4 weeks and China has dropped to 350 new cases in a day. Thats really promising. This is the message we need to get out to our fellow worriers!

I couldn't put into words what I wanted to say about other posters on peppers and other threads and it's been explained perfectly here, some people get caught up in the 'excitement' of a disaster, it's bizarre but I realised when I was quite young someone talking lots about something I was scared of and they were quite excited by it or didn't really see it as a real possibility.

China has changed methodology again which is why it's cases dropped - back to old methodology. But very few cases in Europe.

@koalasandrabbit if you read the Reuters article, even without the change the figure is still considerable lower than it has been

China has changed its methodology in just under a week and sacked people as figures too high. If you don't test people they don't appear. As someone who works with statistics I would never put great weight on one days figures.

I'll come off the thread - we've got a colleague in Wuhan and whilst I think the situation isn't too bad outside China its pretty bleak for them and they are getting media blackouts.

It doesn't matter what positive news you link to. Those that have fully bought into the fear mongering will just ignore it.

Less cases in China? That's because they arent reporting them all. Not spreading wildly in other countries that already have some cases? That's because they arent testing people/the tests are wrong and showing false negatives/its being covered up. Etc etc. Theres no point. It will all fizzle out soon enough and those people will probably feel slightly silly.

Koala I hope your colleague is alright.

Yes agree @FromEden there will always be a conspiracy based response for any positive news. The UK media is geared to whipping everyone up into a panic to create mroe revenue so I will continue to try and counteract their scary headlines as much as I can. This outbreak frightened me but I saw a few glimmers of hope and so the thread is as much for me as anyone else

This outbreak frightened me but I saw a few glimmers of hope and so the thread is as much for me as anyone else

Totally agree, same here. I remember being totally freaked out by the Ebola outbreak and even worse when there were a few cases here in the US. I couldn't understand at the time how most people didnt seem to care at all. Now I see how the media and doomsaying message boards fed my anxiety. Best not to get overly worried. Be concerned by all means and keep an eye on things but dont buy into the apocalyptic predictions. If it's going to happen theres naff all you can do about it anyway. Washing your hands, avoiding touching your face, and cleaning regularly touched surfaces in your home is about the best you can do.

Thanks SirVik It's one of DH's colleagues who is Chinese, went back to Wuhan to see her parents for Chinese New Year. There's very limited communication with her but I think she's been not allowed to leave her apartment since then, she hasn't been able to work as China has blocked a lot of the internet and she's not allowed to return to her job in the UK until Chinese give permission. Think his work are still paying her so she's probably more fortunate than most there but no end in sight atm. I don't think his work are getting that much information, she's just said communication is very difficult and very censored.

Koala How frightening and stressful for her, I hope that things shift and she is able to come home again soon.

Just placemarking - I can feel anxiety ramping up again with the renewed headlines BUT ...

... reminding myself that the headlines became more prominent when the flood stories fell off the front pages a bit
... reminding myself that it would be worse if clusters of cases around the world DIDN'T get coverage (as that implies that they are not being detected and controlled)
... reminding myself that I'm as prepared as I can be and in a far, far more fortunate position than those in parts of China / other parts of the world right now.

Does anyone know of a charity one can donate to to help support the global public health efforts? UNICEF? Sorry if this is a daft question. Just would feel like I was doing something productive rather than needlessly fretting.