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.

Glad I've found this thread. Was on a couple of others but feel that they have made me incredibly anxious. I'm prepared for this to be awful when it hits the UK, so am by no means sticking my head in the sand, but need to look for some good news for my own well being.

The constant posting of breaking news from Twitter on other threads was driving me potty. Am going to stick to the BBC and Guardian live blogs for updates from now on, even if it does mean I don't hear about a new case or death the minute the news breaks on Twitter!

I read somewhere that it can damage DNA, I will try and find where I saw that.

I watched Jeremy vine yesterday and all seemed calm, no need to panic. Today, he was asking if it was time to panic!!!!!!!!

Can’t help thinking media are creating panic themselves.

I can’t see hoe we can avoid this now.

BBC News

"Why hasn't coronavirus been declared a pandemic?
On Tuesday the US Centres for Disease Control said it would be a matter of if, not when coronavirus becomes a pandemic.

However the World Health Organization (WHO) said using the word pandemic would signal that the virus cannot be contained which isn't true.

"We are in a fight that can be won if we do the right things," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"For the moment, we are not witnessing sustained and intensive community transmission of this virus, and we are not witnessing large-scale severe disease or death."

The WHO argued that China has had fewer than 80,000 cases out of a population of 1.4 billion people and in the rest of the world, there have so-far been 2,790 cases out of a population of 6.3 billion."

ALSO

"The focus of the coronavirus outbreak is shifting – from China to the rest of the world, particularly Europe, where a number of countries are starting to see multiple cases.

On the face of it, this seems like bad news. More people are being affected in more countries and clusters of deaths in Iran, South Korea and northern Italy are concerning.

But there are positives too. China appears to be getting on top of the virus with the number of new cases each day reducing.

This suggests that efforts to contain the virus by telling people to stay at home, stopping large public gatherings and preventing travel are working.

The message from officials at the World Health Organization is that containment is still possible and a global pandemic is not inevitable."

Someone has just shared this article on Facebook. Eye opening, in a good way!

bay.com.mt/coronavirus-in-numbers-and-why-we-really-shouldnt-panic/

I saw that bay mt article and it made me laugh as it just screamed misinformation to me.

This on the other hand is possibly the most positive information I’ve seen so far and from a credible source

82, 000 cases worldwide
78,514 cases in China

Figures above are the most recent up to date figures from quality sources.

The overall message is the same, right now its safe to go about your daily life in most places.

Yes agree, unless your daily business involves international travel

Interesting info graphic, you're right it is positive. It's not the illness people fear, it's the death rate.

It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that 70,000 cases in a country such as the US would have a smaller death rate than 70,000 cases in China. That is to say health care and general living conditions aren't as good as the western world.

The big concern should be in helping those less fortunate countries if the virus takes hold there.

@NemophilistRebel

"I saw that bay mt article and it made me laugh as it just screamed misinformation to me."

Do you mean the article has misinformation? Or it demonstrates how much misinformation is in the mainstream media? I presumed you meant the first - hence me adding the figures as they stand now

I just realised this is your thread @RapidRainbow and I’m glad to see it tbh because I’m scaring myself stupid reading the other long running threads on here 😱 I wanted to see my mum and sister tomorrow as they’re meeting for lunch and have had to say I can’t come now because of how anxious I get going out. Thanks for this thread, it’s helping.

Could you try going? If only for a short amount of time? It may do you good to see people getting on as normal! Xx

If nothing else, think, if there was even as many as 5 people infected in Birmingham, what are the chances you would encounter those people?! There have only 15 cases in the whole of the UK, 8 of which have already recovered and are not longer positive.

I’ll try for tomorrow, even just for half an hour 💜

Yes I totally see what you mean about not encountering those 5 people, but it’s more like who have those 5 encountered and then who have they been in contact with? And it’s like wildfire then.

I think it’s just very hard because I already had worries and fears before all of this so it’s overwhelming to cope with them PLUS this too.

Yes you're right and logical in that thinking, but very few cases outside of China have been secondary infections. IIRC only one of the UK cases was passed to someone who hadn't travelled, from a spouse.

Excellent thread, thank you

A sensible thread at last. The hysteria on some of the others ones is just too much, they are whipping themselves up into a frenzy.

I think some posters on the other threads will be disappointed if it doesn’t kill everyone.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but it’s worth pointing out that the death rate for babies and children is zero and the death rate for young to middle aged adults is 0.2%.
My own generation - pensioners - is the only one that has any reason to feel mildly anxious, and even among 80 year olds the death rate is still only 13%.
Obviously nobody wants to lose their much loved granny, but in whole population terms we’re really just looking at a lot of people being off work with a sweaty dry cough for a couple of weeks. It’s hardly Armageddon!

I have not had a chance to read the whole thread yet so sorry if this has already been posted .

this video is from the world health organisation it pus CV into clear perspective compared to SARS , swine flu , spanish flu and others ,
the video is 10 minuets long but it is worth watching esp the stats and 'dot' graphs .

Virologist on channel 5 now.

Me & DH are molecular virologists :) We talk about this a fair bit. We are not overly worried by this new-to-human coronavirus, for the following reasons:

1. It is an enveloped virus and should therefore be vulnerable to good hand and surface hygiene
2. It is a large RNA genome and therefore prone to mutation and change through replication
3. We haven’t been able to look at the genome sequence and compare it to other common coronaviruses we humans would usually get colds from, but it may well be that there is the potential for recombination of this virus with other more harmless viruses
4. A new virus into humans may be devastating at first, but through natural selection, the most successful isolates/variants will be those that do not kill the host, and are therefore able to infect further afield

Due to 1 - we should be able to take simple steps to protect ourselves/one-another
Due to 2-4 - we believe the serious illness and mortality caused early on in the pandemic will get watered down over time

We also strongly feel that the level of dose of viral particles received at point of infection, as well as the type of specific strain involved, will affect outcome of the patient.

That’s where we are. We are very close to potential infection in our social and professional circle. We are being sensible, aware, and prepared, but not changing our lives in any way currently. We believe this will settle down.

There are some great virologists and epidemiologists in this country and they will be getting their hands on UK isolates as they are available, and doing everything they can to get information which will help manage public health readiness and planning to keep harm - personal and financial - to a minimum.

We simply need to do what we are able to do. I am hopeful that this situation will get people to be more aware about winter disease prevention through personal hygiene!!! Some people are just gross. If we can learn from this as a serious wake-up call so that in future we see fewer cases and serious harm & death from flu, for example, then that is an opportunity not to be missed.

I think some posters on the other threads will be disappointed if it doesn’t kill everyone.

I agree. I'm also thinking some households are going to be eating pasta for the next 12 months!!

@DoubleTweenQueen thank you for your post.