AIBU to think people are overreacting to Coronavirus?

[NotHereToMakeFriends]

Okay, I'll admit that it's bad and a lot of people have died from it but if you read up on it you have a limited chance of actually getting sick. Most people who have gotten sick are elderly, underlying health issues or have worked themselves down such as the doctors/nurses who are working themselves sick to try and help others.

I think people are just being scared into thinking that it's worse than it should be.

[HulksPurplePanties]

It's not about deaths. That's not what the WHO or government are primarily worried about.

It's about hospital resources and the affect on the economy, businesses/schools etc if people come down with a really bad flu that knocks them out for weeks and may require a hospital stay to recover from.

I work in critical infrastructure and our crisis team is meeting, not about potentially losing employees, but what happens if 50% to 75% of our workforce goes off sick for a month.

[squeekums]

No concern, we just spent 2 weeks on the gold coast, they supposedly had 2 confirmed cases few weeks ago. We hit the tourist spots and theme parks. Only saw a hand full of people wearing masks, most were at airport.
Didn't have any concern while there, didn't consider cancelling trip

[whatshouldicallme]

@lyndsey
It's not about worrying, it's about being aware of what is going on in the world, keeping up to date regarding recommendations from officials, and taking common sense precautions. At the moment, recommendations are to self isolate for 14 days if you have travelled to an affected area, stay home and call 111 if you have travelled to an affected area and are feeling ill, and regardless of where you've been to "catch it, bin it, kill it." Use hand sanitiser and wash your hands regularly throughout the day.

Covid is very likely to spread within the UK, but if everyone follows recommendations we can slow the spread, hopefully until we know more about how to treat it with antivirals or until a vaccine is developed. It's those people that are sticking their fingers in their ears crying "lalala it's just like the flu" that will not follow these precautions and help it to spread more quickly.

@BuckingFrolics
Are you against all medical intervention, antibiotics, vaccines, etc? Development in modern medicine has made life (at least for those of us in the western world) infinitely easier and less painful than it was in the past. I'm not sure why managing this new coronavirus would be any different? If you truly believe we should just rely on evolution to "do its thing" you would be against all forms of modern medicine.

[WhentheRabbitsWentWild]

If there was a clapping or Bravo emoji it would go to @Aufgehts

[Misandei]

Everything Aufgehts said. Obviously OP knows more than the CMO
I’m worried if this breaks out here what impact that will have on students about to see their A’levels and GCSEs.

[Vagndidit]

I'll echo the statements others have said already. The virus itself doesn't frighten me, but it is the knock-on effect domesticallythat is far more concerning-from the potential stretching of NHS resources that are already on their knees to the Asian run businesses that are already suffering from diminished trade due to no fault of their own. For example, our local Malaysian-owned chippy has lost 3 plus weeks of trade due to voluntary quarantine (after one of their employees returned from a New Years trip to Asia, asymptomatic, mind you)

[RhodaCamel]

I follow Dr John Campbell on YouTube. He is a NHS A&E nurse with many years of experience. One of his main concerns is that the NHS does not have that many critical care beds and if this does become a big thing then the NHS (regardless of what they are saying) will not be able to cope. He says that when there is a unusually high volume of seasonal flu patients we struggle, we’ve all seen tv images of flu patients on gurneys in hospital corridors during winter season, how will we cope? This is what I find worrying, where will the extra resources suddenly come from.
I also find it really selfish when people say ‘oh, it’s ok it’s only serious if you are old, a smoker or have underlying conditions, I don’t fall into that category’. But we all know lots of people who fall under those categories, why do we give little regard to those people who may be effected. There are also many, many thousands of people who are unknowinly carrying on with their lives not actually realising they may be one of those with undiagnosed underlying conditions (diabetes being one of the main ones).

[RhodaCamel]

Oh and the whole self isolating thing concerns me to, whilst most people would definitely do this, I bet my bottom dollar many wouldn’t. And people can be so down right filthy, just yesterday, in the supermarket a guy near me sneezed straight into both palms and then grabbed the trolley handle and carried on as normal - dirty bastard!!

[MarshaBradyo]

It is an odd thing to start noticing, this is gross anyway, but a woman trying out toy recorders in a museum shop one by one, felt like that scene in Contagion where they focus on it.

What do they do in hospital? Ventilator something else?

I agree with Aufghets too, great post.

People back from Northern Italy have been advised to self isolate it only takes a couple with an oh it’s nothing attitude to go out in crowds.

[Skierrdery]

I almost died from SARS, so I'm not looking forward to getting it. Almost died as in multiple organ failure.

[Skierrdery]

Who knew so many people would be so flippant about dying!

[Upherefordancing]

Aufgehts sums it up really well. I've been saying almost the same to my 'complacent' extended family...

[WhentheRabbitsWentWild]

Indeed @Skierrdery

[Skierrdery]

I don't know. My dc could have lost their mother. It's not something to be sneezed at (pun intended).

[Skierrdery]

Being in a coma isn't the best. I only remember rather vivid dreams. But from the nurses report they give you when you come out of a coma, there were days when I appeared to be in a lot of distress. I was on a ventilator and kept trying to remove it or something, so they put a hood on me (described to me as like what you'd see on an astronaut). Recovery (if you do) from a coma is hard too. Quite a lot of trauma around not having had any say or input into your care or what happened to you.

ICU means you have one nurse dedicated to you 24 hours a day. We don't have the facilities for much of that. I'm sure resources in Northern Italy are being stretched if they have a high number requiring intensive care.

Of course not everyone who contracts it will need ICU, but it is a massive pressure on resources.

[Skierrdery]

Luckily, Britain seems largely unaffected so far. But the complacency of it not being 'here' might mean that people are very casual about travelling to affected regions until the government advises against travel.

[SlayB]

I've noticed shocking lapses in hygiene @MarshaBradyo sneezing over things openly and someone wiped their dripping nose & then used the card terminal buttons with the same hand.

One case of an asymptomatic carrier bit.ly/2vZAm8q I think there is actually more problems in the exposed not ill population. This is being called the E factor joining susceptible, infectious, and recovered.

No one should worship at the shrine of RO there is always a median I agree. The most important part of people’s chances of becoming infected behaviour are who they come into contact with, how they commute, who they live with can they afford to skip work if they feel sick.

An RO tool art-bd.shinyapps.io/nCov_control/

Dr. Wai-Kit Ming Jinan University in Guangzhou estimated that there were 88,000 not 11,200 and this was in January. Jonathan Read of England’s University of Lancaster suggested 1 in 20 were being detected. I don't think we will know the true numbers in China is my personal take.

For modellers and a correct RO the factot of a huge undercount can corrupt the data they base their equations on so let's just hope it is at the lower end.

[Guacamole]

As a commuter... I’ve seen lots of people lately with sniffles, sneezes and coughs and their hygiene has been shocking. Tissues not used. Tissues kept in hands while holding handrails, pushing open door buttons. Tissues left on seats. Coughing and sneezing without attempting to cover mouths. And the list goes on.
I wonder if it’s time for the government to run a public service campaign thing, TV adverts, newspaper adverts, posters in public places and public transport, advising people how to deal with hygiene during cold, flu seasons and also now Coronavirus.

[lynsey91]

@Skierrdery well we are all going to die no geting away from that is there?

Given a choice I would rather die relatively quickly from the flu or coronovirus than have a lingering death from cancer. I would also prefer it to dying in something like a car/train/plane crash.

[JaneG123]

Sorry but it is a a 3% death rate if you go by Wuhans stats .
It’s tempting to play it down but I have personal experience of how deadly it is , my work colleague here in UK whose parents are from Wuhan region , the mum has just died , she was a well 60 year old .
You cannot always predict those that succumb . It was a month of lonely deterioration from additional oxygen to ventilator to ICU and not one visit from the family was allowed and my colleague wasn’t allowed to travel back from UK for obvious reasons

[JaneG123]

By using that philosophy we would still be using leaches and dying at age 30

[ShatnersWig]

Population of China 1,386,000,000
Confirmed cases 72,314
Deaths 2,663

So, 0.0055% of the population have had it and 0.0002% of the population have died from it.

Perspective.

[MedSchoolRat]

SlayB: the problem with that case history is it's ... odd. Not just asymptomatic, but unusually high incubation period presupposed, too (19 days). The case study title even says "presumed" not proven. It's good to gather early evidence, but it's just anecdata at moment.

I sort of thought with right kind of genomic analysis "they" could actually prove exactly which person you caught SARS-COV-2 from, I thought I saw analyses like that for EVD, but maybe the tools and personnel to do that aren't that available yet for COVID-19.

Today's Epicurve by date of onset, outside PRC, is looking very encouraging that the outbreak could be on decline.

[Jenasaurus]

I am mixed on this to be honest, I am following Dr John Campbell who provides statistical evidence and is not being alarmist but even he is concerened about this virus and the way it is spreading.

Then there are articles like this
www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/youre-likely-to-get-the-coronavirus/ar-BB10mmoE?li=BBoPRmx&item=personalization_enabled:false&fdhead=intl30ip

and the fact that 8 schools in the UK have closed following a return of pupils from skiing trips in Northern Italy over half term.

I have a healthy respect for this virus and am following the guidelines of handwashing and avoiding those who are coughing and sneezing.

I have 2 DC who are likely to be severely unwell if they catch it, my DS has asthma and my DD has a compromised immunity so I worry more for them than myself.

[Davincitoad]

My concern is if you catch it and do get v sick if the nhs is overwhelmed then your stuffed..:/