"Only the elderly/immune suppressed are at risk" - attitude of dicks?

[SylvanianFrenemies]

People who say not to worry about Coronavirus, because "Only the elderly/chronically ill/immune suppressed" are dicks.

Some of us fall into these categories. Some love people who fall into these categories. Some have some essence of humanity. Stop using "Only the xxx" to dismiss concerns. Stop conflating it with flu.

Wash your hands. Isolate yourself as required. Err on the side of caution.

YABU = I agree with these dicks.
YANBU = I am human.

@defaultusername I heard that too. "Moving on to" rather than "we are now in" but it was pretty clear containment has failed and slowing the spread was the new game in town.

Yes I heard a different voice on this from the pm and the chief medical officer. Assume PM is bored and disinterested on detail so I'd listen to the chief medical officer.

At one of the WHO press conferences they talked about contain and later delay/mitigate strategies not being mutually exclusive - ie countries would expect to be doing both at once.

Yanbu. I have lovely neighbours with a child with health complications for whom this would be catastrophic and I cringe every time I hear or read this.

YANBU. You have to have some sort of sociopathic tendency to not be in the least bit concerned for the vulnerable.

Someone has just said this to me, knowing full well I'm asthmatic. Got all huffy when I called them out on it, and told me I'll be fine. Why can't people just stop and think (and not spout platitudes they can't back up)

How do we know the death rate is 1-2%? 5% have died in Italy so far.

I have COPD and it's been said to me plenty. One said , yes but only 8% , and that may not include you. Arseholes.

God, that's so shitty - sorry you've had this too onlinelinda. It really makes me reconsider what I think of someone when they say things like this

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8027501.stm
just to get a bit of proportion.
I lived through and survived the 1968-69 pandemic

Thank you, @Throckmorton . Also I
Won't be the first person in this situation with teens and dependent student offspring. The stereotype of over 80s is not always accurate. The death rate with cardiac disease is 13%, apparently. WHO:

www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

That's also an interesting link, 17.

Absolutely onlinelinda - some people seem to have no concept that not everyone is young, fit and healthy. Fuck knows why because it's not as though having asthma/COPD/cardiovascular issues/being over 60 is exactly rare!

There's young fit 30 somethings who have died from it. Pneumonia is pneumonia- it could kill any one of us.

There that's cheered up the whole thread.

Yes, that's true about pneumonia, I had it last year and it was a horrible experience for my DH as well as me, when he was watching me gasping for breath while asleep. But the terrifying thing with COVID-19 is that it's viral pneumonia and it can't be defeated with antibiotics. I recovered after a second round of antibiotics, the second time double strength.

So yes, I definitely am scared at the thought of is viral pneumonia that can't be treated.

Yes it's a horrible thought isn't it, viral pneumonia. I'm only just recovering from double bacterial pneumonia, high strength IVs in hospital for two weeks, that was back end of Jan/beginning of Feb and it's taken all this time to regain some strength. I've had pneumonia countless times but never viral. It's really scary :(

It'll take longer than that-3 months to fully recover from pneumonia. Take care and look after yourself.

@Mittens030869
@SylvanianFrenemies

Did you know you can get a vaccine against bacterial pneumonia? I had one last week, it was £70 at Boots.

That's an informative graphic, 17million. Given that we're still so unclear on the CFR of this pandemic, I really, really, hope it turns out to be one of the circles down at the bottom. I understand HongKong flu had a CFR somewhere just below 0.5%, which could still be within the realms of possibility, I think, once we work out how many asymptomatic cases there have been.

Thanks @KenDodd - I have had this as I'm an eligible group.

I think people say that to reassure themselves that the serious risk is on a par with that of seasonal flu

I think it's also because it has flu like symptoms, and hence they think it's another strain of flu, like swine flu was. So it's also a misunderstanding.

But in fact a lot of illnesses have flu like symptoms. For example, malaria does, but no one suggests that it's another type of flu, as they know that it's a much more dangerous illness and kills millions every year. Plus everyone knows that it's a parasite that is transmitted via mosquito bites.

There is frequently an overlap with symptoms, which is why self diagnosis is a bad idea.

KenDodd thank you for that tip. Yes I did hear about that. I didn't bother in the end, as I'd had the flu jab so I thought it was very unlikely I would develop a nasty viral illness. How wrong I was.

I’ve found there are 3 groups of people:

1. The anti mask brigade
2. Those who think they won’t get ill & don’t care if they pass it on
3. Those who do everything to protect themselves & others.

I’ve had arguments with people because they don’t follow the rules. People at work, family, friends and in some cases, I’ve really fallen out with people.
My cousin died of covid. He was 42, fit, healthy, no underlying conditions yet people keep telling me ‘he must’ve had an undiagnosed condition’.
He had a post mortem and nothing was detected, yet a lot still don’t believe this to be true and tell me the hospital probably covered it up so they could report it as a covid death. I’ve heard this from a few people. It angers me that people can’t accept that this pandemic genuinely kills people and can kill people who are healthy as well as ill.
People hear about a death and say ‘oh, they had an underlying health condition’ BUT not all underlying health conditions are terminal or will even cause people to die (eg: asthma is an underlying health condition but people can live until a ripe old age with asthma).
There is a lot of hatred between groups of people since March and it’s getting worse!

There are a lot of people who appear to be scornful of anyone who expresses concern or indicates that they are prepared to follow the rules.

I think the dickishness of this depends entirely on the context/delivery

I agree. I'm so bored with the OP's complaint actually. I am elderly myself, but when I say such a thing to someone it is to try to get them to see things in perspective because so many people are allowing the fear of covid to ruin their lives.

I agree with the OP, who posted this way back in February. The dicks are still here, and seemingly ever more vocal in their casual eugenics.

It is starting to seem to me, though, that the more dogmatic of the dicks are in fact personality disordered and so attempting to reason with them, or point out facts, is really a pointless exercise, as reality is either denied or stonewalled with an avalanche of repeated incorrect 'opinions' and weird cherrypicked and usually false 'facts'. Perhaps it gives them some comfort to think thus, but they are repellant creatures, nonetheless.