To not understand the coronavirus panic

[YeahWhatevver]

With all the media coverage and social media posts on coronavirus it's hard to really understand why it's so bad.

As I understand it, for most people (and I accept that for those with preexisting conditions it's more worrying) nothing will come of it beyond a respiratory infection.

What am I missing?

That it spreads super quickly and therefore lots of people will get it and therefore even if it kills a small proportion of people that means a lot of people die. Which is bad.

This definitely needed another thread. 👍

It is bad , but probably better to go on another thread! There are a few around.

Well maybe it's alarming to see something spreading so widely and maybe some of us have elderly relatives and tiny babies we're worried about.

Seriously the amount of threads by people who aren't worried is silly. Congratulations if you're not worried, I would love to not be worried.

I think it's worrying. Every day it's spreading further. It's not affecting my life as yet but I am concerned.

Does anybody know how it’s affecting children? Are children dying of it?

Anyone know the age of the UK citizen who died on the cruise ship?

Genuine question.

I’m immuno-compromised. Am I more at risk? Every time I google it I get red top scare-mongering!

Children aren't at risk. Women also have better recovery than men

Let's say it kills 0.5% of people. That doesn't sound many. But if it's also so infectious that most people get it that might mean, say, a few dead children in the your child's school, or a few dead colleagues in my workplace. If the death rate rises to, say, 10 or 20% among the elderly then that means a LOT of families mourning dead grandparents.

With luck, the death toll will "only" be similar to a bad outbreak of seasonal flu, but it's hardly unreasonable for the authorities to be cautious before more is known about the effects!

No children have died yet I believe. Seems to not affect them as much.

it will mean me burying my dad, who won't survive it

From what I've understood from the news, no-one under the age of 9 has even had it? Or if they have, then they definitely haven't died from it.
Risk appears to increase with age.

Where is Birdie Friend and it's predictions??????

I don’t think there’s panic but this is a new illness that is spreading and people have died. I don’t understand what you don’t get about people being a bit concerned. Lots of bugs can kill vulnerable people it’s true but as someone prone to very bad chest infections I’m concerned, not panicking but certainly keeping an eye on the news.

We currently have no immunity so it will spread fast. Which means lots of people will be ill at the same time. Even if only a small percentage of these require hospital care, this will have a massive effect on the functioning of the NHS.

I think one of the worrying things that only become apparent in the last few days is that if you get it and recover, it can come back again. And that, together with the fact that there is, as yet, no cure makes it of more concern.

There's no need to panic yet - but it does seem inevitable that a lot of people will catch it.

So be sensible. Put in place any precautions that you can, and make sure that you have enough paracetamol/ibuprofen, tissues, etc in house (along with other vital supplies like toilet roll, pet food, baby food and gin).

Keep an eye on things and make sure you have a plan for what to do if it becomes obvious that there is a pandemic.

It could be worth asking your HR department (if you're working) what their plans are, so you know in advance.

Don't panic, but be prepared.

Thinking unselfishly too. Not just Uk.

Other countries just don't have the facilities, the medicine , the infrastructure and the support. It could hinder them greatly.

It will all have a knock on effect.

I'm not panicking but as I said on another thread, I am worried, as although I know the vast majority of people survive the illness, around 2-3% are dying and those people seem mainly to be elderly and to have pre-existing health conditions, so my very elderly parents and my sister who has a heart condition could die if they got coronavirus. Also, my daughter works in a hospital, and I know health workers have died too. So yes, I'm worried and I don't think that's unreasonable.

The cruise ship guy was apparently in his 70s.

I'm not panicking, I'm definitely concerned though. My son has a weak chest due to brionchiolitis, I had a nasty case of bronchitis 5-6 weeks ago and my chest still hasn't fully recovered, FIL is diabetic, MIL is diabetic with thyroid problems, my best friend has an autoimmune condition, a close friend is pregnant, and my neighbours are all elderly, one of whom has lupus, DH is in close contact with hundreds of people every day due to his job. There is a confirmed case in our county, exact locality not known.

And I'm getting cross over the conflation with seasonal flu for which most of the people I love receive a vaccine every year. They aren't vaccinated against this.

The thing you're missing OP, is that pretty much everyone has at least one person in an at-risk category.

It’s a shame they closed all the old fever / isolation hospitals and turned them into luxury flats. We might need them to cope with these kind of viruses and bacteria resistant infections.

I was sharing this opinion OP until a couple of days ago when it clicked.

as we know flu evolves every year, can never be eliminated and will kill some people every year.

this isn't flu - it's a different category of thing, more fatal, faster spreading.

imagine if either the flu virus never existed before now and we were in the first few cases as flu emerged as a new illness, or if you went back in time to when flu first emerged. with what we know now about epidemiology, given that chance just against flu we could prevent it taking hold, keep it isolated so it can't get endemic, constant status, seriously it would be possible to get it to die out. we never had the chance to do that with flu, and that virus and all its many any varied strains done more fatal than others will always be with us. it can no longer be contained.

we do have that chance with this new thing. Covid is either going to be contained by application of excellent epidemiology management, and will gradually die out because each infected person is effectively isolated until they recover and they don't infect anyone else. OR people will be light hearted about it and won't take the precautions seriously. Covid become a new thing that is permanently endemic in the population. evolving each year, no one able to maintain immunity, killing people every year except this thing is much more fatal than flu. and its not instead of, it's as well as flu.

if we massively overreact now, and follow every precaution, it is just possible we might stop this in its tracks.

Anti-bacterial resistant infections.

What you’re missing is you probably have no relatives who are at increased risk. My dad was, flu killed him, despite the vaccine. There’s millions like he was in the UK. Healthy people are dying too. The numbers are low now. They won’t be soon.

I haven't seen or heard of any panic. I think it's more serious concern, because nobody knows enough about it to contain or cure it, and it's spreading quickly.