To think people may have already had coronavirus?

[minniebo]

I had pneumonia recently, pretty severe, hospitalised. Everyone I've told has said, 'it's weird how many people have said they've had pneumonia in the last month or two.' Yes I know it's the season for these things but it's a bit unusual that so many young and fit people have had pneumonia.

Just out of interest, has anyone you know had pneumonia in the last month or so (in the UK)?

Also, 2 undertakers I know of have said how much busier they have been since beginning of january.
For two different funeral directors in different areas to say that it’s their busiest year so far ever is surprising

They wouldn't give penicillin for flu but they would if the patient has signs of a chest infection caused by the flu, its not uncommon for a viral infection to lead to secondary bacterial infection(s).

Exactly. I’ve had antibiotics twice this winter due to colds. Obviously they do nothing for a cold, but nasty bacteria keep taking the chance to infect my sinuses when I’m really run down. I needed antibiotics to clear them. At other times I’m always able to fight those sinus infections myself.

Have you noticed how many people died in Italy today? Either it's not been in general circulation here or there's something magic about the UK population that means it just makes us feel dog-rough for a few weeks.

Hint. It's not the second one.

Frankly, I think it's pretty bloody insulting for anyone to speculate that it's been floating around the UK doing nothing except making a lot of people feel rough on Italy's worst day so far.

Frankly, I think it's pretty bloody insulting for anyone to speculate that it's been floating around the UK doing nothing except making a lot of people feel rough on Italy's worst day so far

We don’t know the normal UK death rate of the population who would be most affected 🤷🏻‍♀️ We aren’t in a position to say positively that it hasn’t been here sooner.

Pothole - see previous posts, undertakers are saying they are the busiest they’ve ever been

There’s no need to be narrow minded to not see the bigger picture with the evdidence being reported

Frankly, I think it's pretty bloody insulting for anyone to speculate that it's been floating around the UK doing nothing except making a lot of people feel rough on Italy's worst day so far

From the ONS - There were an estimated 23,200 excess winter deaths which occurred in England and Wales in the 2018 to 2019 winter

The guy who died of CV recently, aged 83, got his own national front page obituary, in any other year, he'd have been lucky to have made the back pages of the local volunteer news letter.

Perspective is required.

Nemophilist Undertakers are the busiest they've ever been with... what?

We are in a time of poor social equality, poor mental health and life expectancy has been dropping in various regions across the UK, and the 'Baby Boomer' generation is aging. A bump in deaths many, many years later is the natural consequence of any 'baby boom, and there are a lot of ways to die that aren't Coronavirus.

We don’t know the normal UK death rate of the population who would be most affected 🤷🏻‍♀️ We aren’t in a position to say positively that it hasn’t been here sooner.

1. We're in a position to notice if our ICUs are flooded with people needing ventilation.
2. People admitted with 'flu-like symptoms' are swabbed across the country to identify the viral cause, because we collect this data in order to determine how effective this year's seasonal flu vaccine was.

For me to believe that this thing has been circulating freely all this time, I have to either
a) believe that it's what I would call a nasty cold and the Chinese and Italians are making a fuss about nothing, or;
b) it's actually intelligent and has been trying to stay under the radar. To this end, it has been incredibly choosy about its targets, avoiding the particularly vulnerable elderly, avoiding care homes for example, and never affecting anyone so badly that they ended up in hospital and got included in viral sampling. For months.

Head in sand

jasjas1973

So you think it's been around since December 2018?

I'm trying to be mindful that we're discussing real human beings here rather than statistics so without intentionally sounding heartless, Italy has the highest proportion of elderly people in Europe and the second highest worldwide after Japan, approx 24% of the population of Italy is elderly. Their current death rate is 3.5%, only 0.1% higher than what was seen in China, and we already know that this virus is more likely to be fatal for elderly people so it stands to reason that a country with a higher percentage of elderly people will see more deaths.

One of the potential reasons for a death rate of 3.4% in China is that it is one of the most highly polluted countries in the world and this causes hundred of thousands of premature deaths each year. China has more smokers than any other country. Chest problems, breathing problems, and associated illnesses are already very common. Primary healthcare is virtually non-existent for much of the population so general health is poor is many areas too. One of the other things we know about this virus is it is more likely to be fatal in people with underlying health conditions so again it stands to reason that a population with a higher than average proportion of people with underlying health conditions would suffer a higher number of deaths.

Once the testing process is further refined and testing is more widely carried out so that the mild to moderate cases currently flying under the radar are counted in stats, I've seen reports that the projected 1-2% overall fatality rate will potentially drop to somewhere between 0.5 and 1%.

I'm trying to be mindful that we're discussing real human beings here rather than statistics so without intentionally sounding heartless, Italy has the highest proportion of elderly people in Europe and the second highest worldwide after Japan, approx 24% of the population of Italy is elderly. Their current death rate is 3.5%, only 0.1% higher than what was seen in China, and we already know that this virus is more likely to be fatal for elderly people so it stands to reason that a country with a higher percentage of elderly people will see more deaths.

One of the potential reasons for a death rate of 3.4% in China is that it is one of the most highly polluted countries in the world and this causes hundred of thousands of premature deaths each year. China has more smokers than any other country. Chest problems, breathing problems, and associated illnesses are already very common. Primary healthcare is virtually non-existent for much of the population so general health is poor is many areas too. One of the other things we know about this virus is it is more likely to be fatal in people with underlying health conditions so again it stands to reason that a population with a higher than average proportion of people with underlying health conditions would suffer a higher number of deaths.

Actually, that's entirely true, and is not a factor I took into account. It is possible that our different demographics would conceal the virus for longer.

It's very early days but the UK death rate is currently 1.1%, or thereabouts. The first UK cases were reported on January 31st, five weeks ago. Three deaths in five weeks and 273 known to be infected is a relatively slow spread. The infection rate will inevitably go up but I wouldn't be surprised if our death rate ended up being comparatively lower even amongst vulnerable groups.

January 8th my eldest daughter age 24 and my youngest daughter age 10 came down with a horrible virus. I have now wondered if it was Coronavirus. I have never seen them both so ill. The hacking cough was awful and I couldn't get their temperatures to come down. They were complaining of muscle pains, headache and both vomited just the once and my eldest had diarrhea for a few days which at the time I wondered about. Now looking back it all sounds very much like it could have been. I also had a friend at the same time saying she had this horrendous flu headache temperature and she had never felt that ill. I have never seen my 24 year old so ill.

My ten year old is still complaining of breathlessness now so she is going to doctor this week.

@PotholeParadise

Of course not! but the 23k extra deaths in a "normal" winter puts into perspective 3 CV deaths in the UK or the 300 + in Italy.

The way media is reporting CV you'd think no one dies in the UK ever!

Exactly. All I can say is I've honestly never felt so ill even when I had glandular fever some years ago I didn't feel as bad. I don't thi k it's necessary to ridicule anyone as none of us know the real facts.

I have no doubt there have been loads of ‘mild’ cases. We’ve either dismissed as a rough ride on a coughing bug (before Coronavirus was highlighted in the media) or “I haven’t been blue lighted to hospital, Coronavirus should have me on death’s door so it can’t be that” (Media madness, millions in hospital on ventilators yaddayadda).

We had a similar virus just before the news came out, fever then a nightmare cough and couldn’t shift it. Real muscle tiredness for ages, all of us caught it. We are fit, healthy and so rarely get I’ll. One family member had come home from working in China for a few months before Christmas too. Before the official cases, but so similar sounding

Just look at Italy, it was only hundreds back on 20th Feb, now it is over 7000. If someone above had it back in Dec 19 or Jan 20, surely we would have cases all over the country by now, this certainly would have been picked up by screen check now.

I’ts highly likely they do have many thousand more case across the country

The testing only confirms cases of those who have been tested

They aren’t testing throughout and therefore you wouldn’t know

Same as Uk, it’s likely to be far higher if everyone was tested, but they can’t do that and there’s not a whole lot of point in doing it as one day you might not have it, be tested and then catch it the next day or next week or whenever

DH and I were also pretty ill in late Jan/early Feb with symptoms very like Coronavirus, but before it was really big in the news. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have had it either. DH’s job until last month included lots of time in a factory owned by a Chinese company dealing with their staff (predominantly Chinese staff) so not inconceivable.
We’ll never know and can still get it again, but concerned about 2 family members both currently with cancer who are very high risk.

There were definitely a lot of people around here, including me, dd, sister and family and several friends, all ill over Christmas and into January. Everywhere I went people seemed to be coughing. I know a man in his 30s who ended up in hospital with pneumonia.

There are not noticeably so many illnesses now but not sure if that means we had it or not. It did enter my mind that we all might have had it as we were unusually ill.

At the nursery I work at lots of children have had sudden spiking temps of around 40C along with coughs and being generally unwell. Very contagious. Staff are also getting it, some with the red eye thing too. Had made me wonder. I’ve had it and had a sore throat, raised glands in neck, dry cough, red eyes, extreme tiredness. Haven’t had a temperature though. Seems to last a few weeks with symptoms changing daily. Very odd. Not a cold and not flu as feels different to both. My chest is ok though. If it isn’t C19 then there is definitely another unusual virus circulating this winter.

I'm a teacher and we had so many kids off with a fluey-virus about 2 months ago that we started combining classes. I've been here 16 years and we've never done that before.