AIBU to not be worried shitless about coronavirus like the vast majority?

[Thefaceofboe]

Am I....????

And there are still people in Italy whose feelings haven’t changed. I have a friend who lives in Rome, she’s as sanguine as I am about it. It seems to be much more about personality than risk.

I have a friend in Italy in the quarantine zone. She's not afraid of the virus but she's worried sick that she's running out of money because her income has stopped.

@Alsohuman I've been accused of sneering too. The person in question never replied as to why 🤷‍♂️. It's an easy insult to throw when they don't like a response.

@Alsohuman well it’s lucky for the person in Rome that they have the Italian government and medical staff to ‘worry’ and act for her. Otherwise she’d be stuffed!

@isabellerossignol This would be my concern too. There isn't a chance I could take 2 weeks off work, there would be no business to return to. Catching a virus doesn't concern me, losing my livelihood does.

Why would she be stuffed? No amount of worry can change this for anyone.

@Alsohumsn because worry is the precursor to action? A certain amount of worry and concern is making the Italian government lockdown half the country. The government t are not doing it because they were not concerned.
Concern = Action
No concern = no action

OK, whatever you say.

@Alsohuman no idea why you are prepared to say being blasé is great but anyone calmly, like I am, not panicking but being way more actively taking a preventative role is bad? Doesn’t make any sense.

I am glad lots of people like me though, calm but concerned enough to take proactive action. We will probably save lives.

It’s down to individuals to feel it’s concerning or not

But if it spreads at the rate it has within 8 weeks we are talking about the majority of the people in this country catching it do the sums

The pressures on the NHS and the downturn on the economy worldwide will have long lasting impact of nothing else concerns you that should as it will impact us all

I'm not concerned about being infected, however, I'm concerned that I will be stuck in a Eastern European country away from everybody I know. I am here for work, unable to leave at the moment due to work, yet I might be stranded in a country where I didn't even speak the language.

Stop making up what I’ve said. For the sake of clarity, like most sensible people I’m hand washing far more than usual and taking all the recommended precautions. It would be stupid not to. As someone with a higher than average risk of mortality, married to someone with a much higher risk of mortality, I really hope we don’t get it and will do my best to avoid it.

But I’m not going to panic and worry about something I can’t control. If the bloke and I get it, we get it. If we die, we die. We have no dependent children or elderly relatives so the world wouldn’t really miss us. Our adult kids would be sad but that’s going to happen one day anyway.

Its like Swine Flu and Ebola all over again, although to be fair I actually knew several people who had Swine Flu and they are all very much still alive. So it wasn't the end of days event that it was predicted at the time...

Swine flu was never considered all that dangerous. I had it, so I know it was nasty, but that was all it was ever going to be. The fear was of the much more dangerous bird flu, which had a mortality rate of 60%. There were fears that it would mutate and transmit from human to human, and that would have been far more devastating than the coronavirus is now. Thankfully, it never happened.

Please get the facts right. Swine flu led to far fewer fatalities than ordinary flu that year overall.

That plus the fact that it was a strain of flu and so they were able to create a treatment and a vaccine relatively quickly.

But if it spreads at the rate it has within 8 weeks we are talking about the majority of the people in this country catching it do the sums

Why would the UK be different from the other countries though? The majority of people in other countries haven't caught it.

I'm not completely blasé about infections. If this was ebola or plague I'd be sick with worry.

CV-19 is not the flu. It has only infected humans for just over 3 months & in that time one-tenth of the entire global population was put into unprecedented quarantine measures, health systems of Hubei & northern Italy entirely overwhelmed, over 100,000 infected across the globe & exponential growth underway in a number of countries.
It is entirely new to our species. We have no immunity. We have no idea what long term health impacts will be. Read up on long term health outcomes of some of those who ‘recovered’ from SARS. I cannot believe how complacent people are about allowing this to become endemic in our population.

WHO didn’t declare this a pandemic until it reached India and Nigeria. How these countries deal with it (or if they even know the true scale of infections) should reflect whether or not you should be worried because from an international perspective there is more tourism between the UK and India / Nigeria than there is between the UK and China.

It scares me that people can look at the measures Italy has taken today and still say this is all overhyped. This is serious

This.

Yes, not everyone will get CV - maybe only 30-60% of us.

Yes, Of those that get it most will not need admission to ICU, and most will not die.

But it is going to spread, there’s no doubt about that, and measures will need to be taken as in Italy to slow the spread and buy time to ready the NHS and to develop a vaccine. These measures will impact almost all of us in terms of our daily movements. Some more than others.

Having sufficient groceries in to enable me to do minimal shopping when the outbreak us at its peak seems only sensible. I won’t want to be in crowded places, and if I’m at home that will be one less person in Asda.

I don’t think the WHO is given to fearmongering, yet they are warning governments that “this is not a drill”.

Clearly we should not panic, but wearing lack of concern like a badge will put others at risk.

But if it spreads at the rate it has within 8 weeks we are talking about the majority of the people in this country catching it do the sums

Why would the UK be different from the other countries though? The majority of people in other countries haven't caught it.

We don't know that it won't, though; it's still early days. Also there's the fact that Chinese government took draconian action to stop the spread of the virus, and Italy has taken strong measures to keep it at bay.

So far, our government definitely isn't doing anything to stop the spread as far as I can see.

And no, I'm not panicking, but I have a DM of 80 and close friends with pre-existing health problems (and I have that too) so being concerned is a reasonable response to what's going on.

I haven't seen anyone say that. Did someone say that on this thread? That's horrible.

I'm not suggesting that things like that are on this particular thread, but it's the mindset of plenty of posters on other threads and ergo people at large who lack empathy or compassion. They can't join the dots, they're so casual about the fact there are human beings who will suffer or be taken by this virus and people experience anxiety at different levels and tolerances' so coming on here to say how cool they are is crass.

Why even say it, just jog on and get on with life, good luck.

Expressing anxiety on here for some people is their only escape valve so we should hold out a hand and not make people feel bad if they are "scared shitless"

Well, trying to stay calm and cool headed can be the best thing, it doesn't mean ignoring sensible hand washing etc, but getting very stressed and worried doesn't do anything to help...and can cause stress to those around us.

I have to live already with a health condition which can be very serious if it flares up and not much can be done about it. It's been really hard but over the years you learn to live with the uncertainty. It's easier said than done though

Not worried here, I'm middle aged, no kids at school and no underlying health problems. I was in the supermarket yesterday laughing at the loo rolls stacked high in trolleys - diarrhoea isn't even a symptom! My theory is that if I catch it I will deal with it, no point worrying

Why would the UK be different from the other countries though? The majority of people in other countries haven't caught it

🤦‍♀️

We’re at the beginning. That’s why. China haven’t contained it - they’ve just delayed the rest of the country catching it. Every government on the planet has said that it’s not containable, all measures are to delay spread to reduce impact on health services.

Why does this have to split into two camps where the calm people mock the people who are genuinely scared? And some people showing off that they’re not ‘hysterical’. That’s great. Well done you, what heroes you are.