Bored of the madness

[2dogsand1baby]

So now I can't buy toilet paper or nappies in my local store and can't book a doctors appointment...!

I get the "fear of the unknown" but seriously!?

It's no worse than flu! Flu kills too and (most) people don't panic buy every winter. COVID only seems to be affecting people with underlying health issues. The flu vaccine doesn't always work as influenza changes all the time. I don't get it.

I'm just so bored of all the drama.

Unless I'm missing some vital information that hasn't been shared publicly?????

mostly purveyed by knuckle-dragging wallies

Volunteer for a food bank. If they'd have you

Seriously, why the need for such rudeness and thinly veiled digs/ passive aggression at anyone who dares to have a differing opinion on here? No need for it.

Actually the fact that our first infections came at around the same time as Italy’s is a fairly good estimate that we are not likely to be as badly affected as Italy. Even the experts are unable to explain why Italy’s infection rate has been so high.

And no, we shouldn’t be worried. We should be aware, there’s a vast difference.

And I wonder if all the hystericals will be back on these threads in six weeks when the tide has potentially turned the other way and infection rates are dropping and the apocalypse hasn’t happened.

People are almost gleeful in their thinking that everyone downplaying this is going to be sorry.

Thing is we don’t actually know how this is going to pan out.

People are saying that everyone is going to be affected, how life is going to change forever, how businesses are going to fold etc etc etc as if it’s fact. But as yet we don’t actually have any facts.

However, life will change for some and businesses will fold if people carry on like this. That definitely is a fact.

I'm with you OP. Yes I know it's not the "normal" flu, but the whole "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!" hysteria is getting silly.

As is the it's all fiiiiiiiiiiine nonsense

An excerpt below from a piece written by a surgeon working on the front line in Italy. A place called Bergamo which I've been to, its just your average small town.

“I can also assure you that when you see young people who end up intubated in the ICU, pronated or worse, in ECMO (a machine for the worst cases, which extracts the blood, re-oxygenates it and returns it to the body, waiting for the lungs to hopefully heal), all this confidence for your young age goes away. And while there are still people on social media who boast of not being afraid by ignoring the recommendations, protesting that their normal lifestyle habits have "temporarily" halted, the epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us.

The cases multiply, up to a rate of 15-20 hospitalizations a day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the emergency room is collapsing. Emergency provisions are issued: help is needed in the emergency room. A quick meeting to learn how the to use to emergency room EHR and a few minutes later I'm already downstairs, next to the warriors on the war front. The screen of the PC with the chief complaint is always the same: fever and respiratory difficulty, fever and cough, respiratory insufficiency etc ... Exams, radiology always with the same sentence: bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All needs to be hospitalized. Some already needs to be intubated, and goes to the ICU. For others, however, it is late. ICU is full, and when ICUs are full, more are created. Each ventilator is like gold: those in the operating rooms that have now suspended their non-urgent activity are used and the OR become a an ICU that did not exist before. I found it amazing, or at least I can speak for Humanitas Gavazzeni (where I work), how it was possible to put in place in such a short time a deployment and a reorganization of resources so finely designed to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude. And every reorganization of beds, wards, staff, work shifts and tasks is constantly reviewed day after day to try to give everything and even more. Those wards that previously looked like ghosts are now saturated, ready to try to give their best for the sick, but exhausted. The staff is exhausted. I saw fatigue on faces that didn't know what it was despite the already grueling workloads they had. I have seen people still stop beyond the times they used to stop already, for overtime that was now habitual. I saw solidarity from all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask "what can I do for you now?" or "leave that admission to me, i will take care of it." Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we are unable to save everyone and the vital signs of several patients at the same time reveal an already marked destiny. There are no more shifts, schedules.”

The full translation here www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/ff8hns/testimony_of_a_surgeon_working_in_bergamo_in_the/

The original article
bergamo.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/20_marzo_07/coronavirus-bergamo-medico-humanitas-facebook-situazione-drammatica-altro-che-normale-influenza-4fdf6866-6088-11ea-8d61-438e0a276fc4.shtml

OP There is a middle ground between you and people stockpiling toilet role, which is where we should all be now. It's not the same as the flu. It's novel, no one has immunity and there's no vaccine.

But do you really think that the government would be having Cobra meetings if it was just the same as the flu. Do you think that Italy would have quarantined people if it was just the same as the flu?

I'm obviously hoping that the worst case scenario doesn't come to pass and we can look at now as a moment of madness, but your attitude is just ridiculous.

@AlternativePerspective - excellent post. Agree many sound almost gleeful like it's some sort of entertainment for them. Very annoying and very unhelpful.

Even the experts are unable to explain why Italy’s infection rate has been so high

Ah well, they just need too read up on here then, that'll inform them eh ....

An excerpt below from a piece written by a surgeon working on the front line in Italy

We're not in Italy. There is no evidence as yet that we are heading that way either.

@bellinisurge On another thread, you've got posters talking about snapping up cheap holidays that are too good a bargain to miss!

Time to abandon the myth that this isn't just flu

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/covid-19-must-not-be-underestimated-virologist-warns-ppt7tb8ms

@AlternativePerspective I don't think I'm the kind of poster you're referring to as I'm not hysterical and I'm certainly not finding it entertaining. And I agree with you that it's unlikely things will get as bad here as they potentially will in Italy.

But just for the record, if in six weeks the tide turns and infection rates start dropping I'll still be here, celebrating wildly and being absolutely delighted to have been proven wrong!

@SnoozyLou , nope. Not me.

I was told by an out-of-hours GP yesterday (we'd called 111 because DS has all the symptoms of coronavirus) that people are panicking unnecessarily, that the media coverage is irresponsible, and that he would not recommend DS be tested for Covid-19 because "he's a teenager and he will recover on his own whether he has the test or not."

When I asked if we needed to self-isolate in order to protect the more vulnerable members of society, the GP got really arsey and said that it was the responsibility of the older / medically vulnerable people to isolate themselves.

I'm all for not panicking and trying to keep life as regular as possible, but this seemed really callous to me

DS is no better today either. But I can't get any treatment for him as the NHS refuse to see him unless he's recently returned from Wuhan / Northern Italy / Tenerife / Iran etc, or had contact with a confirmed Covid-19 sufferer.

@Kazzyhoward and how concerned are you about the 8400 children who will die of hunger today? And the 8400 who died yesterday? And the 8400 who will die tomorrow?

We're not in Italy. There is no evidence as yet that we are heading that way either

None we are not either.

Three weeks ago, Italy had a handful of cases and a far better equipped/staffed health service but like the UK, an aging population, critical care bed usage is running at over 85% in the UK, many at hospitals at capacity already.

I meant only a small proportion should be being extra careful in the same way they would every winter. Not every man and his dog

Riiiight. Lovely. So all you fit & healthy people can get it, and quickly recover, but tough shit to all the vulnerable people you spread it around to because you don’t want to be extra careful.

MrsSpencer he could always ignore the dr and self isolate.

@MrsSpenserGregson At our GPs, the receptionist took her son to Northern Italy, then went into work for a week before they discovered she had it. She passed it on to 2 coworkers. We hope that's it, but those vulnerable patients will go visited the surgery would have been greeted by her for a week. So far as we know, there are just 6 confirmed cases in our local area, which is astounded given that level of complacency. Her son was also in school for a week. Another confirmed case took holy communion at the local church a week yesterday.

So while I'd agree the media is blowing up this boogeyman at all of our doors, it would be nice if some people could just be a bit more aware, because there is still breathtaking stupidity out there. Singing happy birthday and washing your hands probably isn't enough.

"Even the experts are unable to explain why Italy’s infection rate has been so high"
I would have thought it was fairly obvious. On the whole, their family dynamics are different to ours...bigger families, all living together or meeting up in larger numbers. Also their style of greeting is to cup hands around other persons face and kiss them cheek to cheek.

@TabbyMumz Plus when you've got all those people cooped up in ski resorts, it's going to go through those places like wildfire.

How do the Italians have bigger families than ours? Their birthrate is lower and has been for years.

@TabbyMumz I think you've been watching too many films! I am in Italy and I only know one family that live with relatives. Lots of only children.

I was told by an out-of-hours GP yesterday (we'd called 111 because DS has all the symptoms of coronavirus) that people are panicking unnecessarily, that the media coverage is irresponsible, and that he would not recommend DS be tested

But he is RIGHT though. 111/ 999 services are buckling under the strain of people, who do not need to be ringing, phoning them. Every unnecessary phone call/ GP appointment could quite easily be preventing someone who DOES need to worry (eg the elderly, neutropenic/ those with LTC's) getting through.

Those extra tissues/ toilet roll you stocked up on could be stopping someone with cystic fibrosis getting a vital supply. The hand gel could be stopping an antibiotic from working on sick people in the future. Do people not care about any of this, or that sensationalism/ unsubstantiated claims are actively promoting this sort of behaviour?

I would have thought it was fairly obvious

If it was obvious, the actual experts would have sussed it by know don't you think?

I wouldn't be too sure some of the Keep Calm & Carry On brigade aren't stashing stuff away. I'm alright, Jack.

(And no, I'm not stockpiling by the way.)

Singing happy birthday and washing your hands probably isn't enough.

So what do you suggest people do then? The self-employed, the healthcare workers, the ones without family support/ childcare, the ones without the resources to self isolate if needed?

People cope in different ways, some catastrophe, some deny - who is to say one way is right and one wrong? There are as many dangers caused by panicking people as there are complacency.