Is this the end of the world as we know it?

[SubordinateThatClause]

Just that really. Not trying to be to hyped and dramatic about life. How far reaching do you think the consequences of this thing are going to be - economically, socially, politically? Will life ever get back to how it has been?

Let's face it. It's not going to just go away is it? Might just save the planet if the pollution reduction over China is anything to go by though.

[BoomBoomBoomLetMeHearYouSay]

Oh @TinklyLittleLaugh that will be great , if we just kill off all those older people we can get Boris out. Worth it then 🙄

[agonyauntie2020]

As long as we have mumsnet we will be ok.

In my Trending Now sidebar I have this thread and right under it, one called "AIBU to say that this meal is not a gravy meal "
with equally serious discussion of each.

Thank you mumsnet community. I love you.

Also OP I heard this joke recently "I didn't survive acid house music and the 90's to be wiped out by a virus named after a lite beer"

[Bodule]

Is this the end of the world as we know it?

Short answer: no.

I say this as someone with chronic lung problems, but I couldn't be less bothered if I tried.

[MrsAmaretto]

Hopefully it'll make some dirty fuckers out there wash their hands more!

[Chloemol]

Get a grip

[Ihatesundays]

I hope also it changes the way the Chinese manage food and general hygiene. DH works for a Chinese company and the stories we hear from staff who work out there would curl your hair.
He works with safety and they have made great changes in the last few years, 10 years ago it was almost non-existent.
I need to calm down and think of it as a marathon and something we’ll have for a while. Reading MN though and you would think 80% of us will get it in the next 2 weeks.
DHs company are undertaking a lot of planning just now and it will be a normal thing for workplaces to have a plan for similar from now on.

[SubordinateThatClause]

@Chloemol - nothing to add to the discussion then?

[Dylaninthemovies1]

And Lenny Bruce is not afraid

[Dowser]

I hope public areas will be cleaner, public toilets , public transport and the food industry employers will have greater checks made on them.
It’s an eye opener for me how many extra times im washing my hands
I hate having dirty hands, now I’m washing what I thought were clean hands..just to be safe

[SilverySurfer]

Of course it is, soon there will be white crosses painted on the doors of any household with a known Coronavirus victim and the Government are currently recruiting people to walk the streets shouting 'bring out your dead' whereupon the bodies will be piled on carts and taken to mass burial sites.

SFS.

[AuldAlliance]

I don't know why people are reacting so scornfully.

Lessons will need to be learnt and some are being discussed

One problem that was already obvious before this outbreak was the need to break dependence on China for medicine and drug manufacturing. CV will hammer home how necessary that is. Hearing health ministers today say that drugs have not yet started to run out is evidence of that.
It's a question that the EU were already looking at and will now examine more urgently. Leaving the UK out, though, as requested.

Perhaps authorities will begin to realise that the current short-sighted, project-based approach to research funding is a bad idea: work was being done on coronaviruses after SARS but, in the absence of a new outbreak, interest dwindled and lots of funding applications by teams working on coronaviruses were turned down. Regular funding of primary research needs to be provided as it used to be, so there can be ongoing work into viruses like these, not urgent races to find a vaccine when people start dying in a mass outbreak.

In my profession, people are slowly catching on that a lot of meetings where people catch planes to be in one place could easily be held via videoconference and there is therefore a tiny glimmer of hope that such useless air travel (and expense) will become less common. And maybe more people will reconsider how often they fly and make a dent in the trend that's been growing since low cost flying became a thing.

Trump's criminally irresponsible reaction to CV might just filter through over the coming weeks among some US voters (those capable of dismissing his crap about it being a plot to oust him) as the extent of the damage caused becomes clear. Maybe some might reconsider voting him in again. I'm not optimistic, but if it happened, the world as we have known it over the last 5 years, and which has meant watching open-mouthed as the US checks and balances and fundamental principles began being toppled one by one, might be a little different.

Which is what I understood the OP to mean, rather than that the world would end.

But it's the long-term economic fallout that will probably have the greatest effect.

[Ilovemypantry]

@PicsInRed
Not helpful at all...haven’t got a clue what you mean!

[Dovegreyflower]

People saying get a grip are flippant idiots

Hand washing will not prevent spray/ breath infection

Read some reports published about the situation in Italian hospitals.

This infection can have a dire effect on some people, you don’t in reality know who it will affect, so don’t dismiss people who have genuine reasons to worry.

[helpfulperson]

It will bring big changes to the world we know. Just as the AID's pandemic did in the eighties. And I'm sure the Spanish flu did in the 1900's.

But life will go on, things will go back to normal, albeit a different normal.

[Devlesko]

I jolly well hope so. I hope we end up with a much better world.

[Moomin8]

No it's not. This coronavirus hysteria is getting really out of hand and ridiculous

[Moomin8]

Uhhh this is in no way comparable with HIV. If you were diagnosed with that in the 80s it was a death sentence. The authorities were faced with trying to make people understand that not using a condom could eventually cost their life - difficult when people are never going to stop having sex and in the heat of the moment don't want to use a condom.

[Shinycat]

Agree with all the posters on here saying the post by @emmcan is utterly vile. (The one at 21.07.)

After the media and social media panic is over, and idiots stop posting dumb things on the stupidnet, Covid 19 will become another seasonal issue. Like wasps, or having the in-laws round at Christmas.

83 million useless fucking feeders are added to the population every year.

No virus has yet been able to even scratch the surface of the endless, parasitic breeding of Homo Sapiens. And this poor, tiny, scared little example is no different. Well done. Well done, everyone.

Absolutely vile. ^

[Dowser]

I was one of two children left standing in my class of 40 in 1957 when in Asian flu did the rounds.
Teachers were off I’ll as well as pupils.
Am I scared about this?
No

[Moomin8]

And anyone who hopes for a government who actually gives a shit to emerge from this, you'll be waiting a long time.

People wonder why you shouldn't vote for the Tories. Tory voters who rely on the NHS are about to find out...

[Lausch95]

I suffer from anxiety and this thread has done me the power of good this evening!
Yes there will be inevitable changes.
Let's just try stay positive if we can!!

[Oakmaiden]

No. People are very resistant to change. It will change the lives of some people, but for most people it will be an unsettling period of time, possibly followed by a short term change, but in the long term they will go back to the way things are.

[Lausch95]

@moomin8 I agree.

[Hadenoughofitall441]

🤦🏼‍♀️

[Langbannedforsafeguardingkids]

I think life will change after this yes, and I don't think it will go back exactly to how it was before. I suspect the permanent changes will be greater in countries that haven't got it under control. Those who've done well (e.g. Singapore) will probably go on as before.

In the countries that don't do well with containing and delaying this (i.e. IMO UK, Italy etc):

Negatives - a lot of people will die and have life limiting chronic illness. I wish this could be avoided. The rest of us will have to deal with illness and death on a scale we haven't known before.

Positives - we will have learned that we really can do things environmentally if we try hard enough - WFH / virtual meetings etc. The environmental benefit will be huge. The world will carry on if we don't fly everywhere. I hope this will be a permanent change going forward. In the long term coronavirus might just save the human race from climate change... who knows? People may begin to question if the economy is the most important thing and who it really benefits to prioritise economy over people and the environment.

Also, I don't think the government will be able to claim that the NHS is fine as it is. Of course, there will be lots of ex public schoolboys that insist that the solution is to sell it off and private US-style healthcare but hopefully the population will push back against that. Hopefully we will see a properly staffed and funded NHS again. And all the staff will be appropriately paid for their skill level and contribution.

RElated to above point about NHS - in this country, Labour have made themselves unelectable and the LIbdems too really - if the Tories fuck this up (which they're doing IMO) I think there will be a real chance for a new party to come in and make big wins. Maybe a 'save the NHS party' or something like that. I think there will be the potential for real political change anyway, and something quite different from what has gone before.

I think the recent trend to disbelieve experts and reality will stop. People will see what reality looks like. The population won't put up with so much bullshit and style over substance PR crap. If what the government is telling us turns out to be wrong - and we can see with our own eyes that countries like Singapore got it right - then they won't be able to fool the masses with meaningless PR speak in the future.