Friend cancelled because she's scared of catching coronavirus..aibu to be annoyed?

[lindseyvvt]

Saturday night we are going to a concert in Newcastle (well we were meant to be )
We've paid for train (over £100 each ) and hotel (£150 split) and £80 ticket each.
Tonight she text saying she isn't coming as she is scared incase she catches coronavirus.
So I have nobody to go with and we only reserved hotel so I will have to pay £150 for that.
Aibu to be Annoyed?
I told her to get a grip,and was she planning on not going out till after this has gone.

YABU. Government here in Ireland have asked people to reduce social contact . She is doing just that. I would do the same. Go without her if you want but don't be annoyed at her for not going .

Op, how do you feel about things now that you have hopefully educated yourself from the information that people have posted?

I was a bit sceptical at first, thinking it was just a bit of panic, media frenzy etc... Then I have started at looking into it properly, and I have loads of family in Italy so I know what's going on there.

This has been massively underplayed actually... I still have UK family and friends that are incredibly gung ho about the whole thing, I also have to work with people like that. It's the selfishness that upsets me the most.

I don't think you're in the wrong to be carrying on as normal. I haven't changed a thing and I don't know a single person who has. Everyone I know is carrying on as usual right now.

I wonder if big gatherings and events do get cancelled, maybe you can get a refund on your tickets?

Why don't you go anyway by yourself. You might enjoy it
I think there seems to be a lot of mass hysteria. Unless you are in a vulnerable group you should just carry on as normal. It's impossible to be protected from everything

But people “carrying on as normal” will be the ones passing it to more vulnerable groups.
Apart from children, everyone is vulnerable to this virus. Elderly people and people with other health issues are more at risk, but young, previously healthy people are also critically ill.

I wouldn't go to a large gathering now and I'd be pissed off at being told to get a grip. However, as I'd already committed to it and it was my choice to back out, I'd give you my ticket so you could see if you could find someone to else to go with you.

I work in Healthcare- case managing a number of very complex community based packages. Our service users would likely die if they are exposed to Covid 19. Every time a new carer is sent to carry out the most intimate care, they must feel so scared. Therefore those of us in low risk healthy demographics have a duty to try and minimise risk. It won't spoil anyones life to skip a few concerts etc. I suspect later today we won't have the choice anyway.

*She’s liable for the costs
I’d go without her

As for the snide “you’re one of these people who think it’s just flu” comments sorry but it is just A flu
The world has gone fucking mad*

I'm sure they'd be grateful for your insights in Italy and Wuhan.

but it is just A flu

It literally isn't. It's a different virus type to a flu. If it was a flu, they would be able to create a vaccine relatively quickly.

Flu doesn't make doctors have to decide who gets to get treatment and who is left to die - happening in Italy.

Flu doesn't cause all travel between the EU and the US to be stopped.

People are not told to self isolate if they have been in contact with people that have it.

Now I'm not panicking, I haven't stocked up on pasta, eggs and loo roll. But the health service in Italy is struggling to cope. We need to learn from that and take this seriously to try and reduce the spread in order to not suffer the same issues.

It's impossible to be protected from everything, but this is different from anything we've seen in the last 100 years -- if we want to take drastic measures against one disease, then this is it. Otherwise, why would so many countries already be in lockdown?

We have seen nothing remotely this deadly, that is also this contagious. Even if the rate of serious illness is only 1% instead of 10%, this is almost certainly going to cause tens of millions of deaths, including hundreds of thousands in the UK. And if the 10% observed in every country's statistics is correct, this could cause hundreds of millions of deaths -- unless all of us act now to slow the spread, including people who are confident of being in the lucky 90%.

Those of us calling for immediate "social distancing" measures are asking everyone to suffer a couple of months' inconvenience and lost face-to-face socialising, and asking the government to provide temporary funding for people who really need cannot afford that. This would not be the end of the world forever, just a pause in certain activities for a relatively short while.

The benefits would be to save hundreds of thousands, if not millions of British lives. Plus, if companies figure out how to get work done by using mobile communications technology, the "new normal" could involve less time commuting and more time with our families and friends after the worst of this has passed.

Is it really not worth making this effort?

Just "carrying on as normal" is massively irresponsible.

People are going to die from this in the UK, in large numbers. How many depends on the actions of ALL OF US. We can either take steps to stop it spreading, which will be inconvenient. Or we can carry on as normal and spread the virus to those it'll kill.

Or doesn't that matter to you because they're old?

Don't even get me started on people's behaviour. My DS has bad asthma and yet it's other people that worry about catching it from him. Pathetic.

Just wait until after the government’s corona meeting at 12 today. You may find that the concert - and other events involving more than 1000 people- is cancelled anyway.

Can't believe everyone saying there are less than 500 cases...there are clearly thousands of people having the symptoms, they just aren't getting tested and confirmed.

Agree HelpFlattenTheCurve and somanydevices
I am stunned at how selfish people are being.
The slower the spread the less impact on health care services. The slower the spread the more chance of treatment options being found. The slower the spread, fewer people die.
We have to act as a whole community, and all pull together.
Do these people so blasé not have parents/grandparents/ friends who fall into the more vulnerable bracket ? I have friends and relatives I am worried about. I am also in my fifties yet have a twelve year old child.
The road next to mine has only one resident under 65, and he is in his 50s. Most of them are over 70. My village as a whole has an older age group, and no near hospital. The thought of it spreading here , and how many of my lovely neighbours I could lose, is horrifying.

Many people on twitter and here with all the symptoms who can’t get tested as have not been abroad. It is much more widespread already than the figures suggest.

So is this the worst virus in decades?

The worst in at least a century. This will almost certainly cripple the health services in most countries of Europe because almost none of our governments acted soon enough. And will also potentially plunge us into a recession far, far worse than any in living memory. It will cause, at least temporarily, the biggest social change in the west since the second world war. This is the biggest thing we as a society have faced since the 40s.

Just because it isn't the black death and most people will survive, it doesn't mean that this isn't actually massive. We need to act now to minimise the spread. To protect the vulnerable. To do what little we can to help ease the coming pressure on those who work in the emergency services, most especially the healthcare professionals. And if we can't cop the fuck on and adjust our lives to ones that will still be lives of extreme comfort just with more solo kinds of leisure for a year or so, what the actual fuck use are we as a people.

It's ok to not want to do that. I absolutely love the life I have now. I'm honestly grieving a little bit for the fact that I have to put a lot of my favourite things on hold for a while. It's not an easy mental adjustment at all. But the alternative if I don't, if we all don't, is absolutely fucking dire for the vulnerable and the frontline workers.

I'm not changing my life, going shopping etc

If the government enforce a nationwide quarantine or put your area on lockdown, you are going to have no choice. There are more and more cases and deaths everyday - but if you think your trips out shopping or to concerts are more important than peoples' lives, then there's really no helping you

I'm booked up to go to Amsterdam on a weekend cruise in three weeks I'm assuming that is still going ahead

You're joking right

So is this the worst virus in decades?

Depends on how you define worst.

It certainly is likely to have the biggest impact. Ebola is by some definitions worse, but it was so well contained that it didn't have the amount of transmission that this does, and so the impact was much less.

We have to remember they are only the known cases. I’m currently in hospital with my normally very healthy 2 and a half year old. Colds never normally bother him he just gets on as normal yet here we are day 5 in hospital. So yes probably not corona but he has all the symptoms and won’t be tested so lots of cases must be getting missed

Without being over excited we should, as we enter the Delay phase stop going to places with crowds and aim to keep one metre away from each other, Easter holidays should probably be cancelled, definitely to Italy but also Framce and Spain. This is not the end of the world but we should manage it a little more than we are doing as individuals

Op, how do you feel about things now that you have hopefully educated yourself from the information that people have posted?

I'd like to know too, is public health England correct to think that most people will do the bare minimum that they can get away with to protect the vulnerable?

God @Sugarhouse why won't they test him?
Hope he makes a full recovery.