Is this whole thing being exaggerated?

[agentstarling]

Coronavirus seems to only affect mostly older people with already compromised immune systems. So far we have had only 11 deaths some being 80 even a ninety-year-old. The press is whipping people up into a hysteria in my view I have a degree in biology I am not a doctor but I would say that some of this is ridiculous.

You do realise people who die of this in their old age don't go quietly with beatific relatives holding their hands. They die alone, probably frightened, with maybe a nurse covered in masks and gloves and gowns to ease their final moments.

I am not saying old people don't matter but it's not the case that this is a death sentence for them. Not the whole population will catch it also we have a better health service than China. In Italy and China older people culturally form more a part of the society and are involved heavily in family life so it spread more acutely there. Also a lot of old people are effectively already isolated in this country. Even though this is a serious thing people need to dial down the anxiety and histeria b/c it will lead to a situation like in India where someone kills themselves to protect their family or something ridiculous.

But and it’s a big but you have to look at these figures in conjunction with the actual numbers of people in these age groups. That’s the trouble with quoting statistics. If we only have 100000 people over 80 in the country then that means statistically 10000 will die ( of all causes) each year. With Covid we may see more or we may just see the same but concentrated during the main outbreak. Who knows?

Italy's health system is about 2nd or 3rd in the world OP.

At the moment only 10000 have it out of 67 million

No-one actually knows how many people have it, and that number is 2 days out of date.

The death rate has doubled overnight.

Let's suppose it continues to double - by this time next week 2,700 people could be dead.

What is the death profile of coronavirus, in Italy in particular?

Italy has the best healthcare system in Europe.

China has been able to count of complete cooperation from their population with regards to lockdowns.

You just have to read MN to know that many in the UK will flout the rules and walk their dog, go to the beach or jog because rules are for everybody else

I thought Italy was only intubation under 65s, not 55, according to an anaesthetist I spoke to last Thursday. Has that changed? 😳

Pretty sure they have more ventilators than us. Boris hasn't ordered extras and we don't ha e enough to treat everyone who becomes seriously sick

agentstarling you think along the same lines as me. People just don’t get that epidemiology has so many variables and in science we use it to explain both the expected and unexpected.
I live in one of the baby hit flood areas where we have effectively been forced into social distancing due to weather and the River Severn. It is no surprise that we have very low numbers. We are also very rural and isolation is extremely easy.

UK Life expectancy is 80 years !

Sorry the Op is at best stirring.

I am bowing out of this thread. I cannot take the last few posts of the OP seriously. no-one can be that delusional in real life surely.

agent let's talk again in 4 weeks time and see if you've changed your way of thinking. I'm out of this thread too.

The good thing about MN is that we'll all be able to return to these threads over the coming days and weeks.

"people are already isolating. My cousin is having a birthday party tonight my whole family are going"

Can you see the flaw in this?

Tara Agentstarling. speak in a month or so.

@daisypond which hospital has completely closed?

I would like to add to the people saying fuck off. And tell you about the two,old people in my life who I don't want to die of this.

My father -82 and a retired GP. He was born in Germany and saw his entire family sent to the gas chamber. He ended up in Prague where he met my mother. They were both activists against the communist regime and had to escape to the UK with their three young children. He joined a GP practice and served the community for over 40 years. In addition to that he has worked tirelessly to raise money for children's charities and was a school,governor. Now he lives with me shares the care of my mother in law....

Who came over here with Windrush and settled in Brixton. She raised her son (my late husband) single handedly after her husband left her to return to Jamaica and was never seen again. She held down two jobs - a day job in an office as an administrator and a night job cleaning offices. Her son was looked after by neighbours, who my mother in law went on to nurse when they fell ill. As her son got older and more independent she did evening classes and gained her GCSEs and A levels and the year her son went to university she too started her degree course in English Literature. Following that she trained as a teacher and worked with troubled and vulnerable teenagers. She retired when she developed breast cancer five years ago and is now stage IV - but doing well on chemo.

These two people have touched the lives of thousands of people. They are precious and whilst, yes, they are elderly, their lives have value.

It is true that Italy has a very good health service if you look at this chart you can see that Italy has 7 million people over the age of 75 we have about 5 million. Also as I said it spread faster there than here because they have closer families. Maybe we should start closing things down when cases rise but people need to stop with the hysteria. For old people creating all this worry and concern isn't helping them anyway. Most of the people fighting over toilet paper seem pretty young and all the people calling off parties etc probably live with other young people. Slowing down the spread will help but if it spreads throughout the young population that doesn't necessarily mean it will spread to older people as well.

www.statista.com/statistics/789270/population-in-italy-by-age-group/

There is no hysteria. What you see as hysteria is people taking sensible precautions to show the spread, as well as a bit of selfish /thoughtless behaviour in terms of shopping.

But please, carry on ignoring the real facts and burying your head in the sand. Its no problem to me if you or your elderly relations get it.

Oh, and it's pointless quoting the number of cases in the UK. They've stopped testing unless you are ill enough to go to hospital. The real number is unknown

Oh, and it's pointless quoting the number of cases in the UK. They've stopped testing unless you are ill enough to go to hospital. The real number is unknown exactly. And likely to be massively higher.

Yes, we have no idea how many cases we have. Only those that are hospitalised are being tested. I just can't get my head around this, the numbers we are hearing are pointless and give no indication of how far and wide the virus has spread. How on earth can we plan and react to the situation when we have no idea where we actually are???

UK is only testing 400 per 1 million population. Italy is testing 1000 per 1 million population.

I thought Italy was only intubation under 65s, not 55, according to an anaesthetist I spoke to last Thursday. Has that changed? 😳