Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Why are some people carrying on as normal?

323 replies

Greenbutterlfy566 · 15/03/2020 21:33

Why are some people carrying on as normal?

Genuine question... Why are some people going to restaurants, bars, theatres, cinemas, soft play etc? I honestly don't understand?

OP posts:
chomalungma · 15/03/2020 23:11

have to go to work why the hell do you not understand that

I did say aboiut caarrying on exactly as normal.

I too have to go to work. Which I am. But I am reducing stuff that I don't have to do - such as going to the pub or gym.

So I am not carrying on 'exactly' as normal. I have made adjustments without completely isolating myself.

chomalungma · 15/03/2020 23:12

It's unbelievable what some people will believe

I think having a medical science background helps me understand it.

mindproject · 15/03/2020 23:14

Explain it then. Is it an actual graph?

idontlike789 · 15/03/2020 23:14

Well normal to me is going to work , I'm most likely to catch it at work anyway I work in a big open plan office .
Same as going to a supermarket.

handmedownqueen · 15/03/2020 23:18

we are following advice from the NHS trusts we both work for and making sure our elderly parents follow advice to protect them too.DC at school, one has A levels and all seem clued up on hygiene. I am taking my asthma meds regularly and have joined our local fb community group to support people. believe Govt have good people advising them and are understanding the modelling from Italy and China. it is going to be tough for the NHS but the key is to focus on elderly and vulnerable groups which is being lost in the noise of mass panic

chomalungma · 15/03/2020 23:18

Explain it then. Is it an actual graph

The Chief Medical Officer gave a much better explaination.

Do you want a lot of cases in a short time - or the same number of cases but spread out over time - so the area under the curve is the same in the 2 scenarios.

By all means - get it now and risk the chance of going to an overwhelmed NHS - or get it later and maybe the NHS will be better able to cope in the summer months.

Exochord · 15/03/2020 23:21

I would rather get it now than when the system is even more overwhelmed in a few weeks time
If you catch it now and you’re one of the unlucky ones it’ll take you a couple of weeks to be ill enough to need treatment. By then we’ll be in the thick of it and you’ll be screwed. The best time to catch it is a couple of weeks ago so you could get your emergency treatment now before the NHS is overwhelmed. Or maybe about July when it’s all died down and you have a chance of actually getting a hospital bed if you need one.

rocketmen · 15/03/2020 23:21

Because I'm tired, suidical and depressed. If I can get out, I'm going to make the most of it.

Wehttam · 15/03/2020 23:23

Rhubarb get a fucking grip? Yeh, please know I’m going to be copy pasting that in the next few months when you’re dumbstruck by the sheer magnitude of what has happened to your daily life.

As for those slating the preppers because the stores are empty - errr no, they’re empty because the herd all swamped the shops in panic. Prepping, the clue is in the name. I did my shopping the end of January when China was in the thick of it.

Those buying up loo roll en masse right now are literally shitting themselves because the other sheep are doing the same. I prepped to avoid this.

😉

Alsohuman · 15/03/2020 23:27

Because it’s spring, the sun’s shining, the birds are singing, the daffodils are out. The world’s a glorious place and it would be criminal not to get out there and enjoy it.

DippyAvocado · 15/03/2020 23:27

By carrying on exactly as normal, do you think you are contributing towards the potential spread of this virus and not 'flattening' the curve.

Someone drew that curve on the back of a napkin

It's based on a chart from the American Center for Disease Control.
This guy (public health analyst at Thomas Jefferson University in the US) explains flattening the curve pretty well.

"It's the difference between finding an ICU bed & ventilator or being treated in the parking lot tent."

Suggestives · 15/03/2020 23:27

I have to go to work tomorrow, which involves a train and two tube trips before I get to my open plan office and two meetings with people who've also travelled from various parts of the country.

So it would have been a bit daft for me not to have enjoyed a coffee shop this morning and a restaurant meal with family tonight.

fuzzyduck1 · 15/03/2020 23:30

The only thing that we have been requested to do is wash our hands regularly

Been to work, shops, school, hobbies, so everything is business as usual

Going on holiday tomorrow

Imstillskanking · 15/03/2020 23:35

Why shouldn't they? The British govt hasn't put anything in place to stop people. People are putting their trust in the govt at a time of crisis, just as they have been told.

The rest of the world is looking on in horror at what Boris Johnson is doing.

catspyjamas123 · 15/03/2020 23:37

I’ve shopped online. Plenty of slots if you plan ahead and plenty of supplies.

My employer has clearly been leant on my the government to move most workers to home working with a skeleton staff left in the office.

I’ve heard of others doing it too.

It’s going to be terrible. The important thing is to try not to catch or spread it. We don’t have enough ventilators.

catspyjamas123 · 15/03/2020 23:38

@DippyAvocado is right. Stay in and flatten the curve.

todayisnottuesday · 15/03/2020 23:39

Do you want a lot of cases in a short time - or the same number of cases but spread out over time - so the area under the curve is the same in the 2 scenarios

See - I'd like to believe the herd immunity theory, but it has not been proven, so reliance upon it is making me uneasy. As is the UK response being different to WHO advice.

managedmis · 15/03/2020 23:39

"If the theatre is open, why would I not go?"

Yah, quite

^Grin

todayisnottuesday · 15/03/2020 23:40

The rest of the world is looking on in horror at what Boris Johnson is doing.

They do seem to be, yes.

todayisnottuesday · 15/03/2020 23:43

It's based on a chart from the American Center for Disease Control.
This guy (public health analyst at Thomas Jefferson University in the US) explains flattening the curve pretty well.

If the US are also going with the herd immunity idea, why are they taking more drastic measures that us?

TheSheepofWallSt · 15/03/2020 23:45

We’re not carrying on as normal at all.

We’ve moved to home working as our office is in a public building with lots of traffic passing through it/ lots of people travel in from different parts of the country.
DS still at nursery, but am ready to pull him out as soon as we see local cases (he’s asthmatic).

I’ve cut our trips out right back- we’re usually very busy, but I cancelled gymnastics class, weekly swimming and have said no public transport for us for the foreseeable (no car, so this is limiting). Also not been to the cinema or out for a meal this week (would usually do one or the other with DS once a week).

Have said this for the next fortnight and then I’ll review.

Have also been putting DS in the buggy if we have to go to the supermarket (so he can’t touch stuff/ surfaces) - am a lone parent so he has to come with me, or I’d leave him at home. And much hotter on hand hygiene, preventer inhalers and drinking enough water etc than I would be under other circumstances.

Gwenhwyfar · 15/03/2020 23:49

Doing it while we still can. I'm avoiding crowded places, but not avoiding going anywhere as I haven't been told to.

buttermilkwaffles · 15/03/2020 23:51

Not showing symptoms doesn't mean you don't have it, average time from infection to onset of symptoms is 5 to 6 days but in a small minority of cases up to 14 days or more.

You could also have it and be contagious but never show any symptoms as you have an extremely mild version.

Both of these seem good reasons to at least stop non essential interactions involving groups of people, especially larger ones. Many other countries in Europe are closing shops, bars and restaurants, cancelling events, as are many US states.

So it's all very well to say you will do it when you start showing symptoms, but that might already be too late to have prevented passing it onto others who will pass it on to yet more people...

Ladiva1971 · 15/03/2020 23:53

Because I work for a supermarket and if we decided to self isolate nobody could buy toilet paper or pasta!

DippyAvocado · 15/03/2020 23:56

If the US are also going with the herd immunity idea, why are they taking more drastic measures that us?

I don't think they're "going with the idea of herd immunity". I think the idea is that the virus is probably beyond the point of containment in the US (as they also didn't implement aggressive measures early on) so they are going with the next best option of trying to spread the disease to make it more manageable for healthcare.

The measures in the US are in pursuit of "flattening the curve", which requires optimally about 75% of people (someone has posted the models on another thread) to be aggressively social distancing in order to spread out the number of cases so there are a similar number overall but they are spread out over a longer period. Therefore fewer people are in need of hospital beds at the same time.

Swipe left for the next trending thread