We went for a walk and now I can’t stop worrying

[OregansHairStreak]

We went for a walk to get some exercise and food from the corner shop to keep us going. Tried our best to avoid people but there were a few moments where we were definitely less than 6ft away from someone (like paying for the food, passing someone walking the other way on the narrow street, a few tight moments in the shopping aisles).

I wasn’t worried at first but now I feel so angry at myself for us going out. We’ve stayed in since the 13th of March (purely out of anxiety, no symptoms, not a high risk group) and now I feel like I’ve exposed us.

How do people cope with this feeling?! Or have I lost the plot and gone OTT?

orangetwirl the op has not been out if the house for 12 DAYS how is she not taking it seriously. I doubt she popped out for just a loaf of bread she quite clearly says that they needed food. She is involved taking it seriously and telling her she should be more worried is unfair. Do you enjoy scaring people? OP is doing everything right and yet you are still trying to tell her it's not enough?
OP you did all the right things try not to worry and if you are worries try to stay away from places like this where some posters get off on telling everyone how wrong they are and how no one is taking it seriously but them. Be kind to yourself.

Do what you can: clean your selves, clothes, payment cards when you've been out.
If you're feeling anxiety, do some relaxing breathing exercises or drawing or punch a pillow - whatever works! These are stressful times and you're not the only one feeling how you feel.

Your hypothetical Jim will infect 2.5 people- and that is enough to cause horrific exponential spread

The chances of catching it outside from someone you walk past - even if its less than 6' - is vanishingly small. The virus is tricksy, but it isn't supervirus. People catch it from close contact - public transport for instance - or from touching something that is virussy.

Babdoc
Pothole, the R value for Corona virus is aporox 2.5. Your hypothetical Jim will infect 2.5 people- and that is enough to cause horrific exponential spread. Each person he infects will infect two or three more, who between them infect five more etc - the case load runs into thousands very rapidly, just look at the horrific graphs on Worldometers, they’re now climbing almost vertically.

Nah, I do know what an exponent is, and about exponential functions. The point is, if you could catch it that easily, the R value would be higher, and we'd be visibly screwed by now. We'd already be at mass graves in London parks!

The OP should not be panicking about having passed someone in a shop aisle. It's not that contagious. That way only lies poor mental health and eventually a sense of fatalism. She's done brilliantly at being responsible and she should carry on doing what she can to carry on her sterling track-record.

Look, today's advice to us, coalface, frontline NHS (radiographer) tells us that even if you get within 1m of the INFECTED patient, like positioning the patient for imaging /connecting cannulas; you only need basic PPE. Gloves, ordinary plastic apron (not long sleeved), paper mask; no eye shield needed.

If you're about to intubate someone or anything else aerosol (is that the term?) producing, then its full kit.

If that's all we need, you can walk past people, outdoors, keeping your distance; I do not believe you are at risk,

Is the R0 really 2.5? That’s higher than I thought. I wonder why we’re not (publicly) extrapolating from that to make more realistic estimates of the spread of the infection? The numbers are likely huge in the UK.

People are still minimising the risks. Sneezing is not a symptom of coronavirus. The government haven’t advised us to stay at home and go out only when essential for no reason! They haven’t shut the schools, colleges, shops and other businesses for nothing.

Government advice is clear - you’re allowed to go our to exercise.

One day you lot will wise up. I guess not before someone you love dies alone from this deadly virus. Hope those - who think it’s essential to go to the supermarket every other day for milk and bread dont contribute to the agonising, lonely death of your loved ones. If you do, own it!

There is truly no need to be such a cunt. OP hasn’t left the house in 2 weeks so she is hardly popping to the shops every day. If someone she loves dies it will not be her fault, and you have no right to try and forge that link to make her feel sick with guilt.

For those who think this virus is akin to common flu - you’re very wrong!

For the majority of people it is less severe than flu.

Why did I reply to scare the OP. I didn’t reply to scare OP. I’m being realistic. There is no point in telling OP “Awh you’ll be fine. Go out whenever you want. Nothing will happen. All’s good. You won’t contract coronavirus”. How do you know if the people OP has come into contact with is harbouring coronavirus? Fact is you don’t! Nobody knows. That’s why it’s so dangerous. Stay home. Stay safe. Only go out if essential. That’s the message. Nothing could be simpler.

You are taking a perverse delight in stirring up fear and presenting it as fact, even though you’re manifestly wrong about so much of it.

The minute you leave your home you are at risk. Don’t believe it? Fine... go do it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Stupid, fearmongering lies. You are not at risk the moment you step outside your door.

Yes we all have to shop for food. It doesn’t help when people think it’s essential to leave the house every couple of days to stock up and cause crowding in the supermarkets.

OP hasn’t left her fucking house in nearly two weeks!

Just fucking stay home unless it’s ESSENTIAL to go out. Another carton of milk or another loaf of bread this week is not essential!

People need food. It is fine for people to go out for food.

You are one of the people making this situation so much worse for so many people. I don’t know what sick delight you get from knowingly upsetting people and making them feel guilty and frightened but the volume of grief vultures who have come out of the woodwork in recent weeks is crazy and depressing.

Just get a fucking grip and stop being so horrible.

I agree with fuckoffcorona. The hyperbole and hysteria they rightly rail against is rudiculous, at best; irresponsible at worst.

postspecific I've seen it quoted anywhere between 2.2 to 3.5.

OrangeTwirl

You didn't like science at school, did you.

Well said FuckOffCorona.

www.facebook.com/100000744048727/posts/3114149121953192/?d=n

Page removed, orange 😂

But whatever it was, facebook, as a link? Seriously?

Corona has brought out the 14th century 'End of the Earth-ers', hasn't it?

We need Hieronymus Bosch right now!

A broken link to a Facebook page. How compelling.

Read it and weep..., or keep shopping. Up to you really children

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-52018477

This isn’t the only large building that’s being taken over throughout the UK. But don’t let that stop you....

Let me guess, you were all over FB and other social media taking the piss out of preppers until March. Then you suddenly realised it was actually real, and you've gone from criminally underreacting to criminally overreacting.

If it helps, you're in the same prestigious club as our prime minister.

What the fuck are you on about? The OP hasn't been out since 13th March and went to a local shop to get some essentials. You are embarrassing yourself.

That article does not support or verify a single one of your alarmist and untrue claims. Want to try again?

I’d like a source for your claim that you’re at risk of catching CV the moment you walk out of your door, and I’d like a source for your claim that your loved ones will die if you go to buy food.

@orangetwirl - that’s Nonsense. Ops chance or contracting Coronavirus from passing someone at slightly less than 6 feet distance is tiny. Also worrying her now because you want to be all hitler youth is not helping.

MN is like some parallel universe - no-one I know in RL is displaying these levels of anxiety. It doesn't mean they're not taking it seriously but being terrified to leave the house isn't helping anyone.

An R of 2.5 is really high for a virus, and does lead to exponential spread, but it's not high the way babdocdescribes. If you infected people walking past them on the street from 2m away the R would be in the 100s.

Sorry I mean the way orange describes.