Have I totally misunderstood Coronavirus?!!

[Soph7777]

I'm really confused on so many levels. I don't understand why such panic about contracting it IF you have no underlying health conditions or are over 70.

The chance of dying is still much lower than many, many other illnesses.

I obviously get why people shouldn't be going out of their way to get it - to protect the NHS in the main.

But my understanding of this disease after watching hours and hours of documentaries and reading up is that 80 percent of us WILL get it.

Lockdown is to stop it spreading so quickly that NHS can't cope to treat everyone leading to many more deaths than necessary - it's not to stop us getting it (which inevitably most of us will).

Have I totally missed the mark here?

I don't get why so many people I speak to are acting like getting it means you'll die instantly once you contract it. It doesn't.

Does anyone else feel the same?

Yes. And we think we've had it

It spreads much to many more people than other illnesses so you are Morley likely fo get it and be one of those % of people who die. Hospitals are going to be overwhelmed and not be able to care for all patients. It’s about protecting the vulnerable and healthcare staff.

I don’t know if I have it

But I know that last week I was in a room with 9 doctors who are vital to running the local healthcare system. So if I infected them without realising, and they infected all the patients they saw.... should I just not worry about that?

I don't get why so many people I speak to are acting like getting it means you'll die instantly once you contract it. It doesn't

Whilst I agree with much of your post the fear comes from the health service being overwhelmed. If you’re unlucky enough to be in the small percentage that needs medical attention you won’t get the same level of care that you would expect in normal circumstances and this could affect your outcome.

There’s a fine line to tread here as we need people to be worried enough to get on board with the measures that will mean everyone has a fighting chance when/if they get it not unconcerned and refuse to change their way of life because they’re confident they’ve got good odds personally.

@Menora nope I understand fully why that would be worry. But most people that react in this way haven't been in a room with 9 doctors - I would say that's an unusual situation for most people to find themselves in.

I understand your concerns here.

It's the highly contagious nature of it and the fact that no-one as any immunity to it that is the problem.

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Maybe because some of us are, or care deeply, about,someone who is over 70 and/ or have an underlying health condition.

Or maybe we don't know anyone in these categories,but would prefer not to be the one that sent someone else to their death who is, unknown to us,in one of those categories.

And some poor u fortunate people in neither category are finding it fatal now

Trouble is, you may think you have had it but until you are tested, you don't know for sure.

The other problem is, lots of people don't know they have underlying health problems, for example, someone with high blood pressure yet to be diagnosed. It's a gamble and not one I am prepared to take. (Says she who works with dinosaurs who do not remember the 2 metre rule...).

Today there was a very young person, 21 I believe, who died from Coronavirus and she had no underlying health problems poor girl.

The deputy ambassador to Hungary died from it today. He was 37, no underlying health conditions. There have been lots of warnings in recent days for young(er) people not to be complacent about the risks.

Moreover, it is extremely contagious and whilst you might have it and not get symptoms, you could easily infect someone who will then get (seriously) ill. It's a bit of a moot point that other diseases are deadlier when you're far less likely to catch them.

Quite aside from the fact that the NHS wouldn't be able to cope with people ill with COVID-19 if it spread unchecked, the NHS being overwhelmed will also lead to more people dying from illnesses that are treatable in normal times.

So no, I don't feel the same. Predictions were of 260,000 people dying if no interventions were put in place. 20,000 deaths is now a "good" outcome. That is on top of all the usual winter-flu deaths.

Out of interest (not to be goady), which documentaries have you watched?

@Cornettoninja yes I understand it in that respect but my point is as long as you are being as responsible as you can be by not spreading it, that's all we can do right now.

So today the youngest without any underlying health conditions was 21.

There's alot of hysteria around. The news are winding people up with stories of "healthy" people dying. But for all we know that handful of "healthy" people are smokers, or heavy drinkers, or overweight, or only eat McDonald's or had an unknown/undiagnosed health condition.

People are scared. But only 20% of people will get very ill and only 3-6% will die. The concern is that people that could recover with medical help can't acsess it because the hospital is full. The ristrictions on going out are to slow the spread so the hospitals don't get overwhelmed. Not because we're all going to die. We're all going to get it eventually.

Let's say you're in the 10-30 group. 0.2% chance of death if the healthcare system isn't overwhelmed. There are about 16 million people in the UK that age. That would be 32,000 10-30s dead before Christmas. Normally we would see about 4.8k deaths in that age group in total in a year. (0.01,0.02 and 0.04% mortality rates for 10-14,15-19 and 20-29 respectively).

I personally would prefer to avoid 6x as many under 30s dying than they normally do in an average year.

@Soph7777 no one is asking you to do more? Just consider yourself lucky that you might be at less risk from it than others. That doesn't mean the dangers have been exaggerated though.

There is someone very very close to me who, if she gets it, WILL die. There is no doubt. I don't want to be the one to kill her. I don't want anyone to. She is terrified. TERRIFIED.

I'm not saying that young people without underlying health conditions can't get it, please don't twist my words.

The panic buying for example etc isn't helpful right now and in turn is depriving those that really do need supplies.

I just think less panic and more acceptance for the situation wouldn't go amiss.

We can't change what's happening only be responsible by not spreading it.

It's not the dead that are the problem.

They are dead.

It's the several thousand extremely ill, all at the same time - that's the problem.

Many of these will need an ITU bed and ventilator for about 3 weeks...

and, Medical and Nursing care.

Doctors and Nurses are human beings.

They are at great risk of contracting this too (possibly greater risk?) - and will need the service as above.

We have a finite number of beds, ventilators, Doctors and Nurses.

As the NHS becomes swamped with Covid 19 patients, there will be no capacity in the service to look after other illnesses/cases.

As it's a new virus, we don't yet know what, if any, long term implications there may be for anyone who contracts this.

Genuine question, @Soph7777 : Does that help?

.

My DD, who has never had a days illness in her life, is now showing symptoms of anxiety. Because she has to do the shopping. She went to do a shop today, and I could see she was anxious when she got back. A fucking trip to Asda! She's anxious because I'm in the vulnerable gruop.

Imagine, opening poster how would you feel if you were in my daughters shoes, and your vulnerable mum caught it?

Im not that worried about getting it, would rather not but as a young person statistically i would probably be ok.
Im worried about crashing my car and not being able to be treated.
Most of the reasons anyone would need critical care will still be around, but if there are no beds, those people might die.
On top of all the people more likely to die from corona than me.

I see your point, OP. I also think the sarcastic comments from other PP are unnecessary. We have to ask ourselves how much are the media scaremongering us?

The concern with COVID-19 is how quickly its spreading, the vulnerable/elderly and the NHS capacity. We don't have the infrastructure in the UK to manage the overwhelming amount of paitentsb if we didn't control the outbreak. That's the concern, people thinking they will definitely die if they contract it is not helpful to anyone.

I've already acknowledged most of your post and that's how I understand the situation.

What I don't understand is why people are in denial about catching it when we are all (or most of us) going to!!

Instead of worrying about us catching it at once and overwhelming the nhs (which is when it becomes an even bigger problem) they are just worried about catching it!!

At least that's a lot of people I have spoken to about it.

I feel like a lot are missing the bigger picture which as you rightly said it's about overwhelming the NHS. A lot of people I speak to are still missing this point entirely.

OP, your initial post very much sounded like you were implying people were overreacting and the threat was being exaggerated. You now seem to be suggesting that all you meant was that we should be following guidelines and worry less. Those are two very different things.

Apologies perhaps my initial post wasn't clear.

But yes all I'm saying is people should worry less, and understand what the point of lockdown is.

To protect NHS and make sure we catch it slowly, not make sure you don't catch it at all!