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?

As someone else pointed out, while not everyone dies from it, there are quite a few issues:

• quite a high percentage of people need hospital treatment, which is obviously a problem - that’s why conference centres are being turned into hospitals!!!

• quite a large proportion of the population DO actually have underlying health conditionS even if they are not elderly - very overweight people, people with high blood pressure, people who have type 2 diabetes, people who have had cancer in the past, etc.

hippy I am at risk. I’m in one of the highest death rare groups.
I still think this is pointless.
I’m doing what I’m told but my personal opinion is that it’s pointless. Sorry if you don’t agree.
This lockdown situation will kill as many young and healthy people through suicide, starvation, lack of basic health care, dv. In my opinion.
Plus people with cancer now aren’t being treated at all.

I am shit scared!! I am still recovering from a 2nd bout of bilateral pneumonia in 2 years, the result of which is approx 25% reduced lung capacity. I am really not wanting to die! So am trying to avoid people as much as possible.

So are you saying that all the scientists are wrong???

@leflic why do you think people are dying if there’s something can be done about it? THERE IS NO TREATMENT!!

I agree with the OP. People will look back on this in years to come and realise that the response to it killed many more people and wrecked many more lives than the disease itself.

I'm sorry but this is a nonsensical assertion.

@stupidanduseless you think it’s pointless to try and prevent thousands of unnecessary deaths? I have no words for that.
You might not care about your own life, doesn’t mean no one else cares about their own and others.

Reported your post poster alliwantisagoodnightssleep no need to be abusive to fellow posters

I’m slightly worried about getting cv, but I’m more worried about having a heart attack or getting cancer right now and not being able to access care or a hospital bed, or catching cv in hospital if I were ill with something else.

OP your post was on the money and perfectly easy to understand, you are quite right that panicking will do nothing. New estimates suggest overall death rate of about 1%, which obviously are hard to prove but are based on cross referencing countries with high testing rates. So yes, getting it isn't like getting ebola and the fear is leading to stuff like a doctor getting kicked out of his room by his landlady. Obviously we all have to do what we're told re slowing the spread and you never said otherwise.

I'm sorry but this is a nonsensical assertion.
You can predict the future I take it poster YgritteSnow?

You can predict the future I take it

I could say exactly the same to you.

*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.*

Completely agree. Your first post wasn't as clear as this. But I agree. Worrying won't help us.

Keep calm and stay at home seems the perfect motto for now.

Well you might not get it, you might get minor symptoms, you might get really ill with it or you might die.

Do you know which one?

Soph777 - sorry, but I don’t actually find it reassuring that 20% of people with symptoms of coronavirus are likely to need hospital care. I may not die, but I don’t fancy ending up in hospital hoping they have any ventilators left, either, thank you very much.

hippy no but I don’t think this will save that many lives, it’ll just delay it.
And any it saves will be offset by the deaths caused by lockdown which will have massive and far reaching ramifications - not least that the country will be bankrupt. How do people think the nhs is funded? The education system? What will happen when the government is out of money and no one is paying any tax? What happens to the nhs then?
This lockdown - if it lasts months - will be massively harmful and unless there’s a vaccine we are all going to catch it anyway.
I understand the worry, my dad is massively massively high risk, but being locked away for years is no way to live particularly when this virus is now always going to be with us.

@TiddyTid no I don't know if I will survive corona.

I also know 1 in 2 of us will get cancer, I don't know if I'll be in that half.

Hundreds a and thousands die daily in car accidents. I don't know if it's my car.

If we thought like this we would never leave the house and just end up loving in constant fear.

I just don't see what that solves.

stupidanduseless - doctors, nurses, physios etc work to make people better, we do not usually work to try to keep the masses alive with no antibiotics, no cure and a whiff of good luck.

There is no idea if you will be a mild or die category and nothing you can do will change that outcome - other than reducing the risk of not getting it or get it when the NHS can cope and is not quite so over stretched,

I work to improve peoples lives and today we decide polciies that said if you come in with x and y but have a and b - then we will not treat you. On a normal day we would - this is a mind fuck beyond epic proportions for people who would usually fix these people and see them go home.

We have a ward of immunosuppressed patients halfway through cancer treatment who had 60-70% chances of surviving their cancer for at least 5 years. They now have corona and will die - they know it, the nurses know it, the doctors know it - it is a place of unknown darkness for all involved.

Just stay inside and slow the spread.

I also don’t fancy getting a cancer diagnosis, being in an accident or needing to see a doctor in the near future, either.

@Stupidanduseless totally agree.

Furthermore the stats in Italy showed that only 0.8% of those dying didn’t have an underlying condition.
I’m not saying that’s ok - I HAVE one of the underlying conditions - but I do think people need to keep it in perspective.

It's just super infectious and totally new to our bodies. Most people who are generally fit and well and who contract it will be fine, some will have minimal symptoms, some will feel very unwell (the medical use of the term mild means not in hospital in this situation)
The problem is with no immunity a huge proportion of the population to be Ill at the same time, whilst usual emergency health problems still continue. So even if a v small percentage need hospital we will be (are already in some places) in real trouble as those people will not be guaranteed to be able to receive life saving care as they need it due to capacity. The next 2 weeks are going to be absolutely hellish and people will die who otherwise could have lived rich and meaningful lives for a long time whatever their age or health status.

I have it currently. Its pretty much the most ill I've ever been and just feels totally different to anything I've ever experienced before (have has seasonal flu and swine flu once) I still feel terrible, am very short of breath, have a high heart rate, have chest pain, feel like I have a brick in my lung and just feel like I have a bad flu. No appetite at all. I've not been out of bed for 2 weeks, I do have asthma and some other health issues (but not ones that are classed as making me vulnerable) but am 39, I've narrowly avoided hospital by trying to cope at home when if it was any other time in my life I would have called an ambulance at times (and I say that as someone who has never called an ambulance for myself or attended a&e despite having a lot of health issues and who refused an ambulance a week ago after speaking to 111) and I'm a mild case. I am now equally relieved that it will be done for me, and desperately scared that there are people i love like my lovely dad that really might not stand a chance.

Stupidanduseless - keeping it in perspective, you don’t just go into hospital to die, so I’m not that interested in your 0.8% who go in and never come out. I would like a hospital bed and ventilator available to me when I’m ill. If such things are not available when we are ill, then more than 0.8% of us will die.

Its the effect upon the percentage of those that do become seriously ill that is significant. Plus the rate of transmission that has lead to huge exponential growth.

Hospitals are even having to delay cancer treatments to prepare for the peak of cases. Think of all the treatments and operations being cancelled. Think of all the heart attack and stroke victims, road traffic accidents, stabbing victims. They aren't taking a break to let Corona virus do it's thing. It's like trying to juggle three balls then having two hand grenades thrown at you, and you can't drop any of them.

To the few who agree that it’s just a big fuss, have you not seen the reports from Italy? Hospitals rammed with people who can’t breathe? Hundreds of people with pneumonia, whose lungs become filled with fluid and they can’t get enough oxygen to the bloodstream, reducing the body’s ability to take on oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide? I’ve heard it described as like drowning. What would you do with these people? Maybe sign up to be volunteers on an icu ward and then come back and tell us we’re all being over dramatic.