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?

No I appreciate that walk
But I keep seeing people say ‘please please please stay inside, you don’t want this virus.’ And I think- we’re all getting it. We can stay inside. We can slow it. But it’s happening. Unless we stay inside forever / until there’s a vaccine the likelihood is that the majority of us will catch it. Personally I’m just not convinced that bankrupting the country, harming people’s mental health, putting people in poverty, stopping treatment of things like cancer, allowing the crime rate to climb etc - will ultimately make a huge amount of difference to the amount of people who a) catch it and b) end up seriously ill / die from it.

But lockdown won’t stop that innit
Unless we are literally locking down for years until there’s a vaccine and if it mutates as flu does then that’s going to be hard.
I’m not saying it’s a big fuss - I’m saying that ultimately - we’re all going to get it.

It's not the issue that 80% population might get it, If that were to happen over say 5 years it would be fine. But it's that a huge number of people already have it, and we dont have the capacity to treat the proportion of those people in 2 weeks time that will need oxygen or ventilation, so people will die not because of the virus but because we couldnt treat them in time.

@tangledyarn you are exactly
Right but this is what I don't think a lot of people understand! Which is causing more panic and problems than necessary.

And emptying supermarket shelves/making people behave irrationally.

And before anyone comments, this doesn't mean I'm not taking it seriously.

Panicking less doesn't mean taking something lightly, just to be clear.

Stupidanduseless - You might as well stop treating cancer if covid 19 is allowed to run rampant. Why waste money on cancer treatment when they’ll die of covid 19 anyway, because the economy can’t withstand people staying indoors?

I fully expect that I will get it eventually.
I hope I will be one of those who have the milder type symptoms.
However, I am nearer 70 than 60, and I may well be one of those who require hospital treatment.
If so, I would like to be one that actually gets the treatment (ie a ventilator), and not just be a statistic - ie too old to treat.
Yes, I am recently retired, but I feel, I am still feel I am of use to my family, baby sitting, helping with other stuff, advice, etc, so do not want to die just yet.
I do not have any underlying health conditions, but when I get a cold, it always goes into a very debilitating cough, and this is supposed to be worse.
The problem is that being a new virus, no one is immune to it.

I would also like to add, That I am also extremely worried about the economy.
However, Boris really had no choice, except to implement restrictions, as the WHO kept saying countries were not doing enough.
It would be unacceptable today, to have the same kind of deaths as in the 1918 Spanish flu, which I understand killed approx 250,000 people in the UK (and from a smaller population).

The 1918 flu pandemic killed more people than ww1 did.

Can I be more explicit:

I agree with a lockdown and think we should take it further.

I think that it is very serious and if I personally got it I would be at high risk of ongoing morbidity.

I am concerned for my parents and have made sure they are self-isolating.

I do NOT advocate panic.

It is possible to believe it is very serious as a situation and not advocate panicking. Just because we aren’t getting irate and swearing does not mean we don’t think it is real or serious. Also getting irate and scared etc is a totally valid response - but it isn’t the only response nor is it the only correct response.

@milveycrohn same.

The impact on the economy if I/we do survive corona is not going to be good.

THERE IS NO TREATMENT!!

As yet - but theres quite a few trials going on all over the world inc some in China herself who has had three months now to reasearch this illness and one of them, done in France, had a short trial just last week and a combination of two drugs reducied the viral load to zero in Five days!

OK only a small test sample but surprising results all the same plus tests are underway with some Anti Virals which are looking promising.

Some trials are to report in April, not long now!

We're doing our best here to aviod it. I have to go to work sometimes use the car and its a job working with equipments in remote locations no one else goes there.

Went shopping today my housekeeper does the shopping she has a mask thats soaked in some wierd smelling disinfectant has disposable gloves! when she gets home everything she buys gets washed under the tap or if its a box is wiped with an antiviral alchol wipe! shes got a exccllent "none shall pass" attiude!

A mate of hers came by the other day to collect something, no face to face its out there in the car, the doors open "You get it, i'm not coming out"!!

Hopefully if Everyone takes this serioisly then the infection rate will fall it will take a few weeks yet but far too many are thinking is a bank holliday so we must got out and meet up etc!

Isolation is the order of the day, we all need to stick to that as best we can!

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
Italy’s death rate is currently 9.5%. I don’t fancy a 10% chance of dying. And I don’t fancy a 20% chance of lying ill in an ICU surrounded by coughing dying people. I certainly don’t want to be dumped in a 2000 bed ward at the Excel centre. If I’m going to catch it, I want to catch it when there’s lots of empty hospital beds and staff and effective drugs available. 1/10 chance you’ll die is terrifying odds.

The virus is hugely contagious so as you know many nhs wards struggle for beds day to day normally so add in a fast spreading virus that mainly effects elderly and vunerable. The aging population is massive then it means no one can receive the care they need . The other significant thing is this jumped from animals to humans by mutating and we have no natural immunity . I assume but I don’t know that there’s a significant worry it could further mutate !?!?

This is such a scary thing to catch. How horrible being rushed to hospital out the blue it's so scary. I can't believe it can kill you.

The issue is there is no treatment. There is no medication which will help it go away.

If we don’t manage how quickly it spreads, we will end up with too many people needing to go to hospital - and there will not be enough beds.

And even worse, people will need ventilators. There may be 7 people needing a ventilator, but only one available. So the doctors will have to choose which one of the 7 sick patients gets the ventilator - and the other 6 will not get a ventilator and they will die.

When someone comes off the ventilator, they will likely not just be fine and go home. They will need rehabilitation, which can take months or a year.

This virus is not a joke, and even if we all get it at some point, we should do what we can to avoid getting it now.
If we do nothing, modelling from Imperial College London suggests 500,000 will die. If slowing the spread, 250,000 will die. If suppressing, which we are doing now, 20,000 will die. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to lose any members of my family or friends. And I don’t want them to lose any of their loved ones.

Yes, it is costing a fortune, and it is creating a lot of awful situations for people, but if we ignore this virus, a lot more people will die, and if everyone gets ill at the same time, it will likely cause similar strain on people’s work places, personal economy, the economy of the country, people’s mental health and so on.

Imagine leaving a virus to kill half a million people in the UK, just so we can save the economy. It is a ridiculous idea.

I would personally rather get the virus after treatments have been found. Or after a vaccine has been developed.

Or just when there will be a ventilator available.

I think I read the 1968 flu was the start of the flu we get vaccinated for I know
It mutates each year anyway I read something along those
Lines and people died then too

@Stupidanduseless - This lockdown situation will kill as many young and healthy people through suicide, starvation, lack of basic health care, dv. In my opinion

You can’t seriously believe that?

@justaboy totally agree, isolating is the key. At the moment its happening to other people, as it spreads more people will take it more seriously. Some of our friends having spoken to my partner about how ill I was a few days ago and not getting why I'm not being treated in hospital, and him trying to explain she needs to go in if oxygen drops to this or heart rate rises anymore but until then there is nothing they can do, theres no treatment unless she cant cope at home without oxygen. The penny finally seems to have dropped for some of them now that its not like getting a chest infection and being prescribed say antibiotics then steroids if it didnt clear up..There is nothing except for breathing/life support (and a few trials of different treatments) when you are seriously Ill and in hospital.

I will admit I'm panicking over this, my partner was in intensive care on a ventilator 6 weeks ago (completely unrelated to corona virus) and he's virtually guaranteed to not be strong enough to fight this virus off at the moment.

I work for the nhs so normally quite calm in a crisis, but I'm absolutely terrified I'm going to catch it and pass it on to him.

I dont think people need to wash their shopping and disinfect everything.
I thought it was more dont touch your face after going out or shops or work. Wash your hands or sanitize after or often during the day. Touch a door handle or food shopping. But wash hands before putting stuff away. Wash hands after walking in front door etc etc

If your alone and cant breath then you wouldn't be able to phone for ambulance?

You can be so breathless you need an ambulance and still able to ring for one. I know this from experience,

Imperial college suggest 500000 dead in the uk if we do nothing.
That's more than the civilian and military UK dead combined in the whole of ww2.

Do you think people were making a fuss about those deaths too? If you could have done something to prevent those deaths would you?

It does seem like Sweden is still carrying on with the economy first. Only time will tell what will happen. I think more should have been done earlier. Quicker border closures and v strict contact testing could have preventing the broader shower of shit that is coming. I do think the decisions must be exceptionally hard for any government to take but damage from lockdown may well outweigh the damage of high fatalities. It’s a sickening thought but I’m starting to wonder that we haven’t done the right thing. Testing seems to have been a shambles and a South Korean approach might have been better in the long-term. I just wonder if an alternative path could have been banning flights during feb half term, testing with strict penalties for breaking quarantine and earlier shielding for the vulnerable.

The infrastructure doesn’t seem to be there for everyone to be at home. I’m sure there will be lots of households not following the 14 days because they can’t get food deliveries as an example. Mental health could be a bit of a disaster at a population level and it seems inevitable domestic violence will increase.

5% of people infected require critical care. It’s very contagious. 5% of a small number is a small number. But 5% of a very large number is a large number. 80% of the population might get it.