Is this message I've received true?!

[velocitygirl7]

So the attached message was sent to me by someone on Facebook, who has a tendency to send all kinds of shite to her entire contact list!
I'm fairly level headed but tomorrow I'm venturing out to get shopping for both my own immediate family and my parents.
I will obviously be extremely careful but now I'm panicking that there maybe some truth in the message and I've picked totally the wrong day

Its all over FB today. I've just ignored. I think the excessive exclamation marks are the give-away.

!!!!

Someone I know who posts everything on fb posted it last night.

I closed the app and watched a film instead!

When is "tomorrow" meant to be? It could have been written 3 days ago, in which case we're too late.

After all there's no date on it

I read an article on thursday by an nhs nurse saying that friday (yesterday) would be the most infectious day yet

PurpleDaisies, just repeating your link – it's really useful.

Coronavirus: Here's how you can stop bad information from going viral
www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-51967889

What cobblers.

My cousin sent me that rubbish telling me to share it. Idiot.

I heard from a family member who's an NHS worker and I can tell you that spiders are passing it on. If you see one you have to stand on one leg, go cross eyed, pinch your nose and hop round in circles saying "It's the Armageddon" backwards. Only that will save you.

Definitely true because it's posted on the internet. Everyone knows that anything passed on in that way is true. You read it on here first.

My mum keeps sending me this rubbish, including one about salads being a cause of infections. I do not reply. I just ignore it. No point discussing it. As long as my parents stay in I am happy.

Out of interest, for those who believe these sorts of messages, what exactly is it that makes you think there's any truth in them?

For those who do believe these sorts of things, here are some points to consider next time you see messages like this:

There are no sources or links to official information. There is a vague reference to "a text from an NHS worker". Well, what's the relationship of the NHS worker to the person posting? How did they get hold of this text? What does this 'NHS worker' do in the NHS? Are they a janitor or an epidemiologist? No picture of the text? What date was it received?

It's badly written. Official advice rarely is.

It talks of periods of incubation and dates of peaks etc but doesn't actually GIVE any dates. When is "tomorrow"? Since we don't know when the text was sent we don't know what date tomorrow is. Which you'd think would be useful in the circumstances. This is because it's not designed to be useful, it's designed to stir up panic.

It exhorts you to pass the message on. This alone should be a huge red flag for anyone who is even a total novice to the internet. "Pass it on or terrible things will happen" has been doing the rounds in one form or another for over 20 years.

There are more red flags than a Communist Party parade and more holes than Swiss Cheese in this message.

There will be a lot of these sorts of things doing the rounds, and even more worryingly, scams based on these designed to get money out of you. "Fines" being issued by the "police" because you went out. Offers of at-home testing kits.

If you see things like this, please don't panic or have a knee jerk reaction. Apply some scrutiny and critical thought.

Total bollocks. But half the posters on this forum will be salivating over it with "I told you so" glee.

Tomorrow will be no worse than today. why do people make this stuff up?

Don't worry OP I thought the they'll take your kids away in a van one was true. A friend fell for the gargling salt protects you from it.

Anything with that many exclamation marks in it is bound to be bollocks.

It's probably because the hospitals (certainly where I am) are expecting a huge influx this week and have made due preparation. Doesn't mean it is the peak, though, either in numbers or infectivity.

Must have been picked up by someone and hence this message

Probably made up by someone who wants to venture out and skip around the supermarket without having to queue knowing that half the people that see it will believe it and stay in. Similar happened a few years ago, something was shared on FB about a "potential" bomb threat/terrorist attack at a large shopping centre, the day happened to be about two weeks before Christmas- I.e someone gets to do there Christmas shopping with slightly less crowds. People are Dicks.

The amount of crap doing the rounds at the moment (including this one) is unbelievable. And even more unbelievable is the number of my friends - including healthcare professionals - who are sharing it and who should know better. I have had to restrain myself from telling them what I really think and only posting a fairly tame "I think you'll find this is fake news" type comment as otherwise I'll have no friends left at the end of this pamdemic.

Every day is going to be the worst day so far, until the day the numbers have passed the peak and begin to decline.

I got it too it's a load of shite

I had the same thing last week AND the week before

And if people had restricted movements we wouldn’t now be at over 1000 deaths

including healthcare professionals - who are sharing it and who should know better

They are sharing it because they know the reality, they are being prepped to be sent to roles outside their normal training, experience and competencies and way above what they signed up to deal with.

Fake shite like that isn't helpful at a time like this!!

If it stops people like the idiot I saw stepping out of bargain booze into the road on my way home yesterday it is. He has risked the staff, any other shoppers, anyone he mixed with on his journey out of his house all for his case of beer. I get that alcoholics shouldn’t suddenly stop drinking but a 3pm leisurely stroll across the road for alcohol, when thousands are dying because this is being spread is ridiculous. It’s a shame more people aren’t panicked into staying at home.

It makes sense, though, that everyone who picked up the virus before social distancing and lockdown will be starting to become symptomatic this week.

^yep. It really does.

The Facebook post is very poorly written and overly alarmist in its tone, but I think that its basic message to stay home as much as possible is correct, as is the message not to receive visits from people who do not live in your own household.

It is probably also correct, just based on the arithmetic of spread, that the risk of getting infected from any one encounter today is probably about 2x higher today than the risk from any one encounter 3-4 days ago, since the total number of asymptomatic infectious people in the UK has likely continued to double every 3-4 days, and it is likely to continue growing at that rate until 7-10 days after the start of the more stringent "social distancing measures" announced March 23rd. That means that even if everyone with symptoms stays home, the risk grows between March 23rd and around March 30th / April 2nd.

Depending how strictly we are able to apply the measures as a nation, after that the number of infectious people who don't know they're infectious can start to grow more slowly or even start declining. If people who have symptoms and their households can completely self-isolate as requested, then the number of infectious people who are out and about will be able to start going down quite a lot.

But, if you do need to go out in order to get food, and do not have symptoms yourself, then go out to get food! Just don't go out for longer than needed, stay away from others as much as possible, and do a weekly shop instead of a daily shop if you can in order to reduce the total number of trips. If you have enough food at home to last a few weeks or can get food delivered, then not going out at all is an even better plan. If your household needs to self-isolate due to someone having symptoms, then order a food deliver or call on anyone and everyone you know, or people you don't know, to leave food on your doorstep so that you can avoid going out.

I don't personally know the people who made the video below, but it looks pretty real to me, and it gives the same message as the Facebook post, in less alarmist but still very serious terms. Watch it and judge for yourselves:

I've seen all sorts of stuff contradicting each other floating around on Facebook.

What we basically need to remember is we're dealing with the biggest pandemic in 100 years,I don't think anyone has really gotten it right,no one has seen anything like this in their lifetime and it's unlikely they ever will again.

The best thing I've seen today on facebook is advice from a woman who had a bone marrow transplant;being in the position she was,firstly with no immunity and then with an immune system that was developing she had to take hygiene and infection control really seriously so she's shared what she did.

Here for the deletion message .

I don't think chain letters are every helpful, however we still have another week to go before we are 2 week point. If you don't have by next Sunday you should have missed the infection while out and about before lockdown.