Keep calm. Season flu kills 20,000 a year

[Covidiot]

Sorry. Bit click batey but my fucking cousin said that to me today

Also:

• the NHS are exploiting situation for political reasons
• the NHS is not underfunded at all - it just needs a “proper revamp”
• the BBC are being far too pessimistic
• there is no shortage of PPE

I’ve tried to calm down. But several hours later I’m still fucking raging.

So I’m posting assuming most will agree and just tell me to calm the fuck down and ignore the Covidiot.

Jesus. How can people be so fucking deluded?

This is not flu.

Oh seriously, fuck off.

I don't get medical advice from my consultant every year to shelter in place during flu season....because flu isn't as infectious, it doesn't kill as many people, there's a vaccine to help reduce flu severity, and I have decades worth of immunity from previous vaccines, and before that, infection.

This is nothing like the fucking flu.

God I'm so sick to death of idiots spinning this line.

@jojobar exactly, I agree with you and in reality before flu vaccines and pneumonia vaccines/treatments came along they were the illnesses that killed older people naturally and some younger people far too early. There is a reason pneumonia is called the old mans friend but it comes down to not wanting to face our own mortality anymore and keeping people alive past expiration

IDidNotSignUpForThis

This is the worst thing. The elderly going into hospital, for whatever reason, and being tested positive (even if it has none, or minor) complications to their ongoing situation and being denied the comfort of seeing their loved ones. This is so cruel.

These things come along every now and again to reset things maybe

For Christ's sake, those wittering on about flu comparisons, there's a vaccine for most flu types. My vulnerable son, with two underlying health conditions gets vaccinated every fucking year for the flu.

There is no vaccine for this.

Op, a family member took the same stance as your cousin, then a friend in his 50s with a young child and a wife died from Covid 19 and we've heard no more about flu stats and 'only those who are old or have underlying health conditions'.

America are digging mass graves. And some on here are concentrating on 'not worrying themselves into an early grave.' Nicer problems to have eh?

@MrsBobDylan what do you want us to do then? Most of us are abiding by lock down, I am working on the frontline and I understand the seriousness of it. Do you want everyone to be absolutely terrified and end up not being able to function from fear? End up with long term health anxieties? We need to take this seriously but be sensible at the same time. Worrying isn’t good for your immune system either

If your cousin is ordering you not to argue with her when you ask how come she knows better about PPE than people who actually have to use it, that means that she knows in her heart of hearts that she's talking total bollocks. .

@TheCountessatHotelCortez, why would your opinion as to the causes of death of Covid sufferers outweigh that of the doctors who have been treating them and who have certified the cause of death?

@IDidNotSignUpForThis

I am so so sorry. Loved ones dying alone is heartbreaking.

To all those saying “they’d have died anyway” I hope that when you lose a loved one, that you ARE able to be by their side and hold their hand and tell them you love them. And not have to skype them to say your goodbyes as they are surrounded by professionals in hazmat suits.

Jesus, there is a very distinct lack of compassion being demonstrated on this thread. But thank you to those that understand. This IS different, and we do need to remain as calm and sensible as we possibly can, but we also need to recognise that sometimes nature’s shows us exactly how powerful it is and how helpless we are.

The lack of worrying is commendable @TheCountessatHotelCortez , it just came across as a bit smug.

Yeah, it's just the NHS. Nothing remotely similar is happening in other parts of the world.

Muppet.

@JudyCoolibar you’ll notice I said it was purely my opinion I’m not saying it’s fact it may turn out I’m wrong but we won’t know for a long while yet. My point is that someone could have died of cancer for example but have covid in their system, it wasn’t what killed them but it will be counted in the deaths

I'm not smug, I'm trying to be realistic and sensible. And yes I was probably lucky in some people's eyes because I was able to hold my parents hands when they died over 20 years ago, although tbh they were largely sedated so that was more for my benefit than theirs. My mum died suddenly and unexpectedly of cancer aged 54, when I was 21. So I'm sorry if sound callous about people falling ill in their 80s.

I’m so terribly sorry for your loss and please give your mum this stranger’s genuine, heart felt sympathy.

I lost my dear husband five years ago. He drew his last breath in my arms and I thought that was the worst pain I could ever feel, but I now realise that I was lucky, because I was able to speak to him and hold him as he slipped away. How anyone copes with what family members who are losing people to this fucking cruel virus, is beyond me.

My very good friend has lost a neighbour to it and his wife has been left grieving alone in her home, cut off from everyone, because her adult children live away and can’t hold their mother end comfort her, because of the risk to all. She recovered from cancer last year. The cruelty of what has happen to them and what that family is going through, is beyond comprehension.

People can fuck off with their, “it’s only the flu, more people die from whatever each year, it’s only the vulnerable”.

You can fuck right off with your fucking ‘only the vulnerable and underlying conditions‘ comments. I have two adult children that can live to a good age, but only if they don’t get this virus, because of their underlying conditions.

I've had a few people even entertaining the idea that Boris was faking his illness. I just can't believe the stupidity of some people. When I ask what benefit that would achieve there is no response. Smh

Thread by an actuary on the "they died “with” rather than “of” the disease" narrative: mobile.twitter.com/ActuaryByDay/status/1246866119597621248

@jojobar it is very sad you lost your mum when both you and she were young. It was the same for me too. Not cancer, but it was extremely sudden. I was able to hold her hand when she died. I am eternally gratefully for that. It brings tears to my eyes typing it as the horror of that day will never leave me.

But I think you’re being incredibly callous. Really incredibly so.

Some of the Covid deaths may be people who 'would have died anyway' but definitely not all. The annual UK number of deaths is between 600,000 and 620,000 - so less than 1,700 a day (normally higher in winter than summer). Almost 1,000 deaths are being recorded PER DAY as people with Covid.

@jojobar Anyone on end of life pathway is not yet counted in the stats because they are not supposed to be admitted to hospital under corona guidelines.

Thanks for that actuary twitter thread.

The other thing that's not being considered in these figures is the amount of viral load. Younger people are generally able to fight off Covid-19 in part because of enhanced immune systems that can fight it off. However the reason even younger, healthy medical staff are more likely to die of it is that they are exposed to much more of the virus at one time. Which means that even their healthy immune systems cannot fight it off and become overwhelmed.

If we hadn't self isolated, I think far more younger/healthier people would have died because they would have been exposed to much more of the virus before building up any immunity to it.

While I don't want to panic about Covid-19, the precautions we are taking now seem entirely sensible. Incidentally, the only person I know of personally to have died of this was 28 and worked in a care home.

@buttermilkwaffles did I say they would have died soon anyway? What I said was there will be an amount that died with it in their system being counted whether the would have died now or 10 years from now and I don’t agree with that being counted and all being lumped together it is not a true representation

Flu season runs from about mid-Oct to mid-March

The xcess winter deaths are already a huge shame

That they will now continue at the higher rate, or go higher still, for at least a couple of months (mid-Mar to mid-May and probably beyond) is concerning.

Thankfully there has been action taken to flatten the curve, and most people are complying with distancing etc, somwe are not (fingers crossed) seeing exponential growth, nor are we seeing mass graves as there are now in New York

I've heard the 'Head of Diversity' trope so many times, usually in the right wing press. Most people who use it are clueless.

This makes me so annoyed. I know the Equalities guy in our Health Board. He does so much work reaching out and working with the vulnerable and hard to reach communities, letting them know their rights and encouraging them to engage with services. It's really not a box ticking exercise, it's about seeing people earlier before their conditions deteriorate - which has a knock on effect on their long term health and the amount of resources that will need to be used to teat them.

Yet his is the kind of role that has people rolling their eyes, and muttering about non-jobs and PC gone mad.