Is the fear out of proportion?

[Hotlungs]

I’m asking this genuinely as I struggle with anxiety and have a tendency to catastrophise.
I read yesterday that 99.5% of people will survive if they have the virus. Whilst I understand that people are worried they are in the 0.5% is the fear rationale? The press describing it as a ‘killer virus’ and people saying they don’t want to go to the supermarket incase they die. Obviously I’m not talking about those in the vulnerable group.
Are we doing poor risk management? Again to clarify I don’t mean the current lockdown situation to protect the NHS (which is needed) but I mean the fear of it.
We are more likely to die in our cars but we risk manager that (with precautions) to still use them. What are people’s thoughts?

Also, at the start we were always told if the person had underlying conditions, not any more, not sure why. It feels a bit like propaganda at times. and misleading. A young 22 year old was found not to have died of it after all, week or two later BBC was still reporting them in a list of people who had. Another time, a young person died who was obviously obese, but just a head shot was posted and it was emphasised they were in good health etc. It just all feels a bit maniplulative.

Orangeblossom78
I agree. Lots of times I’ve seen photos where it says no underlying condition but when you look further or read between the lines very often the person is very obese
If it’s a young person who knows if they have no underlying conditions. The person themselves may not know
My sister only recently discovered that she has a problem with her heart - very minor but she had only just discovered this age 40 she is also overweight and smokes

But If she died of covid 19 it’s probably highly not the papers would say no underlying conditions

@Eyewhisker This isn’t true. I read that everyday there is a lot under 50 year olds dying from this with no underlying conditions .

@Orangeblossom78 agreed

It's like they want us to be more scared

@Orangeblossom78 but didn’t they try that first? When they were still saying there was very little risk of healthy people dying, but we should start social distancing god the vulnerable etc etc... very few people seemed to give a damn. There were packed pubs, stadiums etc etc.
I think they tried to be gentle and avoid panic and I DONT think that people did care about the nhs pressure or the vulnerable. People just did what they wanted and felt entitled to do that because they had been told THEY would likely be ok.
It’s only been the very firm, somewhat frightening campaign and using actual force tactics that’s kept people in their homes, social distancing (for the most part... even that isn’t working for many)

@eeeyoresmiles I could not agree more with what you said.

I think they were overly reassuring - it was 'other people' and that then swerved to the 'people will die' rather than being consistent, at the point they suddenly became aware NHS may be overwhelmed...oh another one, a young person sadly died reported headline due to COVID (BBC) on reading further, they had been waiting for a transplant and then died with the virus, unfortunately due to the current situation their op had been postponed but that was another case where on just reading the headline you would have got a totally different idea. Oh and another about a young father who had diabetes and significant heart surgery in the past but that was not clear at all, either. I don't trust any of them anymore and before this would have thought the BBC would have been more, well, truthful. Given it is paid for by us, the licence holders as well.

Bimble could they not have just treated the population as grown ups perhaps rather than children being told to sing Happy Birthday then scared into their homes. Like in Sweden, perhaps

Careful, orange

People get apoplectic if you mention Sweden on here

Ok! I don't mean we didn't need to lockdown (like Sweden) I'm talking more about the approach to speaking to the public.

Disappointing. We could have just stuck with the path we started down - like Sweden - instead we bottled it halfway. Pointless as by then of course we had allowed it to spread.

God I forgot the happy birthday shite as well. So many people love the nanny state. Stay in, stay safe, let nanny tuck you up and sing you a song. Could we be more infantilised?

I'm not sure about that to be fair. Look at Germany, much better testing, early treatment, much less deaths, they still have had to do pretty much the same, in practice have they not?

I bet they didn't tell their people to sing though

Death “ So many people love the nanny state. Stay in, stay safe, let nanny tuck you up and sing you a song. Could we be more infantilised?”

I know, and look at the figures in France, with stricter and earlier lockdown.

It worked, too start of March, only 5% of us were very scared about it -most of us not. www.statista.com/statistics/1103217/coronavirus-public-fear-by-country-worldwide/

I think fear is compounded by the awful experiences coming to light, of people phoning 111 and being told no help for you until you’re blue and floppy with sepsis setting in. I anticipate there will be a change of approach soon with people being given oxygen earlier. Would hope so anyway, it’s appalling. No wonder people are scared.

I had that kind of experience some years ago with my son who had pneumonia, he was very ill oxygen sats in low 70s when he was finally admitted to hospital. GP had sent us home saying it was just a virus and thankfully the health visitor happened to be round doing the 2 yr check and rang the surgery to have us admitted.

It doesn't seem to be a new thing- not admitting here until life threatening.

I wonder if to start with they did just think most cases are mild and keep them out the hospital if possible in case it spreads there.

Disappointing. We could have just stuck with the path we started down - like Sweden - instead we bottled it halfway. Pointless as by then of course we had allowed it to spread.

According to WHO only about two or 3% of the population have been infected in heavily affected areas so it has hardly spread much and despite that we have probably close to 20,000 deaths. We don't know what's going to happen in Sweden. They're taking a risk although they are less densely populated and have shut down secondary schools and large gatherings.

It feels like we have veered off the topic a bit though, yes for many the fear might well be out of proportion to the risk for the age / sex I agree with the OP

I don't like the 'stay safe' everyone is saying either, makes you feel the world is unsafe at times. I have anxiety as well and all this can made it really bad. I find myself going on e.g. the WHO site to remind myself it is actually low risk for most people to reassure myself.

it feels like CBT at times constantly reframing it, to the most 'likely situation. So instead if 'if I go out I could get it and it could be fatal, or I could kill someone else" that could be changed to "I might catch it but it would most likely be mild. I could possibly pass it to someone else but that is unlikely if I keep my distance and wash my hands' for example

According to WHO only about two or 3% of the population have been infected in heavily affected areas so it has hardly spread much...

And German scientists have found out that at least for Gangelt (the German C19 hot spot) the number is closer to 15%:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-antibody-test-in-german-town-shows-15-per-cent-infection-rate-0-4pc-death-rate

I trust German scientists more than WHO. WHO may be forming their opinions based on testing in Wuhan but Chinese antibody tests have been found to be highly unreliable. German tests are believed to be much more accurate.

Germany is working to scale up its antibody testing program so we should have a clearer view over next few weeks/months.

And based on anecdote where I live, about 15% sounds about right for us in terms of symptoms that friends have had (we are a hotspot apparently) so I would expect even higher for asymptomatic

That might be why I am more relaxed about it now, so many people I know have had it, noone my age has been ill longer than about a week even if they are feeling wiped out for longer. It's ripping through the nursing homes and killing people very quickly but again that matches the data.

I was meaning, with reference to the OP / risk - I checked the WHO site for info on that rather than spread.

“ So instead if 'if I go out I could get it and it could be fatal, or I could kill someone else" that could be changed to "I might catch it but it would most likely be mild. I could possibly pass it to someone else but that is unlikely if I keep my distance and wash my hands' for example”

This is much better.

I hate the air of suspicion that is around and can’t wait for people not to need to give each other a wide berth and slightly strained look whenever you pass in the pavement.

That's sad. Where I live (rural town NZ) everyone says Hello when out exercising - and I rarely meet anyone I actually know. It's sort of like "we are all in this together, let's make it pleasant".

Lilactree, yes- a few years ago I did CBT for another condition which is unrelated and not linked to COVID at all- but it can randomly flare up and this is the kind of thing I did with the CBT person at the time.

It's useful for this too. Not denying it "Oh it will be fine' because what we try to ignore, plays on our mind. But getting it in perspective can help. It's not easy though at times with all the news etc. I just thought I'd share it in case it helps others such as the OP or who are also anxious.