Coronaphobia - people just have to get a grip

[wakeupitsabeautifulmorning]

I'm really worried that irrational fears are going to absolutely ruin the country as well as putting people at massive risk of dying from other things or developing mental health. And God knows what parents with it will do to their dc's mental health and development (keeping dc off school until there's a vaccination etc.)

For me though I think the problem is that this is a pandemic - no we cant expect life to get back to normal but neither can we remain in lockdown until this is over. Or expect that there wont be a second wave.

And that will involve I think having to a certain extent accept the risk and carry on. At the right time.

But seeing Spain at the moment after their lockdown has been lifted I think perhaps a soft approach is best

Hysterical is also misogynistic, the origin of the word refers to the womb and it has been used to belittle women's feelings and disregard genuine illness physical and mental for centuries.

A better word is overreaction or even panicking if we are having this discussion.

Small clarification on a point a poster made earlier. Sorry, but I’m a stickler for correct info!

Chris Whitty did not say that the second wave “will be worse”. He said it was “plausible” that a second wave could be more severe, if it comes. That’s quite different i think. It’s also plausible that it will be less severe, which is a point of view that many scientists have also offered.

The truth is we just don’t know yet, and neither blind optimism nor doom and gloom pessimism are going to serve us particularly well until we do.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/05/01/coronavirus-second-wave-even-worse-first-chris-whitty-warns-12637927/amp/

www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-04-30-landmark-partnership-announced-development-covid-19-vaccine

“Any royalties the University subsequently receives from the vaccine will be reinvested directly back into medical research, including a new Pandemic Preparedness and Vaccine Research Centre. The centre is being developed in collaboration with AstraZeneca.”

and BBC are saying parents are so scared of Coronavirus they are vaccinating which means measles could return - a virus that is actually far riskier to our children than CV is.

And that is the problem with all of this. We focus so much energy on exercising caution on this ONE virus that we are in danger of forgetting the risks from all the other things.

Come the start of June everything needs to start moving again and we have to stop thinking of it as an all encompassing horror

@quartz2208

I’ve been really worried about this as DS2 has just turned 12 months so is not yet vaccinated. I’ve got him booked in at the GP for his MMR next week which was the earliest appointment I could get.

It does concern me that when childcare facilities etc re-open there will be a significant pool of unvaccinated children if we are not careful. The UK has already lost its measles free status due to a drop in the uptake of the vaccine.

Hysterical is also misogynistic

This really pisses me off. It also means other things to other people. When I use it, it certainly does not have any misogynistic intent, it describes succinctly a behaviour/reaction. It's like saying we can't use any word that had a negative Greek or Latin etymology that only some people are aware of. You'd lose a massive chunk of our vocabulary. MN needs to decide once and for all which words are kosher and which are not FFS. And then perfectly moderate the boards. I had hysterical deleted on a thread once because of someone like you and when I searched for it there it was on countless other threads without any problem all being used in the same context that I had used it.

The statistics released by the ONS last Tuesday showed that only 56 people under the age of 40 have died of Corona virus out of a population of around 30 million. It has also been stated that 90% of those that died had serious underlying health issues.

So I make that a total 6 healthy people (in England and Wales) under 40 who have had died up to last week.

It is therefore strange that so many posters on Mumsnet, and other message boards, personally know of a young, healthy person who has died of Covid.

I felt uncomfortable using the term 'hysterical' despite doing so to quote other posters. VaTeLaverLesMains reminds me why I dislike it. I agree it has a long association with misogyny. Often used by doctors to dismiss women's legitimate health complaints - particularly but not exclusively gynaecological.

Thingybob I don't understand your point. Why is it relevant if the majority of the deaths are in over 40s and/or people with underlying conditions? You can't surely be suggesting that the very large proportion of the population (including many parents of young children) who are over 40 or with health conditions are expendable?

As "underlying conditions" with Covid include obesity that's 60% of the UK. The majority.

Thingybob

What's the population of 30 million?

If it was economically advantageous, the OP would be taking people struggling with lockdown to get a grip, rather than picking and choosing which strain of anxiety is valid because it dovetails with what she wants to do.

Hysteria - meaning women acting crazy due to having a uterus was invented by modern medicine. It is recent, well known and not some obscure piece of Ancient Greek knowledge.

@Thingybob im pretty sure the data youre referring to is just for that week, not the whole epidemic to date. When i last looked for this data last week it was nearly at 200 for under 40s. Still a small amount.

Sorry, I’m completely wrong about it being a modern invention.

It was popularised by Freud but has been around for ages.

It's not just dying from the disease people should be worried about, some people (like me!) are female, active, healthy, not overweight, have no underlying health conditions and are under 40. And I've been desperately unwell for around six weeks now. Can't work, can't function.

I've never had anything like it, as well as a sore throat, i'm having trouble breathing every day, I have constant agonising chest pain, heart palpitations and severe fatigue. The hospital won't admit me unless my Sats drop below a certain level for oxygen. I've been to hospital but I've been told to just stay at home and rest with paracetamol. That's it! It's pretty scary when you're fighting for breath at home.

Check out the lungs threads, see for yourselves. There are hundreds, if not thousands of us. Chronic Covid, not critical but not mild.

The economy will also suffer if the workforce are all off sick for two months. Or more? Nobody knows how long it will take us to get better yet, or what damage this virus has done to our bodies.

Until there is more factual medical research and solutions from the government, I won't be going anywhere. If the lockdown is lifted too early, we're going to have to do it all over again in a few months.

Simple makes a really good and oft missed point. There is a population of previously healthy, no underlying conditions people who have had severe illness with possible long term complications from Covid. I am a HCP and I have had 5 colleagues very seriously unwell. One of my friends is a fit and healthy 35 year old who was hospitalised with complications, double pneumonia and septicemia and 6 weeks later still cannot spend a whole day out of bed. So its not just the deaths that are scary it's the level of potential ill health and of course all the personal suffering. I am also terrified of passing it to dh.

for you Simple and hope you feel better soon.

name it isn't well known and regardless of origin language evolves over time so to insist it has the same meaning now to everyone who uses it would be incorrect. In any case I hate it when people tell others what words they can and can't use on MN. It's an easy way to derail debate.

Approximately 30 million is the population of 0-40 year olds in England and Wales. 56 was the total in that age group who have died and been registered as having died from Covid since the beginning of the pandemic. Jrob, were you looking at the figures for 0 -45?

And of course I am not suggesting that anyone over 40 is expendible, just that the risk of dying is incredibly small for younger, healthy people, many of whom appear to be terrified of this illness. I do except that there have been some younger people who have been very ill but there have also been many young people who have only had a mild illness or been asymptomatic. The 3 young people I know who have tested positive are all in that later group.

I’m amazed at the number of people on MN who apparently know numerous people who have been extremely ill from covid 19 (eg. @HuaShan). What age/demograph are your friends?

I don't know one single person who has been hospitalised by it and certainly not anyone who has died from it. Lots of people who think they've had it in various degrees including myself and DH 🤷

Age range in my circle: 6 months to 88 year old.

I fear more for the elderly who are being persuaded to sign a DNR when at the hospital, even for non-Corona related illnesses. What's the need? More bed space? They're not as worthy of life as the younger working class? Disgusting.
I love the NHS, I love the people working for it but whoever is issuing such protocol has alot to answer for.
I dont fear the virus as such, I fear the way it's being handled.

@Thingybob would you link the data for me please if you dont mind? Ive had a little google and cant find it xx

Thingybob If 30 million are under 40, that means the majority of the UK population is over 40. We have about 66 million in the UK.

Perhaps all these people you know, who are terrified, are terrified for their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, adult children, grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, friends, colleagues, neighbours, friendly local shopkeeper, their doctors and nurses and other HCP, the care home staff who look after their elderly relatives or disabled children, the bus or cab drivers, the people who deliver their post and parcels.

Perhaps they have one of the common underlying conditions that can hit at any age. Perhaps they're in the 60% of the UK population who is overweight. Or perhaps they wish to avoid the suffering and prolonged time off work that Simple is going through. And just think what happens to the economy if a large proportion of the population are in the same position. Not critical, but very unwell for weeks and weeks and weeks. Business won't be continuing as normal because the staff, if not dying, would be off sick in large numbers all at the same time.

I wish you a good recovery Simple

Also alot of the deaths that are marked as Corona are not. A friends mother who passed away but tested negative (twice) for COVID19 has had that as the cause on her death certificate.