The majority of people seem genuinely terrified

[thewheelsonthebus23]

I keep reading threads on Facebook and elsewhere, I will also include my own mother in this. There are so many people genuinely petrified of life returning to normal right now.
I can’t get my head around this. Yes, it poses a threat to some, but the survival rate is incredibly high for most of the population. It seems a lot of people think lockdown will eradicate it completely and it also seems that they believe if they get it, they’ll almost certainly die. I know that’s what my mum thinks. She’s adamant if she gets it, she’ll end up on a ventilator.
Someone posted about sending their child back to school and said something along the lines of: “I’d rather pay the fine, than pay for her funeral”.
Has the media been really irresponsible here? I feel the mass media has a lot to answer for.

Erica have you looked up stats to see the number of people who recover well?

I go to work, i go to the supermarket. i walk the dog
I read, i understand the virus is not going anywhere

i wash my hands

But you are saying people shouldn’t worry as for most people it will be a mild illness and only a few will die. Why do we deride people who don’t give their children the MMR when exactly the same thing applies.

1,292,122 have recovered, according to worldometer.
but i am still afraid, for myself, for my family, for my friends.
it is natural

I’m young, fit, healthy had a ‘mild’ case and ended up with pneumonia and have taken 5weeks to recover. I think the word mild has been used to mean something quite different to the average person’s understanding of the word.

what law? no one is stopping people from having friends over, spending weekends away, no one is actually checking what you are doing. No one is stopping you from going out, going shopping every hour, from driving around.

Uh, that would be the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 SI (and equivalents in the devolved nations).

i am worried about my dc going back to university and my dc going back to life and london.
i am worried for the autumn/winter

Rubella can have a devastating effect on unborn babies! MMR isn’t just about the children.

Plenty died from measles. 307 in 1949. The deaths had fallen to just under 100 a year in the late 1950s. The death of children is always more devastating than those deaths we expect - the very elderly. Not that I advocate any deaths but MMR simply isn’t s great comparison. Just because we now don’t care about these diseases, we certainly did before vaccines appeared. A bit like Covid 19!

RedLentil: my neighbours haven’t noticed or taken account of the law either. I’m not sure how people think having friends round is ok.

Oops! I forgot. Neil Ferguson did!

The government did a great job of terrifying us all.

I don’t think lockdown was necessarily wrong, but that it needs to be ended now, but yes all of my children have had all their nhs recommended vaccinations including mmr. The cost to me of having them done was about half an hour of my time and a grumpy child for a few days each time. And a bit of calpol. The cost to the NHS each time was about 5 minutes of nurse time, a fraction of NHS and GP surgery overheads and whatever the actual vaccines cost, probably a few quid. And whatever the plasters and “I was brave” sticker cost. Benefits to both my children and all the people who can’t be vaccinated. Very little risk from vaccination, total no brainer.

The cost of lockdown to me, my children and society is rather more than that! When and if there’s an NHS recommended covid vaccine for children they’ll be having that too.

“ But you are saying people shouldn’t worry as for most people it will be a mild illness and only a few will die. Why do we deride people who don’t give their children the MMR when exactly the same thing applies.”

Again, the comparison isn’t valid. A vaccine isn’t available for Covid 19, so at present, so e of us are saying we must live with it or die with it and nit stop normal,life.

Normal life didn’t end prior to vaccine for MMR.

Still confused by the poster who thinks I’m following non existent law. I’ve looked very carefully at it in order to find loopholes. But I guess I’m looking at imaginary legislation...

Daffodil “ The government did a great job of terrifying us all.”

No. Please don’t tar everyone with the sane brush.

I’ve heard so many people say they are ‘terrified.’

I can only assume the government did a great job of terrifying them.

But what I am trying to say is why do we rip into people who don’t have their children vaccinated when for many the childhood illness will be mild? I was tested for rubella immunity before TTC even though I had been vaccinated as a teenager, so I am assuming the MMR is mainly to prevent childhood rubella.

I think it is the right approach to start easing lockdown. But really what do I know? Whether or not we think the government made mistakes early on, the fact is they did a complete U-turn. Regardless of whether they were incompetent or because it was impossible to judge it differently at the time...it remains that it was such an unknown that we couldn't avoid over 30,000 deaths, likely to double. At least.

I wonder how long it would have taken us to react of it hadn't been for the media.

At the beginning there was a lot of sentiment that it was just flu, want going to be a big deal. You know the whole play it cool, we're British, we don't panic etc. I was one of those. But clearly it was a big deal and we were wrong. The impact is worldwide, so many economies and societies brought to a halt. Should closed across Europe.

I don't know how anyone can listen to the rising death toll and not get their head around why people might be scared. I think that to not understand people fears is more difficult to get my head around.

I know quite a few people who are terrified. Partly for themselves and overwhelmingly for people they care about who are older or who have underlying conditions.

I know two doctors, one intensive care nurse, one health care professional and one nurse involved in front line data collection and research. All of them are utterly terrified by what they see and deal with every day. They cannot believe how fast the virus can take a life once things start to go wrong. They have virtually nothing to help patients who they know won't make it. This includes young for patients who had no known health conditions.

Every time I manage to get control of my own fear I speak to one of these professionals and become very fearful again.

I am married to an ITU consultant. He is not terrified.

If he was terrified, I don’t think he’d be making good judgements.

LilacTree you are a welcome voice of reason.

Rubella can have a devastating effect on unborn babies! MMR isn’t just about the children.Plenty died from measles. 307 in 1949. The deaths had fallen to just under 100 a year in the late 1950s. The death of children is always more devastating than those deaths we expect - the very elderly. Not that I advocate any deaths but MMR simply isn’t s great comparison. Just because we now don’t care about these diseases, we certainly did before vaccines appeared

Erm.....30,000 dead in a couple of months and because the majority are older people it’s not that devastating? Perhaps if it were your grandparents, parents, life long friends you might feel differently. Perhaps if you had a higher risk condition or your child did, you might think differently. Have you any clue how many asthmatics there are in this country? Absolutely a no fault condition but it’s OK for them to be exposed to something that could kill them.

And this utter shite about ‘mild illness’. Have you experienced it? Have you seen how many thousands have been hospitalised, sometimes for weeks or longer? Anyone who has been near a hospital know they throw you out as soon as possible.

I get it. I get that the majority will survive and life will go on. But to deride those of us with conditions that pose a real threat to our survival is beyond vile. Sadly, it seems teachers, carers, nursery workers etc are all considered expendable. Not a thought given to family left behind.

Newdress did you look at the flu death toll in the UK in 2014/15 and think that we should look at locking down in order to prevent it?

If you were unaware, are you now shocked that we didn’t take action for this high number of deaths? Would you say the same for the 1999/2000 flu levels?

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/highestnumberofexcesswinterdeathssince19992000/2015-11-25

I was one of the people who got flu in 1999. I could barely walk round the block even a month after. It didn’t occur to me that anyone else should have their freedom impacted.

FairPoint thank you. I get a lot of abuse on here so it’s nice to know someone gets me!

I think part of the fear stems from the knowledge that it's so very contagious, you know it's out there (at scale) and therefore, to some extent, your safety and that of your loved ones is somewhat dependent on your behaviour. You have some element of control, and your decisions may have terrible or tragic consequences. It's a lot to take in and deal with.

We deal with illness all the time but we don't ever deal with pandemics or viruses that are this brutal or unpredictable.

Maybe also depends on your network. If you know or know of people that have died or been in hospital (and that's going to apply to significant % of population) it'll influence you.