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.

The Financial Times’ research is now putting the death toll at over 54,000.

I think being deeply concerned, or even scared, in these circumstances is a pretty humane and rational response. Nothing to do with media hype. If caution isn’t a good move during a global pandemic then when is it?

We’ve seen before here, as well as elsewhere, how fast it spreads without lockdown or with few other measures apart from hand washing.
It’ll take a few weeks of going back to normal and we’ll be looking at tens of thousands more dying, and even more very ill. That’s not panicking, that’s just looking at the stats. And there’s currently nothing happening to change the odds in a substantial way. Within a couple of weeks, all the benefits of locking down will be gone again.

No-one is terrified in this house, but we are complying with the lockdown rules and are concerned that they might be relaxed too quickly.

I wonder how many of those who are accusing others of an over-reaction and/or are calling for an immediate end to lockdown watched this all unfold from the early days in Wuhan. I did, and I would struggle to understand anyone who saw what I saw on-line who thinks we over-reacted. We didn’t - we under-reacted. We should have closed down much quicker than we did. As it was, and as people have said upthread, the government really did need to frighten people to persuade them to stay in. You can go back and look at all the “it’s only flu” type threats to see why it was necessary.

My fear is that, if we reduce lockdown too much too soon, we shall very quickly go back to where we were at the beginning, with a population then being either resistant to going back to lockdown or so completely traumatised that even more damage will be done.

It isn’t, in my view, just the exponential growth that we need to worry about, but the viral overload caused by too many people having it in a confined area. It won’t be those sitting pretty in detached houses who will need to worry most, but those living cheek by jowl in tower blocks. If you saw the images from Wuhan, when were being sealed into tower blocks, you are unlikely to forget them. I’m not suggesting that would happen here, by the way, rather that the Chinese government was so desperate to control the virus that this seemed to them to be a legitimate course of action.

I’m puzzled by the people versus the economy argument. Until we have the numbers of infected people down and all the resources in place such that we can control any future spread, the economy is not helped by us being let out now. In fact it might be even more damaged.

PS I speak as someone whose earnings have virtually disappeared and who really, really does understand risk. I had cancer 3.5 years ago and was given a 34% chance of not living a further 5 years. My chances of dying from Covid19 are, I would imagine, much lower. Nevertheless, I do know of people who have died from it and I know a young person who has had it and is still suffering weeks later. I would prefer to be given a fighting chance of keeping it away from my loved ones.

A certain amount of fear is useful as it will mean more people social distance. However too much fear will be highly detrimental to both individuals and the economy.

There was an interesting discussion on radio 4 the other day which spoke about a model which showed that if economic growth falls below -6.4% long term more people will be killed from the future resulting austerity than the virus.

This was the programme in case anyone is interested
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000htrs

There is another big area between well and dead which myself and many others are in which is battling daily with symptoms of the virus 50 odd days after catching it. So people have a right to be worried this virus is nasty.

People just like following rules in this country, particularly any that involve a queue. They are probably having a nice time with loads of new rules they can check their neighbour is following, and are sad now this is coming to an end. It's the perfect nanny state

The medics I know are not terrified but some of their colleagues are, and push them to the front on any excuse. Those kinds of people wouldn't be my friends, so I can see how different posters on here would have different experiences of medics being terrified/not terrified. Equally, most of my friends are not terrified as we share a similar mindset. A few are shielding so I totally get their fear. One has shown herself in a very poor light, I don't have time for cowards.

God only knows what the poster who keeps harping on about mmr jabs is going on about, I don't know where to start with that

@FallenMadonnawiththeBadBoobies That’s a good point about looking at news from Wuhan months ago. If you read international news, you get a broader perspective, and like you say, in relation to most other countries, despite having warning, the UK acted too late and started with a different strategy (herd immunity), which other countries ruled out because of the high number of deaths involved and lack of evidence.

Look at it globally, and it’s clear we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet. We need to maintain lockdown longer than this until there is full PPE and testing in place and we’re closer to a vaccine.

So for people who think lockdown was wrong and that most people who get it will only have a mild illness, did you have your children vaccinated for MMR? Because let’s face it, those illnesses can be mild, it’s only the unfortunate few who would die.

What a ridiculous comparison. People are talking about weighing up positives and negatives. The negatives of having the MMR vs the risks involved in not having it is a totally different thing to the negatives of lockdown vs the risks of not having done it.

In my own experience, those who wonder why we're all afraid are the ones who haven't had the virus, and who don't know many who have nor have they lost loved ones in a COVID-19 death.

Might I suggest that if you've suffered days in bed with some thing which could have been it, as I did, plus I have lost a relative and an old work colleague to the virus, you might think differently.

None of us are saying don't get back to normal, but we are saying go carefully.....

It’s only on here that I see fear. No one I know gives a shit. I work at 3 sites with over a hundred people. No one is bothered and no one has had it.

So for people who think lockdown was wrong and that most people who get it will only have a mild illness, did you have your children vaccinated for MMR?

Yes I did, because that vaccine is available. A covid 19 vaccine is not available so what do you propose I do?

I really don't get that argument at all.

Also I know plenty of people who have had it and two were in their 70s with underlying conditions. Both fine now. My GP cousin and his wife and their son all had it and for all 3 it was like a very, very mild virus- only a bit worse than a cold he said.

I'm not denying its a nasty illness but not everyone gets it badly. The likelihood is there are plenty who've had it and not even noticed

I think there’s a divide between those of us going out to work every day, and those who aren’t. My colleagues and I were talking about this the other day. We have to go to work, and are not especially worried. All our partners, two working from home, and one furloughed are terrified and practically refuse to leave the house, imagining dead bodies on every corner etc.

I also see the divide between working and non working .
They did say on R4 that the like unemployment, the longer you are out the harder it is to go back.

I’m frightened because me and my family are vulnerable but not extremely vulnerable. So we aren’t protected by shielding but do have conditions like asthma and type 1 diabetes that make us more at risk. There seems to be lot of uncertainty about just how much more at risk we are and how to manage that going forwards (especially post-lockdown). My children are school aged and I am a primary school teacher working with very young children so when lockdown lifts we are likely to more exposed as social distancing in primary schools is extremely difficult. I would love to have the confidence of those with no health issues. Instead I do feel more vulnerable and am not confident in how this crisis is being handled.

Yes, I am terrified. I have health anxiety so it would be more surprising if I weren't. I don't want to get it, I don't want the risk that it might affect me badly - I'm just under 40 but my BMI is about 32 and I had a very bad chest infection in early Feb which took ages to shift, so I do have a risk factor.

I don't really understand why some people are so blase about getting it - it's a very serious illness.

Too much emotive language. It's used really heavily here (mn) because it helps to make a point in long, fast moving threads. Most people I know are not terrified of the virus. They are concerned about a rapidly spreading, highly contagious novel virus with a relatively high mortality rate. Most people I know are not suffering under lockdown. They are maybe uncomfortable and less happy then they were a few months ago. Most people I know have no faith in our government but can still appreciate the reasons for lockdown and are not clamouring for 'release'.

You can all tell me I'm ignorant and naive and that the nation's mental health and any future prospects for our children are being irrevocably crushed by a hysterical media and a population of sheep... but I don't believe it.

Saying "oh but you're highly likely to survive it if you're young and healthy" is all well and good, but largely irrelevant if it's your husband or child fighting for their life in ICU.

That's why people are scared. Yes, you're more likely to die to if you're over 70 but that doesn't stop young people in their twenties ending up on ventilators and dying too.

I'm in Cumbria and we've been particularly hard hit - not all the deaths have been in the over seventies category either. Lots of younger people have been affected and some are still unwell despite getting diagnosed in March.

I am not surprised at all that people are terrified. MN is a particular hot bed of it because of the general tendencies among what types of people post regularly here, but having watched, from abroad, the British-Bulldog-spirit-let's-go-on-shaking-hands rhetoric reverse almost overnight into dramatic public information announcements telling people their observance of lockdown is directly responsible for others living or dying - the drastic nature of the latter obviously done to try and obliterate the damaging effect of the former - I am not surprised at all that people are frightened. I have had moments of fear too, in a country much less badly affected in terms of deaths, much better prepared in terms of medical care and with much less febrile public rhetoric, and with no real increased risk in my immediate family (I'm debatably part of a vulnerable group but in a very good state of health right now). I am concerned about the extent and pace of relaxations currently happening where I am and will be extending my current radius of activity modestly (and being very glad to do so) but not rushing off full tilt into 'life as before' any time soon.

It bears remembering - and I think this is what a lot of people find very hard to remember - that many of the risks of coronavirus are risks we face from other things, but in much smaller numbers at any one time because those infections are not novel. And because (which should inspire our eternal gratitude) we live in an age where the conditions are optimum for good health and medicine can do so much, we have lost our familiarity with illness and death as part of life. There are always people who have the bitter experience of death not being something we can control and hold at bay until we are very old, but rarely do we see this becoming a relatively common experience from the same cause (and brought to us from the media continuously), so can usually choose to divert our attention in a way we can't right now.

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Thanks for all the replies. It’s intersting reading through people’s views.
I only know one person who tested positive, my friend who is an NHS nurse and the only symptom she had was a loss of smell. She is fine now and her husband had a mild cold. Her little boy had nothing.
I also know nobody who has died of it and I honestly think I myself have had it, but I can’t be sure on that one.

Why are so many people saying that if you’re not terrified you’re not taking it seriously?

I am taking it seriously.
I think lockdown was the right thing to do.
I do know how many people it’s killed.
I’m still not scared of it killing me personally, because for most people who catch it it’s a mild illness and I’m not in a high risk group.

There is a middle ground between “nothing to worry about here” and “we’re all going to die.”

I also think the polarisation of the public discourse on this ('people who sit down on a bench for 5 minutes on their daily walk are MURDERERS' versus 'it's just a cold, stop the hysteria and get back to work, you lazy sods') is inevitable in our social media age and after the UK has just emerged (or not really emerged yet) from a very polarised period over Brexit, but really unhelpful. Everyone's facing a sense of insecurity really, due to the novelty and uncontrollability of this. Everyone, facing insecurity, tends to want to hang onto, confirm and entrench their position. Hence the undertone of some of the 'why are people so scared' threads on here (not necessarily this one, OP) of 'why are they being so silly' and the scaremongering going on on others. We would collectively do better to try and understand each position. Compassion for those scared in an unprecedented situation, perspective on the actual nature of the risk and understanding for those who need or want to make different decisions as to how far they wish to curtail their lives.

the Media has a lot to answer for, constant news and hysteria. Imagine if they published and spoke about cancer deaths and cases all day, you would never eat a bacon sandwich, drink a glass of wine etc again!!

I am just outside London, I don't know one person who has it (thankfully) however, the economy is fucked .. people have lost jobs etc was all this necessary? Locking down young fit and healthy for this long who couid have continued to work and keep economy ticking along??

I'm going to see my mum his weekend .. seen her twice throughout this - she lives totally alone. Was this necessary?!

vanillandhoney It's all a matter of risk assessment. Of course you are going to feel differently if it was your own family member, but that doesn't affect the actual odds of you dying with it; in the under 40s this is incredibly low. Around 92% of deaths are in over 60s, and that was before increased testing. Realistically the mortality rate in under 40s is probably about 1% even more so if they are generally fit and well.