Risks to children are vanishingly small? Really?

[GrumpiestOldWoman]

Heard a statistician on BBC this morning explaining the statistics, tiny tiny risk to the under 25's.

Yes, fine, children have negligible risk of dying from covid 19. But I view the risk to my children as including the risk of losing one or both parents, which for many of us is more likely. Look how close the Prime Minister's son came to losing a parent.

Risk of dying - tiny. Risk from losing parent (s) - more significant surely?

Under 50s with no underlying conditions also tiny. Maybe more a risk travelling to work on the motorway ?

This fear has to calm down. Most of us will not die from coronavirus. There’s more chance of my age group dying in a car crash on a daily basis than from this virus. Yet we still all get in cars and drive every day.

We need to get some perspective. Yes, we need to stay home to protect the vulnerable & elderly & NHS. I don’t condone those breaking the rules at all. But for those who are healthy and under 70, we need to stop being so terrified. Look at the actual stats of how tiny the risk is to young, healthy people. We’ve lived with virus our whole lives and lived normally. Yes, we may be unlucky & get more seriously ill. There is that chance with any illness.

@Porcupineinwaiting - my child watched me battling Hyperemesis last year & this. I was really really poorly & in hospital several times. My daughter is totally fine. She was concerned at the time but actually, it really helped with her empathy skills. She’d come stroke my hair & give me a cuddle when I cried. Kids are resilient & we can’t shield them from all the bad things. People get ill, it’s a part of life. My children will watch us all get ill multiple times in their lives.

There haven’t been vast numbers of deaths in the 40-50 age group either. Over half the deaths have been among the over-80s, and another 39% aged 60-79.

Haven't bothered to RTFT as the OP itself is a bit histrionic. No. Risks to children = risks to children themselves and their bodies of contracting Covid-19. The chances of parents dying is still small. Let's have some perspective.

Risk is tiny

Good for you if you are below 50. Outrageous if you think everyone who is above that age can just get on with dying so you are not inconvenienced.

@Bol87 watchingbyour mum receive proper medical care for a known and treatable condition is not the same as having her fighting for breath alone in the bedroom with no help or treatment available or watching her being carted off to hospital by men in fully protective suits and face masks. But hopefully you'll never know this.

This is quite aside from the fact that any kind of Infection Fatality Rate is absolutely an estimate at this point in time.

Yes the risk is extremely low. The risk to parents is also low. As the majority of people who have died are in the age group most likely to die on a given day anyway, most of the bereaved 'children' will be adults and all adults are of course eventually bereaved, usually due to, in no particular order, heart disease, cancer, stroke, kidney failure, flu, pneumonia, dementia etc.

Oh god. It's like are you scared?

No. We're not scared.

WELL WHY AREN'T YOU SCARED YOU SHOULD BE SCARED?

Well we're not scared bevause xyz

WELL THATS OK FOR YOU THEN PEOPLE ARE DYING

Christ. I don't see why I should feel bad because I am not personally scared.

If you are scared please make your own risk assessment and live your life on your terms.

We non scared folk should also be allowed to do that.

^Good for you if you are below 50. Outrageous if you think everyone who is above that age can just get on with dying so you are not inconvenienced.*

Oh for god’s sake. That’s not what I said. We were talking about the risk to children.

This is the graph the bbc has on its website. Shoes the risk of dying from coronavirus compared with normal life and illnesses.

The death rate is likely lower than we think it is because lots of people will have had it and not been tested.

@TrustTheGeneGenie agreed. As long as you make sure all that all the people you need to make your world go back to normal are equally non scared - and you are only treated by non scared medical staff when you get ill.

Healthy children and young people being off school etc wasn't to protect the children in the first place - it was to stop them spreading it to the more vulnerable.

Good for you if you are below 50. Outrageous if you think everyone who is above that age can just get on with dying so you are not inconvenienced.

porcupine makes no sense really as clearly medical staff are still working and anyone who chooses not to work will be replaced with someone who does.

• We are asking children to suffer to protect adults, particularly older adults.

Is that ethical?*

No it's not ethical.

I think it's absolutely shocking the way children have been treated during this.

Maybe alright if you have plenty of siblings, a nice trampoline and two parents who've been furloughed.

Stuck in a small flat while your single parent tries to work full time from home, and only allowed one bit of fresh air a day which is limited to the amount a small person can actually walk / scoot before needing a rest?

It's cruel.

@nellodee Why are you so keen for children to have no education and for young people to have no jobs for a small risk to yourself. Even at 80, 90% of those who get it survive.

Locking down the NHS for all but Covid and shutting schools and jobs will have devastating impacts on the younger generation and it is vital that this is pointed out.

It makes much more sense to shield the old and vulnerable than to destroy the country by pretending that ‘anyone is at risk’

Medical staff are still working but many are worried about their personal safety and all are scared of a second spike. I dont see many NHS workers saying schools must go back right now fi.

If cv wasnt infectious I'd be all for people making their own decisions about the risk of catching it and making that decision on behalf of their children (even though I think quite a few would be unpleasantly surprised by their mild illness). Unfortunately it is infectious so catching it has consequences far beyond the individual.

Outrageous if you think everyone who is above that age can just get on with dying so you are not inconvenienced.

I'm so sorry but I had to laugh at this. What a ridiculous thing to write. The vast majority of people survive the virus. Everyone dying? Really? Even if you are over 80 and have multiple health problems you still actually have more chance of being ok than of dying. Also 'inconvenienced' doesn't really cover the potential long term damage that will be done by an extended lockdown.

OP the average age of death from this virus in the UK is 80. 80! I am hoping that most of their children have got to a stage in their lives when losing a parent won't result in any very serious consequences for them. It might be sad and a premature death and those deaths matter but we are not going to be left with swathes of young orphans. If you are under 65 you have a very, very tiny chance of dying. Lockdown presents more risk to you and your children and potentially in some quite serious ways. I know this is a scary situation but you have to look at the facts.

@Bookworm completely agree my daughters mental health is suffering, I'm waiting for ASD assessment but of course everything is on hold as we know 🙄 she's fed up, bored, teary, frustrated and angry it's a bloody nightmare.

all are scared of a second spike

All, eh? They've all been asked? There are lots on here saying the opposite.

@Barbie222 @ineedaholidaynow

Yes. You only need to look at the lungs thread to see how many people are suffering. Many are parents, including me.

I've been ill with suspected Covid for 6 weeks. Not ill enough to be admitted to hospital (A&E twice though) or allowed an actual test, but I've had severe chest pains, inflammation around my heart and lungs, difficulty breathing (which has almost put me in hospital twice, but 111 said my lips weren't blue!), heart palpitations, severe fatigue, tremors, shakes, delusions as well as the flu symptoms. It's been horrific. I'm now out of bed but still chest pains, fatigue, wheezing and some pain in my leg which I'm slightly worried is a blood clot - but GP is completely unconcerned!

39 year old active female with absolutely no health issues and a healthy BMI.

Not sure what the long-term damage is yet, nobody will actually see me. The medical support is just not there, for me anyway. (South East London.)

In terms of the economy/going back to school, not sure having a large part of the workforce off on long-term sick (with unknown health consequences) is a good thing either.

Where?