Is coronavirus actually as bad as this claims? Surely we'd of heard more about that?

[YellowEllis]

I was finally becoming relatively relaxed, but I find this very alarming?

I agree it's the randomness that's so scary. It's almost like a bunch of different viruses the way the symptoms are so different for different people

Most people will experience fairly mild illness but some will be very ill - just like most children recover from chicken pox within a fortnight with nothing but a few scars but some get encephalitis and are permanently disabled or die. Not always possible to predict who will be really ill.

Viruses are NOT designed to kill!! They need their hosts to stay alive. Tense why they usually get milder. And they are not fucking intelligent!!

Appalling thing for a medical professional to say.

Maybe if you have bad health anxiety to would be better to look at information sources such as WHO or NHS instead of social media?

Who knows who this person is.

As an ICU nurse she isn't going to see many non-serious cases though, is she? She sees the worst cases and seems to be thinking that's what they're all like.

That's what I was thinking. Obviously it's awful for the people affected, but an ICU nurse will be working off a skewed sample. My 89 year old grandma who has a heart condition and had heart surgery last year tested positive and barely noticed any symptoms. Obviously not everyone will be like that, but equally, not everyone will be like the people this nurse is seeing.

*hence

I did read an article about it causing pulmonary fibrosis for some,patients. So scarring on the lungs which is permanent and will affect their breathing for the rest of their life. Don’t know how common it is.

YES it can be this bad. Coming out of hospital does not mean you’re better. My sister’s been told to expect 3 months recovery time to a reasonable level of functioning, and 6 months to full recovery.

The after effects of this are being played down. Plus many of them are not known - my BIL hasn't had any contact from any health officials since his last test in April. He didn't even get the results of his third test (one positive, one negative and then the last was to confirm the negative). No-one has checked up on his recovery and when he called his GP he was told, twice, someone would call him back, but they never have.

He's early 30s and still gets breathless going up stairs, still takes naps in the day and still has a hoarse voice from all the coughing. He used to ride his bike 6 miles each way to work each day as well as kayaking and swimming a lot. He was a fit guy.

An ICU nurse would have posted this a while ago not when we have so few patients in ITU with Covid needing ventilating.

This is hysterical rubbish. Some people will have a bad outcome. Some people have bad outcomes from flu too. I don't believe she has any expertise on this at all, not any medical training to be frank. Ignore it and stop depending on unreliable social media for advice. You may as well listen to Donald Trump if you want to believe ridiculous things.

Judging from the reaction of doctors around the world who were treating it, it seems that serious cases are particularly horiffic, probably because there was little treatment they could offer. There does also seem a lot of anecdotal evidence of it taking a long time for even mild cases to recover. My friend, aged 40, who had it is still suffering respiratory issues 3 months later. She's never suffered with her chest before.

I don't know the specifics but I did read that the strains that hit Italy and NYC were particularly unpleasant. Hopefully as PP have said it is tending to mutate to weaker strains. So much research still to be done. Also, the more we know, the more likelihood that it will become treatable, I hope.

DH and I have both had it. DH was in bed for 3 days and I was feeling so fine that if I hadn't know it was covid I'd have felt well enough to work.

I know about 10 people who've had it and that's their experience too.

As a general rule viruses aren’t designed to kill...

The people I know that have had Covid (one being in a coma for 2 weeks) recovered, the aftermath is horrific, one is still struggling to breath, one is sleeping for near on 18 hours a day, the rest exhausted, breathless really quickly. It’s sad.

YellowEllis I think there is a balance that people are trying to find. One of the reasons I am being very open about the effect the illness has had on me is that people who are (understandably) sick of lockdown are rushing back to the shops, to attractions, to seeing friends and family, not realising that we do still really have to be cautious.

I don't think you will be reckless, either with your own safety or with other people's . However, you cannot count on other people being reckless with yours. So, it's possible to start getting out of the house, while still being very aware of trying to keep away from other people, avoid crowds, avoid close contact, and all the rest of it. I really don't think you need lock yourself away forever, you just need to be careful, and not just pretend (like some have) that it's "just the flu" and "we will be fine".

Think of strategies which will enable you to go out and still be reasonably safe. Have you bought cloth masks? You might think of also buying a clear face shield - there's lots of them on ebay, and even the ones marked as disposable can be reused again and again. They have to be used properly (eg wash hands before and after touching it) but they might help you to feel more secure. Have you thought of times of day (early in the morning, maybe) that you could go for a walk while avoiding people? Or lesser-used, wide roads?

I think it’s probably a tad dramatic but she is an ICU nurse. I know a doctor whose worked on covid and the general consensus is that it’s very unlike anything else they’ve seen, so I would take from that that we just don’t know enough about it yet.

There is a good podcast some of you should listen to- it is on BBC sounds

It's called "When Misinformation goes Viral" - all about these kind of posts on the virus.

but she is an ICU nurse

How do you know that? Where does she work then

Is she friends with your doctor perhaps

The language is a bit off for a nurse, not hugely professional, but I assume one step down from dying from it is very serious too, so I’m not surprised.

I had lung issues for years after swine flu in 2009. I'm not doubting at all that Covid-19 can cause lung (and other) issues, and nasty ones at that, but (as some unfortunate people will be aware) long-term after-effects are always possible with almost any infection. It's just we understand those (mostly) better, and we don't tend to see (or hear of) so many happening all at once.

OP it’s correct that this virus can sometimes have longer lasting serious effects, so people who are completely blasé about getting it are idiots, but it’s still a small minority of people who are affected that way, and an ICU worker isn’t necessarily going to have a balanced view on that.

And “this virus is designed to kill” is a ludicrous thing to say.

The people I know who are working in ICUs (so are working with the subset of patients with very severe disease) are saying these exact things, yes.

It’s systemic, it fucks up your blood, it attacks multiple organs, it can cause permanent damage, people in ICU aren’t just struggling with breathing problems, it’s incredibly frustrating for them and they feel (in many ways) like doctors in days gone by because they don’t have recognised treatment protocols, they don’t really know what they’re dealing with other than it’s far more and far worse than they thought.

Yes. They are exhausted.