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?

@MilerVino and @Reallybadidea its also a shocking graph for how awful Malaria is - Covid will (hopefully) go away and a vaccine is looking promising. Malaria is a treatable illness with tablets designed to prevent it (but no vaccine) and yet but it is still such a horrific killer.

And I didnt realise how much Parkinson's was or maternal death

Parkinson's surprised me too @Quartz2208

Agree as well that it's difficult to compare endemic and epidemic diseases. Malaria is also one of those illnesses that can be drastically reduced using public hygiene measures - it is one of many diseases that disproportionally affects the poor.

@Moondust001

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.

Please stop comparing it to the flu. That comparison has been thoroughly rubbished. It’s a multi-system disorder more akin to syphilis, polio or HIV. Screenshot about some of its (cardiovascular) impacts in the European Heart Journal. There’s also evidence to suggest it can do long term damage to the kidneys and brain.

There is a malaria vaccine that's in the process of being introduced. And it's way too early to say that covid will go away. Worst case scenario it retains its virulence without inducing long-lasting immunity. And the figures in the graphic are with it barely touching the developing world (yet)

There are a lot of reports about long term health conditions following recovery from this virus. People, including young people and those with no underlying health conditions, have had strokes, organ damage etc.

However, 80% will still have a mild illness. I think it's a reason to take this virus seriously rather than a reason to worry. The virus is spread through contact so going out for a walk or to the shops is very low risk, especially now that there is less transmission. Personally, I wouldn't stand in a queue outside a shop for an hour but I'll wait in a queue for 5 or 10 minutes.

There are still a lot of reasons to be hopeful, treatments, vaccines and the opportunity to eradicate the virus. We also have lots of guidelines and measures in place to protect us like physical distancing, sanitiser, face coverings etc

I know someone who is a nurse. Yes, if you have had it badly (or in some cases, just if you have had it) the long-term health implications can be severe. Lots of unknowns.

normal flu kills approx 28,000 people every year in the UK mostly the elderly and people already with underlying medical conditions, ( the worst year recently was 2017-18 the year of the snows beast from east when there was 50,000) it appears that covid is worse than normal flu for vulnerable groups but not as bad for the very young on average 28-30 young people die from flu each year and only 5 have died from covid, children appear to have it milder than normal flu and spread it less ( the less symptoms you have the less likely you are to spread it as not coughing or sneezing)
Post viral syndrome and chronic fatique are known side effects of flu and other viral diseases even when patients were never hospitalised
While we should not underestimate covid and just dismiss as bad flu neither should we over estimate it as a super killer.
it will not be until after the event we know the true number of excess deaths, whether the pattersn are different from normal flu, whether hard /soft / no lockdown achieved anything would the virus have fallen away naturally anyway, would we have had 500,000 deaths if we did nothing? some of these things we will never know, we know more now than we did in February and will know more in September than we know now, are some scaremongering and spreading fear , yes of course, is some information on the internet false of course, are some people dismissing it too lightly of course, does the science always add up no of course not it rarely does even for things like blood pressure one study will suggest X is a factor further studies either prove X is a factor or disprove it or that X is more or less important than we thought, the same will be true of covid

Really appalling scaremongering from a nurse.

'Scaremongering?? Really?? SHE has actual experience - you don't.

Just because you want it not to be true, doesn't make it so! This is NOT Flu. This is NOT 'just a cold'. Do you really think that most countries in the world would shut down for this if it wasn't serious?

all the studies published so far are short term, it has not been around long enough for any long term study, even people who caught it and were ill in Februaury are only really 3 months post recovery and the numbers in February were too tiny by the time numbers were sufficient to study in Europe it was mid to end March, before anyone even with mildest symptoms ( rather than no symptoms had recovered) and so statistics for their recovery pattersn will be to mid end of May to allow for analysis and review etc to publish in mid june
all we can say at present is that a few recovered people still have some problems upto 10-12 weeks later.

I'm sure that we were hearing weeks ago from more reputable sources than FB that CV can cause permanent damage to the body. It can't be news to people following this virus.

This graph scared the bejesus out of me. One thing I will say is that if the virus has peaked, some of the other endemic diseases will now overtake it again. Otoh if the second wave is worse, we're stuffed. public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2637725/

me too @MilerVino Everyone should look at that link.
public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2637725/

I think it’s too early to say, I’ve seen patients come in at 40 and die with no PMH, but also know colleagues at 60 who suffered only mild flu like symptoms.

Of the people I know who have tested positive, most had it mild like a cold and several didn't even know they had it. No lasting effects that they know of yet.

Its true the death rate only tells part of the story. Some people who survive are left with life changing conditions. Scientists are still learning about how it and the damage it can cause.
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/covid-19-can-damage-lungs-victims-beyond-recognition-expert-says?CMP=Share_AndroidApp

It seems it effects people from not knowing they even have it right through to needing transplants. The scary thing is not knowing how it is going to effect you. My friend who wasn’t hospitalised with it but needed to have been has been referred for a heart scan as she is getting weird heart rhythms and her blood pressure is high. She thinks she also has some scarring on her vocal chords. She started with symptoms a day or so after lockdown started. She gets fatigued still. Normally she’s as tough as anything. Very scary.

My colleague's customer had covid. He said he never felt worse in his life and he was genuinely scared he was going to die. Still hasn't fully recovered yet and he was sick in March. It's not fun.
When it comes to flu and covid is not a flu, it can also have some pretty nasty lasting damage. But covid can't be compared with this, you can be left with damaged lungs or heart.

The point is that the chances of young fit healthy people getting severely unwell with Covid are not high. There are plenty other things just as likely to debilitate you but you don't worry about those things because the risk becomes an accepted part of life and they are not talked about daily on the news. Our team of therapists have had the antibody tests and 4 out of 8 of us have tested positive. 2 had very mild coughs and 2 just lost sense of taste and smell for a couple of weeks. No one was very poorly.

@Squiz81

This is the same with all viruses though isn’t it. My friend had swine flu when that was doing the rounds and felt the repercussions for ages. My father in law ended up with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome after the flu years ago.

Agreed. I have CFS/ME after an incredibly mild Glandular Fever - 15 years ago. Thankfully I am pretty functional now but for several years I really really struggled. So whilst it is awful people are having long term effects, it's not particularly surprising or restricted just to Covid.

What is "d/c"? (Sorry if it's obvious...)

@unacorda discharge i think

Obviously it varies a lot from asymptomatic or very mild. There does seem to be more people that are struggling with recovery though, even in those not hospitalised, I think it's a very complex illness. I still have ongoing chest pain and breathlessness, on oral steroids and ++ inhalers and other asthma medication 14 weeks post infection. I still cant walk round the block and I wasnt admitted to hospital.

[quote Nonnymum]Its true the death rate only tells part of the story. Some people who survive are left with life changing conditions. Scientists are still learning about how it and the damage it can cause.
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/15/covid-19-can-damage-lungs-victims-beyond-recognition-expert-says?CMP=Share_AndroidApp[/quote]
Sadly, the chances of coming out of ICU treatment (for an illness like COVID-19) without any long term damage is very unlikely.
I query whether it’s helpful for people who’ve not suffered very severely to be worrying about heart and lung damage. I don’t think we should ignore the fact, however, that many people who were sick enough to need ICU may have survived but will be forever changed.

OP, I just watched a video of Mario Molina en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_J._Molina saying that latest research says face-masks are the solution.

Don't let fear of getting ill stop you from living your life. I'm 67 and I've been out and about every day. I've found I can go a long way without coming into close contact with people. I generally don't use a face mask except in shops or unless there are too many people for me to feel safe.

No matter how high the figures are for the people getting infected, they are very small number in reality. I know some of them have posted here, but most of them seem to have got sick before we knew so much about the virus.

@MilerVino that graphic is very interesting and demonstrates the dim-wittedness of the 'more people die of flu' crowd at the beginning of this year

I agree, it would be great to start a thread with that graphic. It is the clearest visual I have seen to all of the 'more people die from ......' comments that are constantly being spouted.

also this article makes a lot of sense as well. www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/15/coronavirus-fear-lockdown-recession

I just don't understand people who think we should ignore it all and just go back to normal and let the 'old and sick' take their chances shield. That just isn't possible, even if it were desirable (which it isn't). It is the pandemic itself that is causing most of the problems not the social distancing rules though I appreciate we couldn't continue with the very strict lockdown we had in the first few weeks.

It is like toddler having a tantrum and saying they want the rain to stop and that they want to sunbathe because why should the rain/a thunderstorm stop them doing that. It isn't stopping them but the sunbathing may not be that much fun

The problem is that we don’t yet know whether people left with lasting damage will be in the minority. They may not be. We know very little about this virus, and what we think we know is still in flux.
I have auto immune disease, so my immune system is already overreacting. My dc too. No-one seems to know how much this increases our risk of long term damage, because there is no way of knowing yet.
Lockdown is lifting but people need to be extremely cautious, this is not a disease to take lightly, even for under 45s in currently great health.