Should we treat covid like flu now and just get on with life?

[947EliseChalotte]

Is it time to accept covid as another flu and just get on with life and back to normality. The whole point of lockdown was to flatten the curve.

Once again, it isn't 'trivial' for most people.
Most people never have any symptoms .....

we do not stop the world for other, much more serious, diseases
its time to get COVID back into perspective.

Sorry, pressed send too soon...

I’m sorry for your loss and it’s understandable that you blame our response to Covid as a society given that it hastened your mum’s death. The sooner we can get beyond Covid and move away from the deaths that have been caused directly and indirectly, the better.

No thanks, hardly anyone even knows what flu is! Even myself until my DH got it. He passed out smashing his head of the toilet on his way down, breathing but unresponsive until the ambulance arrived, never seen someone so deathly ill from someone that seemed so small like "man flu" even the doctors and nurses would not get close and told me to keep DC away!

So if its worse than the flu then no 👍🏻

@ListeningQuietly

It’s true other diseases kills huge numbers each year, but had the world let Covid pass through it without attempting to contain and suppress it, we could be looking at deaths that dwarf from other diseases in a very short time. Even taking a low IFR estimate of 0.2%, that would mean 15 million extra deaths this year worldwide. However, healthcare systems would have collapsed had we done that, causing the IFR to rise along with massive non-Covid deaths as a result.... 50 million deaths wouldn’t be an unreasonable estimate.

Can't even be arsed to read the full thread but the answer is no obviously not. I've read the two very sensible posts preceding mine and they really sum it all up 👍🏻

Derbygerbil
Big numbers, hypothetical.
Lets wait and see what the real numbers are in a year
bearing in mind that much of the world does not have health care as we know it.

"we do not stop the world for other, much more serious, diseases
its time to get COVID back into perspective".

We haven't stop the world because we've never had a pandemic in our life time before !!

We haven't stop the world because we've never had a pandemic in our life time before !!
R I G H T

Okay, I do agree that for a lot of people it is trivial, or even asymptomatic. But it isn't so clearcut as to who will have a very mild form of it or who will have it very serious. It isn't just about age. There are a lot of people who have long-term symptoms and they're not all over 60 or with serious underlying issues. Not by a long shot.

I'm one of those affected in this way, and I'm only 50, and I have DDs of 11 and 8. It really isn't just about the number of deaths, it's about the effects on some of the survivors.

I'm also not saying that we shouldn't get on with things, I can see how damaging it's been to my DDs, not being in school or able to see family and friends. I'm just trying to argue against those who are dismissive about it.

If you stop everything you have nothing because you cannot pay for anything. Hence the balance problem. 25 million flu jabs EE offered in the uk with 15 million being taken up. I suspect with it now being 50 years old and upwards instead of 65, there will be greater uptake due to the greater awareness of staying healthy.

As I wondered earlier. Has any research been done on why very fit younger people get lingering health issues after Covid? Are some people ultra fit but not actually healthy. Why do Olympic cyclists need inhalers? Supremely fit bit not necessarily supremely healthy.

EE? Not sure where that came from?

Maybe some people put them under too much pressure? Work stress, family issues? I developed pneumonia last year and a doctor suggested that it could have been because of stress.

I do have health issues, so it's easy to see why in my case COVID has affected me like this. But with some of the other posters on the long-term COVID thread, that isn't the case.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that it will be a mild case if you catch this virus.

I'm confused about the comments referring to under 45s or under 60s? And? I assume the posters aren't suggesting around half the population is expendable?

In any event there's a risk of long term illness. Death isn't the only concern.

We don’t know how many have longer term problems and why. It’s not fully known yet. I was only responding to continued posts and radio interviews about runners and fit people who cannot recover. There must be a reason why they cannot when the clear majority do and some people barely know they’ve had it. Are the supremely fit more at risk but think they are not?

That reminds me. The age risk for covid starts at 40. This year's flu jab should be offered from 40 (or 45) rather than 50. I also hope non medical vulnerable are included, as they usually are. Homeless people and the insecurely housed are an increased risk (to flu and to covid) both individually and as a potential spreader.

The bigger numbers of deaths started at 60, not 40.

@SheepandCow Exactly. I get so frustrated by the way some posters just dismiss the risks of COVID as 'trivial'. Believe me, it's not trivial to find yourself gasping for breath when climbing the stairs.

I don't think the risk of death from COVID starts at 40, but the risk of long-term symptoms certainly does.

I just want people to stop obsessing about the risk of death. That really misses the point.

@My0My

We don’t know how many have longer term problems and why. It’s not fully known yet. I was only responding to continued posts and radio interviews about runners and fit people who cannot recover. There must be a reason why they cannot when the clear majority do and some people barely know they’ve had it. Are the supremely fit more at risk but think they are not?

This is precisely why I think great caution is needed with covid, as no one appears to know very much yet - but significant numbers (they keep saying 10%) have ongoing symptoms.

Mild cases are not so very mild for a worrying number of people.

This potentially creates more cost pressures in society too, if it impacts work.

But that's how it can be with a lot of viruses. Sometimes it affects us worse than at other times. I'd had flu in the past without developing pneumonia but then last year it happened.

No. It is a more severe illness but that is not the reason.
The reason is exponential growth. The population has so little resistance and there could be no getting on with life while it surged to a natural peak.

There are inflammatory response conditions you can have a genetic susceptibility to developing and never, ever know. Why some people are triggered and others (with the same genetics) aren't is still being researched.

The point is, Covid seems to have a way of triggering these responses that is more acute than other viruses. So more people will be unlucky. Nothing necessarily to do with their state of health.

I think it would be a pity for people to die who could have lived if they'd got the illness six months later or better yet, got the vaccine in a year. It's a roll of the dice that not everyone can afford to hold off. But it always seems a pity for people to die if they could have lived by waiting a little longer. Especially with the NHS not very good, the government not very competent, and the country at a standstill anyway. Those who can manage to isolate aren't likely to miss much except a chaotic season of queuing, coughing and trying to have a life behind a mask. I realise this is quite a privileged viewpoint. But the more of us who can stay home this side of spring, the more space there is for those who have to go out, whether that's social distancing, education or beds in ICU.

10,000 people in the UK die every week
COVID or no COVID

I have friends who have died during lockdown
in one case a person under 45 who was kicked out of hospital BECAUSE of covid and died on his kitchen floor before the paramedics got there

cancer patients are dying
battered women are dying
but COVID distorts all sane risk assessments

listening

Don't you understand that covid will take up every iota of resources if it isn't kept under control?