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Original poster

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

562 replies

947EliseChalotte · 30/07/2020 19:48

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.

OP posts:
NailsNeedDoing · 30/07/2020 20:17

Yanbu.

Although Covid can be very dangerous for some people, for the vast majority it isn’t, and the same can be said of chicken pox or meningitis or lots of other illnesses I can’t think of off the top of my head that are circulating all the time without this fuss. At some point soon, we have to accept it as just another one of those awful things that can happen to people.

It was worth taking the measures we did, at least just to reassure people, but lockdown has as many if not more victims than Covid and can be equally as damaging.

The whole thing is a balancing act that needs to be reset now.

SheepandCow · 30/07/2020 20:17

Yes let's treat it like flu...have a vaccine. So that we can live with it rather than die from it.

Haenow · 30/07/2020 20:19

Have you been living under a rock?! Grin
It isn’t the flu, it’s a new virus and it’s contagious.
We do need to learn to live with covid but silly suggestions like yours aren’t particularly helpful.

Bananaman123 · 30/07/2020 20:20

No lets not - The UK currently has the third highest number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the world. Only the United States and Brazil have had more, and both countries have far bigger populations.

Quartz2208 · 30/07/2020 20:21

We do have to face up to the real possibility that this is going to be an endemic virus and therefore yes we do have to figure out how to learn to live with it whilst we figure out if we can get to the point that we are with flu.

Where we vaccine every year and have a certain amount of immunity to

However two things come from this

  1. we are still in part trying to eradicated/eliminate in some countries
  2. we arent there with being able to treat it like any other endemic virus because the vaccine and immunity isnt there. Certain preventative measures will be needed to get us through the rest of the year and perhaps beyond when we get those in place
Kokapetl · 30/07/2020 20:22

YABVU! The long term effects are still unknown. A recent study found that a large number of young people, who had it but didn't have to go to hospital now have damage to their hearts. More long term issues will probably come to light as time passes. It is also more deadly than most flus, especially as no one had immunity to start with.

Kazzyhoward · 30/07/2020 20:22

If it's "just a flu", how come schools and hospital wards were closing due to staff shortages back in March??

Lucked · 30/07/2020 20:25

How short is your memory? 5-6 weeks ago we had sustained daily Covid deaths between 750-1000. Nursing homes decimated.

You want to go back to that? Explain it to me in a bit more detail what you think will happen. Or do you think it is a hoax?

Chloemol · 30/07/2020 20:25

Ok love, then you crack on, then when thousands are ill and need the nhs and it’s not there as it’s collapsed as everyone has ‘got on with life and living normally’ and caught covid you can come back on here and moan some more

Flu has vaccines, a lot less people catch it, covid has no vaccine, is a new virus we are still learning about and impacts all

But as I say, you and everyone else who agrees with you can crack in, and work towards herd immunity for the more sensible of us prepared to listen to the scientists

5363738383j · 30/07/2020 20:27

Wouldn't you like to wait a year in case there's a vaccine so thousands of people don't have to die?

5363738383j · 30/07/2020 20:29

And presumably you'll avoid the NHS when you get Covid so they can continue treating people with other diseases? Oh wait. They won't be able to do that because it will be too risky to have chemo and non essential surgery.

TheNewLook · 30/07/2020 20:29

If it's "just a flu", how come schools and hospital wards were closing due to staff shortages back in March??

Because staff were told to self-isolate for two weeks if they might have had contact with someone showing any signs whatsoever of Covid. So your flat-mate has a cough? Two week off for you. This is exactly what happened with my daughter’s teacher.

Quartz2208 · 30/07/2020 20:30

Kazzyhoward because we have no immunity to it.

I think the OP does mean though at what point do we accept that actually we cannot eradicate or eliminate it and it will become an endemic virus we need to figure how to coexist with

kokapetl do you mean this one

www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/does-covid-19-cause-heart-damage

MarshaBradyo · 30/07/2020 20:31

If it's "just a flu", how come schools and hospital wards were closing due to staff shortages back in March??

Because staff were told to self-isolate for two weeks if they might have had contact with someone showing any signs whatsoever of Covid. So your flat-mate has a cough? Two week off for you. This is exactly what happened with my daughter’s teacher.

Also didn’t shielding letters go out? So vulnerable staff stayed home

NailsNeedDoing · 30/07/2020 20:31

Op, I'm guessing that you're not vulnerable and don't give a fuck if the vulnerable die or not. Can't you see how cold you are?

There are things that people who are vulnerable to Covid can do to protect themselves, and those people should have the financial support they need to do so, but paying for that requires the rest of us to be earning at full capacity.

There is less that the people who are vulnerable to the effects of lockdown can do to protect themselves, and they deserve to be considered too.

ItsReallyOnlyMe · 30/07/2020 20:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MitziK · 30/07/2020 20:31

@NailsNeedDoing

Yanbu.

Although Covid can be very dangerous for some people, for the vast majority it isn’t, and the same can be said of chicken pox or meningitis or lots of other illnesses I can’t think of off the top of my head that are circulating all the time without this fuss. At some point soon, we have to accept it as just another one of those awful things that can happen to people.

It was worth taking the measures we did, at least just to reassure people, but lockdown has as many if not more victims than Covid and can be equally as damaging.

The whole thing is a balancing act that needs to be reset now.

You don't remember what it was like before the various vaccinations against meningitis, then?

I do (except for the week when I had it and lost two stone in the process 9st to 7st in five days). As does DP every year when he remembers his best friend who died at 14. And every parent whose child lost limbs or died - or you felt the fear when a child in your kid's class or nursery was rushed into hospital with it and you watched yours like a hawk, wondering whether they were whingey because they were little or because they were going to be ill. And meningitis wasn't killing off the elderly, the adults, the middleaged, the disabled and sick in its thousands.

The meningitis vaccines undoubtedly saved lives the moment they were made part of the vaccination programme.

5363738383j · 30/07/2020 20:31

Also, perhaps stop a moment and consider who will never be able to get back to normality if we don't take preventative measures. Vulnerable children. A generation of grandparents.

ItsReallyOnlyMe · 30/07/2020 20:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Orangeblossom78 · 30/07/2020 20:33

I think it was easier when we just had to distance and take good hygiene measures. Simpler.

5363738383j · 30/07/2020 20:33

Although Covid can be very dangerous for some people, for the vast majority it isn’t, and the same can be said of chicken pox or meningitis or lots of other illnesses I can’t think of off the top of my head that are circulating all the time without this fuss. At some point soon, we have to accept it as just another one of those awful things that can happen to people.

Said by someone who has no living memory of what it was like before dangerous infectious illnesses were virtually eradicated from our lives. People lived in fear at times before the polio vaccine. They adjusted their behaviour when there were scarlet fever and measles outbreaks. That's how they learned to live with it. The opposite of what you have in mind.

maddiemookins16mum · 30/07/2020 20:34

If three large airliners crashed killing over 900 people in one day, there would be uproar. We’ve had days (albeit at the peak) when this happened with Covid 19.
This isn’t just flu.

Tootsey11 · 30/07/2020 20:35

No op we shouldn't. This is not the flu. I've had the flu once and felt rotten for a number of weeks, then recovered. I got CV in march, it's nearly August and I can struggling to keep on my feet working a mere 14 hours a week to feed myself and son.

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. The more people who end up with long term problems from this will create increased strain on the NHS.

marvellousnightforamooncup · 30/07/2020 20:37

It isn't flu, simple as that. Treat flu like flu, tread Covid like Covid.

labyrinthloafer · 30/07/2020 20:37

Please feel free if you want to do that but I'm of the view that every month I'm not catching it is more time to get some decent treatment.

Honestly, I think you don't know anything about the virus if you think it is anything like flu. Do some research before suggesting crazy things.

I am not scared of flu, I am scared of covid. They're not alike.