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.

errr, no, we can't do that until there's a vaccine

We're just moving this over to the coronavirus topic.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/30/lockdown-tightened-in-parts-of-northern-england-with-ban-on-indoor-meetings

It's not flu

No. We still don't know enough about the long-term effects, we don't have antibody testing and we don't have a vaccine. There's some degree of uncertainty around whether infection confers effective immunity in the long term.

The accounts of otherwise fit people having post-Covid heart, lung and renal problems are alarming. We don't know what the long-term prognosis of this is. There are people suffering "long tail" Covid, where they repeatedly have persistent relapses months after the initial illness. And then there's the potential prospect of mutation.

It's far too soon to take our collective eye off the Covid ball. We need to be ready to deal with local "spikes" by having local lockdowns, we need to socially distance and follow good hygiene practices. We need to stop whingeing and bellyaching and accept that the world may not be the same as it was for a long time.

Sorry not read through, but another concern are the group who had it mild initially across all ages that are developing a form of post viral syndrome that may resolve but may not and become chronic.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/26/im-a-covid-19-long-hauler-im-still-dealing-with-pain-fatigue-and-misery?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I just want to go back in to the office (Scotland).

Oh FFS I think we are all running out of ways to explain to the hard of thinking that this is not just a flu and that magical thinking will not save us from it.

Being grown ups, confronting facts, and taking the necessary measures will get us through it. These measures are social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks. I would be optimistic that by next spring things will be improving and that there may even be reasonable vaccine roll out. Until then we need to contain, contain, contain because every week that goes by we learn more about how to treat this bastard virus for the poor souls who get it.

It is the absolute idiots who will not take this seriously who are going to continue driving infection rates, like those in the pub with the outbreak. Pub landlords should lose their licenses after scenes like that because otherwise all pubs will be closed. It is time that there were real consequences for people whose stupidity puts others at risk.

As long as people act like they have a God-given right to drink overpriced beer in a pub garden, go to house parties and get cheapy flights to Malaga we will not contain this at the rates needed to allow most of us to return to semi-normal life.

We also need to keep pressure on govt to improve the trace, test, and quarantine system.

.

And just accept the deaths of more our elderly and obese people?

No thanks. I'm not that selfish.

It is time that there were real consequences for people whose stupidity puts others at risk.

You mean like another general election?

"er no - the death rate is 100X greater than flu, and the rate at which it is leaving people disabled is a similar amount higher."

100x greater? Wow. Do you have a source for that? I didnt realise we were facing an ebola type illness!

50,000 deaths and estimates that 5-10% in the U.K. have been infected.... Treat it like the flu and we’d likely have 100,000s deaths. We capped deaths at 1,000 per day at its peak only because we had lockdown and stopped it spiralling further.

We don’t treat it like the flu because it’s not the flu. It’s a bit like saying let’s treat a lion like a house cat.

We should still try to live as normally as we can, just not 2019 normal. However, if we don’t have a vaccine next year, all bets are off....

@Pasghetti

Oh FFS I think we are all running out of ways to explain to the hard of thinking that this is not just a flu and that magical thinking will not save us from it.

Being grown ups, confronting facts, and taking the necessary measures will get us through it. These measures are social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks. I would be optimistic that by next spring things will be improving and that there may even be reasonable vaccine roll out. Until then we need to contain, contain, contain because every week that goes by we learn more about how to treat this bastard virus for the poor souls who get it.

It is the absolute idiots who will not take this seriously who are going to continue driving infection rates, like those in the pub with the outbreak. Pub landlords should lose their licenses after scenes like that because otherwise all pubs will be closed. It is time that there were real consequences for people whose stupidity puts others at risk.

As long as people act like they have a God-given right to drink overpriced beer in a pub garden, go to house parties and get cheapy flights to Malaga we will not contain this at the rates needed to allow most of us to return to semi-normal life.

we know it's not 'just a flu'

the comparison is simply that it is a 'thing' which is not very nice and never really goes away, but the majority of the population just carry on with their lives as normal.

Covid is not going away but the curve has been flattened as long as the NHS can cope we should all aim to live as normal a life as possible.

the vast majority of people who catch coronavirus only suffer none or mild symptoms

Instead of treating it like flu, why not treat it like chicken pox? Dab on some calamine lotion and take a week off school. It's not chicken pox - just like it's not fecking flu either.

Very good!

the vast majority of people who catch coronavirus only suffer none or mild symptoms

True (depending on how you define “vast” and “mild”, but too many do have serious/critical symptoms for society to carry on regardless as though it were “just the flu”, unless you think the 800%+ excess death rate reported in Bergamo acceptable (and it would have been even worse had they not locked down).

@MakeItRain

No I don't think so, or hospital admissions will become unmanageable. I'm quite optimistic that by early next year there will be a vaccine and that enough people will take it to get transmission rates right down. I think until then we should socially distance, wear masks and take precautions. (But not shut ourselves away completely).

Exactly this.

the comparison is simply that it is a 'thing' which is not very nice and never really goes away, but the majority of the population just carry on with their lives as normal

How? If people start mixing in crowded places the rate of spread of the virus will start to increase. If the spread increases, more and more people will become too sick to work, may need hospital treatment and may die. The NHS coped only because it enormously expanded its ICU capacity into the spaces usually reserved for elective surgery, and stopped much routine treatment.

If we stop social distancing and mask wearing we will go back to those days very quickly, and worse. You can see what’s happened in the US. How is anyone to continue their normal life in that situation?

@heidipi

Instead of treating it like flu, why not treat it like chicken pox? Dab on some calamine lotion and take a week off school. It's not chicken pox - just like it's not fecking flu either.

@AlecTrevelyan006 The OP literally has written 'Is it time to accept Covid as another flu.'

No. It is not time to accept covid as another flu. If we can all grow the fuck up and accept that it's NOT just another flu people might stop bloody whining and just get on with what has to be done. Distancing, masks, avoiding big, unnecessary, indoor gatherings for approx 6 months to buy time for research into vaccines and effective treatments. If people take the necessary precautions we can largely adapt and thrive.

It is beyond frustrating that people will not accept the bare facts about this virus and understand that we all need to buy some time by limiting transmission as much as humanly possible for the sake of saving lives in the next few months.

@AlecTrevelyan006

the vast majority of people who catch coronavirus only suffer none or mild symptoms

Now all we have to do is work out which people this is, before they catch it, and we'll be fine.

Because the idea that we should all just get it and hope we,'re not the ones who end up unable to go back to work seems really stupid.

@cardibach

It’s not a flu, so we can’t treat as ‘another’ one. We will have to coexist with it for a while, but it will require measures flu doesn’t.

This.

In the United States the death rate is 1 person every MINUTE. This is not the flu. FINE, if you want to see the elderly, obese and diabetic die off. But the highest group is Health Care Workers. So when the next pandemic comes there will be no medical care available to help You.

You are so right. This could have been stamped out if people had just done as they were told.

People did do as they were told - lockdown compliance measures were very high.