I can’t believe this is how people think

[Tigerlily31]

My MIL told me she’d rather die of “anything else over Covid”

My own mother is convinced she’ll end up in ICU on a ventilator if she gets it, despite having no health concerns.

I fully blame the media. It’s becoming frightening how big it is in people’s minds.

" only acceptable position to many on this forum is to be utterly terrified and cowering in your house".

Stop with the hysteria.

I'd imagine most people on Mumsnet are leaving their house plenty of times and have done throughout lockdown. Some will have been genuinely shielding.

A minority will have ignored guidelines throughout
A minority will be " cowering in their house"

I'd guess most people on here would hope people follow the guidance but I imagine most people have broken them a few times.

I don't think any of the hysterical bunch have ever seen anyone suffer from or die of another illness. When you've witnessed for example cancer, and the way that takes people, covid is just another unpleasant way to die. Death isn't pretty in any circumstance.
People think some dismiss it as 'just flu', flu also kills thousands each year, so yes I'm aware it's deadly but also an illness many catch and recover from. So yes I don't think it's any worse than flu. Both can be deadly, it's a risk we've all taken each winter surely?

@Catrabbit75

My mother is in a care home, I’ve not seen her properly since February. She tested positive for covid-19, 4 weeks ago, but didn’t have one symptom and is now Covid free.

Could be a false positive

I’m at the point now where I’m far more worried about the impact on our economy and children’s education as well as other health services

youweregoodcakeclyde

Are you aware that the WHO issued dramatically relaxed death certification guidelines for covid19?

Do you consider this a conspiracy theory?

www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3025

How can you get a false positive? Staff not trained and they have covid and touch or contaminate the swab before putting it in the package to send it?

how many care homes have manged to keep their homes covid free,

I work in adult social care and collating care home data is one part of my job. In my area of 23 residential homes and 8 nursing homes we have not had a single home remain COVID free. Nor have we had a single home escape with no COVID deaths. and I mean actually died of COVID. The most deaths we have seen is 13 in one week. All were COVID. Our nursing and residential homes are averaging 60% capacity currently.

I know that the neighbouring boroughs are all very similar.

@Tigerlily31

I totally agree with you. Some people with very, very low risk assume Covid is the worst thing that could happen to them. It is scary how some previously rational people have developed hysteria. Some of the comments that people make about covid are extreme.

We now know there are lots of ways to reduce transmission but still go about daily life.

We also now know that the vast majority of people who die are elderly and vulnerable and even that demographic it is not a automatic death sentence as many posters on these boards would have you believe.
Indeed, many people have recovered despite comorbidities.

It isn't going away - we have to live with it and the younger and fitter catching it and slowly spreading through the healthier population will help in the long run (herd immunity) the virus will die out when x% have had it. Special precautions will continue for some time for the more vulnerable but even shielding can go out and about with masks/social distancing etc if they want to

I think people are right to be very very cautious because nobody knows if you will be ‘the one’ who gets it very badly.

Yep just like you don't know if you will be 'the one' who dies or is paralysed in a car crash, or dies/ has long term effects of cancer, sepsis or meningitis. You don't know if you'll be 'the one' who gets glandular fever and has long term life changing effects.

Yet, we accept these risks as normal life. Covid is a nasty virus, there is no doubt of that but we can't lock down forever to avoid it. If I get it and it kills me or leaves lifechanging effects that will be shit, but I don't expect others to give up their freedoms to prevent that. And I don't intend to hide away either just in case it happens.

None of us know how long we have before death or poor health, covid merely increases the risk of both as far as I can see.

My opinion is that covid has showed that some people seem to have no concept of their own mortality and that different people assess risk in different ways.

Thanks for the replies to this post.
I posted it late last night and didn’t expect as many as this!
I know that Covid can be a serious illness in some and I don’t dispute the fact it’s killed people, but my original point was how the media has manipulated each news article about this to frighten people. Obviously they wanted people to take it seriously and follow the restrictions, however it has lead people to be rooted to the spot with fear.
The example of my MIL and mother was because it shows the extreme end of the spectrum. They’re both over 60, but neither have any co morbidities.
I just couldn’t believe it when my MIL said she’d rather die of anything else...my DP later said “so she’d rather be burnt alive then?!” I can’t blame her for thinking that when the media has been showing those images of ICU with people on ventilators since day one.
Not making it clear that if you do get it, you have a very small chance of being on a ventilator. It’s almost as though people equate Covid with ventilators and ICU and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
There will be the unlucky few that didn’t already have underlying issues, but they will be the exception and not the rule.
My friend tested positive, she lost her sense of smell and had a headache for a few days, she’s now completely fine 3 months later, she’s newly pregnant and is feeling fitter than she has for years, but those kind of stories won’t be shared in the media.

Walksen - You cant open a school and say only half are allowed in without making plans for how the other half will learn on that same day not to mention impacts on childcare and working parents. Logistically it's a far more complicated situation.

^That was exactly the Government’s policy from May half-term!

So yes I don't think it's any worse than flu. Both can be deadly, it's a risk we've all taken each winter surely?

COVID so far, appears to kill more than a typical flu season, though that is likely due to the flu vaccine being fairly prevalent and decent at it's job (except that one year it wasn't).

COVID seriously affects more younger people though. As whilst not that many younger (below 60) die of COVID there are a larger number in hospital that in the same amount of people who have flu. It is very unusual for a younger person to be hospitalised for flu, more common (though not frequent) for a younger person to be hospitalised for COVID.

@Refractory

The methodology for them determining cause of death is outlined deeper on the ONS pages. To expect a full-blown post-mortem in each and every Covid case is to set a ridiculously high and impossible bar. And the ONS page identifies separately those died of suspected Covid but hadn’t been tested... this was the position for just 8.4% (largely in March before testing was readily available) so even if every single one had been wrongly recorded, it doesn’t really change the message.

It seems odd that you require impossible standards of proof regarding official recording of Covid deaths on one hand, yet readily accept stories of someone who had Covid but died in a car accident in the other and happily extrapolate that to most Covid deaths without any evidence.

It’s a bit like people when I was growing up who said “my 90 year old gran smoked 40 a day and died peacefully in her sleep, so there’s nothing dangerous about cigarettes”.

Yes well aware of the death certification guidelines for COVID. Main change is out of hospital patient does not have to be seen in person, by the person doing the death certificate, within 14 days of death.

The guidance was, remained and still is that if GP can certify to the best of their knowledge on the clinical information, then they do the death certificate.
This has potential for bias due to Dr being human responding to the fact that COVID at time uppermost in their mind (trying not to contract it etc). So they could put COVID more often.

Violent deaths or ones with no known cause are referred to coroner.

Car crashes can't be recorded as a death by COVID. That is just ridiculous.

@PJ6M no of course I haven't looked at it but their relatives who I know personally and have been conversing with have and they are having to have a solicitor fight their case as insurance won't pay out.

But of course you know them personally right?

Where did you get the idea that I accept the car accident story? I know nothing about it.

I'd wager that the 'confirmed' cases of covid19 did not require a positive covid19 test.

I was speaking to someone the other day that I respect and know well. He said he wouldn’t have the vaccine because ‘they’ could be injecting microchips in to gather data......
Ok

@Uhoh2020

The media has a lot to answer for for the covidhysteria circulating. Its as if people thought death never happened before now and covid is the biggest singular killer out there.

How true this is. I’ve heard of two very elderly people who have died during the last 3 months and every single person who talks about it is asking “ oh no, was it Covid?” with a shocked expression. As you say, it’s as if death never occurred before and elderly people just vanished into thin air.

. So yes I don't think it's any worse than flu

You think wrong. It's not hysterical to recognise that it is more dangerous than flu and outside people's experience.

Plenty of doctors and NHS workers were quoted in articles and videos not to underestimate covid 19 and they have seen plenty of nasty deaths from cancer or worse. You don't know anything about a posters personal experiences but you presume to lecture them about death beg unpleasant and dismiss them as hysterical? Does that make you feel superior in some way?

I’m not listening to the media but the scientists and they are urging caution.

On the estate where I live 2 people have died of it. My DB had it in Feb. He still has a cough and feels more breathless. My friend had it in March. She’s just been for an ecg as her heart rhythms aren’t regular, has developed high blood pressure and is due an examination of her larynx as her voice is husky.she lost her voice with COVID for about 6 weeks. She also sounds breathless when she walks. Another friend also still has a cough months on. All this lot are normal weight or slim no previous health issues.

I feel as if it’s a bit of a lottery as to how your body reacts to this virus. I’m not generally worried about catching bog standard things but I really really don’t want this.

So yes I don't think it's any worse than flu. Both can be deadly, it's a risk we've all taken each winter surely?

I don't think there's any proof it's any worse than Flu either. If flu had landed on the planet for the first time with no vaccination and no community population then the panic would have been similar and probably the death rate.

Flu has immunity from different but similar strains and that is why swine flu wasn't as bad as initially thought. We also have vaccination that slows down the spread and protects the elderly at least to some extent. Without this flu would be nastier (and it is nasty I'm very when people say 'just' flu)

community immunity

I have the opposite with my two grandmothers (aged 87 and 98, the younger one is in a care home but physically quite well, but had anxiety and couldn’t look after herself well) - they both say very strongly that Covid isn’t a bad way to go, it would only take a couple of weeks for which you’d be sedated when it got bad, versus the pain and indignity of years of cancer or dementia. Plus they also both say strongly that you don’t go into a care home expecting to go out healthy again, and they wish everyone would stop making such a fuss and let them enjoy their final years or months seeing their family and friends.

Maybe I just have hardy grandmothers...

outside people's experience

^^that is the key thing.