Do people actually realise how few are dying from coronavirus now?

[Mrschickpeabody]

It’s all still doom and gloom on the news as normal regarding coronavirus. Loads about cases going up, local lockdowns, negativity regarding schools going back but nothing about the fact that hardly anyone is actually dying from coronavirus or being admitted to hospital. Can we not hear about positive things for once?

You do realise most people aren't counted in figures as majority die after 28 days when their deaths are discounted?

Simply not true. The ones who aren't now counted are the ones who have died of something else that were previously being counted as covid deaths. Someone who was dying of covid would still be counted as a covid death after any length of time.

That said OP, I do agree the news doesn't like reporting positive stuff, it's more certain responses I object to than the OP.

@AlecTrevelyan006

That's because the R was presumed to be below 1 (until about five days ago) which means no exponential growth, We also know that in the last few weeks, more 0-4 year olds have tested positive for the virus than over 65s (I can link to the graphs for this). Of course this will impact hospitalizations. So yes it's a sign that the measures taken by people collectively are working and need to be sustained.

@ChanceEncounter

Viruses do that sometimes- it’s nothing new

Much higher percentage with Covid and much more serious impacts. This is not just fatigue but recordable organ damage.

Could you give your source for this, please. Especially "much higher percentage with Covid", as we know that 'just' flu causes cases of 'recordable organ damage' every year, so it would be helpful to compare the figures.

"You do realise most people aren't counted in figures as majority die after 28 days when their deaths are discounted?"

Government data suggest that there are still deaths not due to Covid being included in the Covid figures as they died (of something else) within 28 days of a positive test.
From the Gov.uk website: "Number of deaths of people who had had a positive test result for COVID-19 and died within 28 days of the first positive test. The actual cause of death may not be COVID-19 in all cases." (My bold)

Do you have a reliable source for your claim of "most"?

Yes I realise there are very few hospital deaths and admissions. It’s great isn’t it? It means social distancing and all the other measures are working to prevent this taking off again in an exponential way.
What’s your point exactly??

Op sadly some people just won’t see what’s in front of them because they’re so scared

Now absolutely is an acceptable level of deaths for society to go on

More people this week died of other diseases (compared to this time last year last year) - at some point other diseases matter and people can’t just sit on cancer waiting lists for two years for the back log to clear

@amicissimma

I'm not a scientist just a lay reader but the general stuff I have seen said healthy people 'rarely' have long lasting effects from flu, while long covid is estimated at up to 10% of cases.

How many more threads on this ?
Op I agree to a extent but why is it we have people that are not worried that the deaths are low and others that are .
Why can't we be cautious but not feel the need to preach if we are worried or not .
Me personally I don't think we've been told the whole truth about how early the virus was in this country. I don't think the fact that a advisor to pm was out and about during the height of lockdown when people down my street were fined or called for just popping to the shop for a newspaper.
I think we need to be cautious but try and live a life in the new normal and telling people what they should and shouldn't do is not helpful.
I've said it before but just crack on with your life and stop worrying what others think and are doing .

That’s 10% of symptomatic cases

We don’t know how many are asymptomatic

Fact is hospitals cannot return to norm capacity with distancing

At what point does covid trump other infections and diseases

Of course, that could be because we are distancing, wearing masks, not fully back to work/school . . .

I don’t know anyone who has had long lasting health problems from Covid, most people know had mild symptoms and recovered with no side effects, I know because I see them every day and they tell me they are perfectly healthy. Yes some people will have long lasting health problems but what % is 0.1? No one knows, but I bet most people recover.

I think we are actually doing ok at the moment in relation to cases and deaths balanced with semi normality, we are able to do most basic things of course with restrictions and safety measures but id rather things the way we are now than going back into lockdown when we could do bugger all.
However I think the media does now need to show some positivity in regards to how far we have come since April would help with those who are still consumed and fixated with covid deaths, figures and statistics should be told with perspective and in context.
I know it can be frustrating when the government announce local tighter restrictions or introduce quarantine for countries but its just the world we live in at the moment, lockdown and not closing borders were what many moaned the gov didn't do early doors so now I feel they can't win.

The irony is that there are many people who are abiding by social distancing guidelines, who quarantine when they come from abroad, leave their details for track and trace etc, and somehow they get criticised by the likes of OP for being gullible and hysterical. When in fact, it's the cautious actions of those people that minimise transmissions and thereby reduce the risks undertaken by the more reckless amongst us.

Personally, I wouldn't claim to be socially distancing for purely altruistic reasons, but at the very least, the rule abiders don't deserve to be dished out with scorn. Do you really want everyone to behave like you, and to be ushered into a local lockdown as a result? Surely it's in your personal interest to tell others to be more cautious so that your actions have minimal consequences on the rate of transmission?

Alright there Dommo ?

The majority of current cases are among young people and people working in closely confined workplaces. These people are less likely to die or be admitted to hospital because of their age, hence the low death rate.

However, many of those who would die of coronavirus are still taking strict precautions, socially distancing, not going into crowded areas, hand washing etc. Care homes and hospitals are still being extremely strict on visitors and PPE etc.

I’m not exactly sure what the OP wants to happen? By and large, most people can now go about their lives fairly normally, with a few restrictions on social distancing and masks etc. OP do you really think PPE in hospitals and care homes should be ditched, that track and tracing should stop, that extensive testing can stop, so that we can get back to “normal”? Because that’s what you seem to be suggesting.

There is no ‘media narrative of fear’. Journalists couldn’t care less whether people are scared or not. They are also people too and feel scared or not the same as everyone else. They want people to read their stories and the best way for a reporter to do this is to reflect and react to the public mood, which is what they are currently doing.

There has been extensive reporting of the current high rates Vs low hospital deaths.

The media cannot ignore negative stories about Covid because you think they should.

When was the nhs ever under breaking strain? Erm... oh never mind!

From the latest ONS data, out today, that looks at all deaths with Covid on the death cert (regardless of test) -

"Of the deaths registered in Week 34, 138 mentioned "novel coronavirus (COVID-19)", the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the last 22 weeks and a 0.7% decrease compared with Week 33 (1 death), accounting for 1.4% of all deaths in England and Wales.

The number of deaths involving COVID-19 decreased or remained the same across the majority of the English regions, with two of the nine regions having fewer overall deaths than the five-year average."

"I don’t know anyone who has had long lasting health problems from Covid"

I don't know anyone who has lost their job because of covid either. They have all kept their job or been working as normal. Does that mean the chances of losing your job due to the pandemic is also 0 .1% too?

I gather from various press releases that the figure for job losses is much higher than that.

"There is no ‘media narrative of fear’. Journalists couldn’t care less whether people are scared or not."

Yeah,right...

Do you understand exponential growth?

This, a million times, this.

It is great the measures we have put in place are working. I have no doubt that this government would be getting rid of them if they thought they could do so without deaths increasing (exponentially). They're the party that are keen to get rid of all EU health and safety legislation, food standards etc. If even they think masks and social distancing are important, there's a good reason.

The more covid infection increases the less capacity in hospitals for other stuff. If we want things to return to as normal as possible then we have to keep infections low.

" other medical conditions will go untreated because we’re all so scared of dying from coronavirus."

Other medical conditions can be treated because the NHS is not currently overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases. The only reason more hospitals did not face the problems that this one did was because of lockdown. www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-uk-cases-intensive-care-nhs-northwick-park-a9414311.html

The deaths within 28 days figure underestimates Covid deaths because those who die of Covid outside hospital are not included. You can look the details up, if you can be bothered. Tru Office of National Statistics for sensible death figures.

At the moment the vulnerable are largely managing to avoid the young, who are increasingly testing positive for the virus. But they do that by not going out. Abandon all restrictions and people will not flock out spending money, they'll stay in more and spend less.

Finland's economy is doing better than Sweden's, New Zealand's is doing considerably better than almost anywhere. First control the virus, then go back to near normal.

In many parts of the country the risk is now pretty low and people are perhaps being over cautious - but not if you are in Trafford.

Hospital admissions and deaths are not increasing You are right... why is that do you think?

What will happen if we all just stop taking any precaution at all, do you think?

It isn't fear that keeps me at a social distance from other people? It isn't fear that makes me carry a few masks with me everyday!

I work in other poeple's houses, multiple houses a day! I am not being locked in by fear. I am taking sensible precautions to avoid any further increase in infections rates, R etc. Mainly because I do understand what exponential means in real life.

As does everyone else posting here, they have lived through it... but many seem to have forgotten case 1 leading to 5000 new cases in one day with over a thousand dead, in one day.

Back then the cry was that we needed to dig a hole and pull the lid over ourselves! Winder how many of these posters are the same people?

As I said, it is a global shit show. Finances at every level have been hit hard and nobody is safe from further loss. Expert voices around the globe are discussing this daily.

What is your solution?

We will not get to zero cases - and it’s crazy to think otherwise. If that is the aim we may as well just top ourselves now and be done with everything.

Well that's perhaps a wee bit drastic but I agree with the rest of what you say. This is not going away. Despite what St Nicola Sturgeon of Covid seems to thing, eradication is not going to happen unless we get a vaccine. And even with that, we will still get cases just as we do with measles or mumps.

This has all changed. We were told stay at home, protect the NHS. Which we did, and protected it. Death rates now are so, so low. Seven day rolling average deaths in Scotland is 0.1. Less than 1 death A WEEK. Hospital admissions way way down too.

We need to start getting on with things now.

Yes, I realise how few are dying of Covid-19 now. I check the news every day. The main news now is getting people back to work and school.

The main one stops at 28 days because - as most of us suspected already- data showed that those who died after 28 days died because of mainly other causes and so died with covid whereas with 28 days it was more likely that covid was the actual cause

IIRC from the PHE figures at the point they removed the c. 5000 deaths only 46% of those had died from something other than COVID. I think the one thing we can all agree on is the 46% is not most.