Starting to feel paranoid

[AgnesWestern]

So right at the start, back in February time, when the virus was emerging in China, we saw footage of people dropping dead in the streets literally, or falling and having seizures etc. Everyone was saying that would be us next, it wasn’t.
Then the footage of Italian and Spanish hospitals, people sitting on the floor, dying on trolleys, ICU full to capacity, you’ll remember it all of course, but still it didn’t happen here.
Then in March we heard of young people succumbing to the virus, deaths of fit and healthy people, but I can’t remember the last time I read an article about someone dying from this, let alone somebody young or a child.
I know rates are down from March, but I’m still finding it all very confusing and it’s making me very paranoid and on edge.
I’m hoping the virus is weaker now, but I can’t say that with any certainty of course.

Does anyone else feel the same?

Erm I haven't seen any of that footage....

I can see how it might be hard, if you don’t know anyone personally who has had it, or who has died, as it makes it all too abstract, and that’s scary.

But people have died. If you want more information on them, perhaps look in your local newspaper. Ours have some pretty sobering articles on people who have survived, but who have injuries or ongoing health issues from it.

Yes I remember the footage.

Not all of it happened here because it happened other places first, so we had some to to prepare.

Media outlets don’t run stories on people dying from it now because (a) it’s not new any more, people have read them all and are not interested (b) there are less deaths recently because social distancing measures are working.

That doesn’t mean the virus is weaker. It just means the measures we put in place have so far been pretty successful.

My friends dad died of it 3 weeks ago. Mid 50s and no underlying conditions. But not news-worthy.

I don’t remember that footage in China. I do remember seeing people in Italy being turned away and on hospital trolleys in corridors but I thought that was probably one of the only things the government got right was to reduce numbers in hospital so we could cope with the capacity (although in doing that they sent people with Covid into care homes so maybe not so right

Everyone was saying that would be us next, it wasn’t.
Because we were affected later and had more time to prepare and put measures in place.

ICU was full to capacity in many areas.

People are still dying of the virus, it’s just that prevalence is much lower than it was and experts suspect there aren’t as many severe cases because people are exposed to a lower ‘dose’ of the virus due to distancing and mask wearing.
The genetic make up of the virus hasn’t changed so there’s no evidence to indicate that it’s weakened unfortunately.
People don’t need to die for the effects DS of the virus to be far reaching. We still don’t know enough about this to understand long term effects, even as a result of “mild” cases. Just look at the threads on here where people who had the virus earlier in the year are still suffering.

I don’t really understand why or what you feel paranoid about.

People were refused hospital care here, in particular those in care homes.

I can't recall hearing of people dropping dead in the streets. Do you have any sources for this?

Actually I’ll correct myself in that. If we’d taken full advantage of the time we had to prepare our deaths would have been much lower. The government didn’t even start to order more ventilators until mid March , that’s just one of the things that made it obvious to me we were on the back foot.

I understand runaway anxiety, a collection of things has meant my mental health deteriorated during lockdown, but it seems to be stable at present.

I am hopeful a vaccine will be found whilst it might not be 100% effective for all 50% would do for now.

There are a few things that might relieve your anxiety a little, steriod use for very ill patients works a bit for some, accurate early testing is widespread, a percentage of the population are still observing behaviour which reduces transmission. I haven't heard much about PPE recently but am hoping healthcare professionals will in the future have access to what they need.

Each week more is learnt worldwide, we are not, as a population, as in the dark as we were in March.

Not to dismiss that education is/will likely continue to be disrupted, household and global finances are in trouble, life is still pants on the whole. But personally I can see some light between the clouds at the moment, of course this could all change in a blink of an eye, fingers crossed it doesn't.

I'm not sure the footage from China was genuine. It's hard to know what to trust but the clips of people fitting and dropping dead on trains and on the streets just doesn't match with what we know about Covid 19.

The Italian footage sadly was real and very harrowing.

Coronavirus is still very much there but cases are much lower than in March and April because of lockdown and now social distancing and mask wearing. There are some medicines to help critical cases now too which also helps reduce the number of deaths.

I'm not sure what you are confused about though. It's still circulating, sadly some are still dying on a daily basis, a second wave is still a very real risk. However, we need to also have some way of continuing a version of normal life and the news can't just focus on Coronavirus all the time.

I know several people who have had it and one that very sadly died. I get on with my life as best I can being careful and choosing what I do in line with the level of risk I'm prepared to take. I very much hope there will be a vaccine.

I also remember the horrific footage from italy, even footage on the bbc of hospitals here, and footage from China of people dead on the street. So I get where you’re coming from,

All I can say is I hope the current situation with low deaths and hospital admissions continues to decline and that it becomes clearer that the case increases are simply due to the increased testing.

To be honest I don’t really understand it either.

it is confusing and we don't know what's next.

The facts remain the same though, it is contagious, we don't have a vaccine, we don't have effective treatment.

We do have some better treatment and we are all.more used to what we need to do to avoid it.

We've all got to get used to not knowing.

Gosh. I don't remember pictures of people dropping dead in street in China.

But if people were seeing that it makes sense why they were so scared they were quarantining mail etc.

Although I'm sceptical of anything China shows us.

Right now our measures are working. That's good. But watch France and Spain right now. Let's hope we aren't going to follow suit again

I saw the China footage, it’s still floating about the internet if anyone cares to look, Reddit have a board called China flu that started in January before the virus was even named COVID-19.

There were two other Wuhan videos that have stayed with me - the one nailing an apartment entrance shut (since debunked as not locking people in but reducing the exit points so people could be monitored going in and out. Still unthinkable in pre-covid times but makes more sense now in context) and footage of residents of Wuhan howling out of their apartment windows in unison during their lockdown. It was explained on the board that there was a similar phenomenon that happens on American university campuses during their exam weeks when everyone was cramming revision. It was simply a way of connecting with people and releasing a shared frustration and stress. Again it makes much more sense to me now and puts the NHS clap in a new light.

My point is we’re now seven months down the line and things are still strange and bizarre but we’ve come a long way in both identifying measures to prevent COVID as well as treat it. It’s important to still respect the situation we all find ourselves in but I would strongly advise trying to keep some perspective. We’re most certainly not through this pandemic yet but we’re also not currently needing to panic like we did in March.

Case numbers are rising, which is to be expected with schools starting up again but we’re also paying much more attention to it. All this means that treatment is there for those who need it which is the main concern and makes it much more survivable for those at risk.

The statistics thread is very good for grounding and perspective.