has everyone become too hysterical about Covid?

[tellytubby20]

Looking at all the threads on MN my impression is that everyone has become completely hysterical about Covid and completely misunderstands the difference between personal health risk and public health.

Am not oblivious to the health risks - I have followed all the rules, live next to a major London hospital (so very aware of how busy the ambulance service is) and had covid last year.
BUT
I am also under 40 with small DCs - so am aware that my personal risk of death or severe illness is small - my goal is therefore to ensure that I do not spread it others who are vulnerable.

However, so many people seem to have decided that the threat/risk is massive to their kids and themselves especially with this new variant.....WHY?

AIBU - to think that people are massively over-estimating personal risk if they are healthy and under 50 and have become hysterical about it.

AINBU to think that

@Forgetmenot157

This is why I don't get the whole vaccinate the teachers argument... Unless they are elderly or vulnerable why should they get it first?

Because of their level of exposure! no one else is expected to spend days on end, in a very small room with 30 other people. Fuck all ventilation, no masks.

Not a teacher.

I agree with you OP. The hysteria and emotional outpouring diarrheaIt's verging on embarrassing, and is toxic and corrosive to society. There is also this attitude that the louder one screams for a harsher lockdown (for everyone), the higher one stands on the moral ground....the same people will no doubt go hysterical over the economy afterwards. And the attitude of some who are so willing to demand that everyone ( i.e. others, not only themselves) give up their freedoms, livelihoods and education. Unfortunately, not everyone is so privileged to afford to hold such beliefs.

People over 50 with kids exist. Are you sure all the "hysterical" people you are referring to are under 50 and in top health?

Classic example of anti hysteria hysteria, aka absolute bollocks
*
Agree with Raspberrycoulis there is a worryingly large portion of the population for whom even a full lockdown doesn't go far enough. Until we've all been welded behind our front doors, with a food parcel dropped by drone in our back gardens once a week, they will not be content.*

@Okeydokeypiginapokey

I agree OP, so much fear and scaremongering. I find it disturbing.

Disturbing.

Reality is disturbing. Yes.

Honestly how you can decry "hysterical" people and then come up with that shambles of a post is beyond me.

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants - but do you want to protect the NHS or teachers? The reality is that the most efficient way of reducing numbers in our hospitals is to vaccinate in the prescribed order. Teachers whilst coming into contact are unlikely to require a hospital bed and are therefore not a priority.

The reality of the current vaccination schedule is that most of the under 50-year-olds with no underlying health conditions (there is a list of them) will not be vaccinated for a long time - way before society is re-opened. In fact, I am not sure whether the under-50s will end up being vaccinated at all - it will probably depend on the efficacy of the vaccine and whether we will need to make it an annual one in which case by the time they have vaccinated 15million twice it will probably be time to start doing them again.

But people still seem to be misunderstanding the fact that these measures are NOT to save themselves/their family but to ensure that the NHS doesnt breech capacity.

And regarding everyone who noted that over 50s exist - yes they do and frankly right now - I would suggest they shield until they get a vaccine. But again there is no point in being emotional about it - just try not to leave the house etc if you can.

My concern regarding this level of emotionality is that people seem to not understand risk e.g lots of people wanted the government to lift restriction over Xmas which was clearly stupid. But then these same people complained that they havent seen their relatives since March which was also stupid......why if you care about relatives did they not see them in the summer when risks are so much lower?

Also the problem with too much emotion is emotional burn out.....will people who are that emotional today we able to keep it up till the summer? This government hasnt had the best rack record of getting large system in place - it will obviously take them much longer than mid-Feb to vaccinate the first 15million.......if they do it by the end of March we will be v v lucky...but even then there will still be enough people that need to be vaccinated etc so that restrictions will remain in place for ages.

You do realise if all over 50s have to shield then the world will pretty soon come to a standstill as your making it so a massive proportion of the workforce can’t work. And I assume in that plan you have a plan to ensure they still get paid?

And regarding everyone who noted that over 50s exist - yes they do and frankly right now - I would suggest they shield until they get a vaccine

Seriously?

? confused OP?

@Sirzy

You do realise if all over 50s have to shield then the world will pretty soon come to a standstill as your making it so a massive proportion of the workforce can’t work. And I assume in that plan you have a plan to ensure they still get paid?

Exactly

Ironically one of the most ‘hysterical’ posts ive seen on the subjects...in both senses

And regarding everyone who noted that over 50s exist - yes they do and frankly right now - I would suggest they shield until they get a vaccine. But again there is no point in being emotional about it - just try not to leave the house etc if you can.

You think all over 50s should shield until they get vaccinated - 25 million people - and you are accusing others of overreacting and hysteria?

I misphrased it - i do not think that every over 50 should shield. But they will need to be more careful about their personal risk and assess that.

For those under - the risk is societal - so the point is to wear masks, dont' mix with people etc i.e. follow the rules.

My original point is people's lack of understanding about personal versus societal risk and everyone acting as though the risk was to themselves when it isnt

And regarding everyone who noted that over 50s exist - yes they do and frankly right now - I would suggest they shield until they get a vaccine

How do you suggest they do this while sending kids to school and working?

For every person who you think is hysterical about it, there's someone who doesn't give a shit and is possibly contributing to someone either ending up in hospital or with lifelong health conditions. So it's horses for courses.

It's hard to make it any simpler than:

Covid leads to morbidities as well as mortalities
and
While the hospitals are full of Covid patients, no-one else can get medical help if they need it

If you have assessed the likelihood of either of those ever affecting you or being responsible for them affecting anyone else you might come into contact with, and you're reassured by that, crack on.

Personally, I'm not being hysterical. DD (then 18) got Covid in April and has been bedbound since then and is now on heart regulation medication. She has been told by her consultant cardiologist that if she catches Covid again she will not recover and will be disabled for the rest of her life.

So I call it being cautious and taking reasonable precautions. Perhaps you might call it hysteria because she's not at risk of actually dying. Again, horses for courses.

How about you worry about what you want to worry about, whether that's 25 million people over 50, or imaginary old folk refusing to follow the rules after they've been vaccinated. And let everyone else worry about what they want to worry about, for example, as many have mentioned, the NHS falling over, or loved ones who are vulnerable.
(And probably best not to get into who is the more hysterical.)

And regarding everyone who noted that over 50s exist - yes they do and frankly right now - I would suggest they shield until they get a vaccine

Well, why don't we just wave off a bunch of frontliners as they catch the Central Line to the Undying Lands then, shall we? This may come as a surprise, but many of the very people vaccinating, managing, and treating people- people we depend upon- are... wait for it... over 50. DH's surgery would have to close if we were to follow your GENIUS guideline. Wow. You are WOEFULLY naive. And you've just proven your own point. You're more hysterical than I am.

But every risk that people take as an individual risks others in society so to try to reduce the responsibility we have to take for others in this risks the health of others.

And of course people of any age may end up having an accident and as such needing urgent treatment in a very stretched hospital

Over 1000 deaths today from Covid, first time since April - not great really!

@singingstones

How about you worry about what you want to worry about, whether that's 25 million people over 50, or imaginary old folk refusing to follow the rules after they've been vaccinated. And let everyone else worry about what they want to worry about, for example, as many have mentioned, the NHS falling over, or loved ones who are vulnerable. (And probably best not to get into who is the more hysterical.)

Sorry forgot to tag this was for @tellytubby20

I misphrased it - i do not think that every over 50 should shield. But they will need to be more careful about their personal risk and assess that.

As careful as you, pumpkin pie. You do you. Would you like a decent shovel for that hole you're working on over there?

"I misphrased it - i do not think that every over 50 should shield. But they will need to be more careful about their personal risk and assess that"

Suppose you are over 50, work in a school and the employers risk assessment is that you are perfectly safe because they have complied with govt guidance. You know that half the staff have already been infected and that was before the new strain emerged.

How do you control that risk?

And there are two camps I suppose livr normal ish lives and get on with it / take your chances.

The other is lock down everyone ridiculously strictly and get it over it that way. Worked for wuhan I suppose!

@peaceanddove

The NHS is overwhelmed and in crisis. Every. Single. Winter.

I cannot get hysterical and sad about the fact the vast, overwhelming majority of people dying are well into their 80s and even 90s.

However, I can get upset by the millions who have lost jobs, livelihoods, homes, their entire futures thanks to Covid hysteria. The catastrophic effect this has had on the UK economy, and the millions of people's personal economies. And let's not forget the many, many people who's other illnesses were detected too late, or their treatment delayed - and now Covid will kill them, even if they never actually catch it.

Exactly this

Obviously we can feel sad for patients and their families (no matter what their age) who are suffering with it, but for me what's needed is a little more sense of proportion - and right now that seems at a premium

I have noticed that when people cry hysteria on these boards it's always people who are covid deniers or minimisers. I am so done with this word being weaponised against those of us who take the collective societal risk seriously, and to those of us who are old and sick so don't matter anyway.

Anyone who can read the report @RedToothBrush linked above and still accuse people who believe lockdown is the only way of hysteria I can't imagine.

It's reality. It's harsh, it hurts, it's horrible, but it's real and it's happening. And those who bang on about how the NHS is overwhelmed every winter are completely lacking in basic maths skills because they cannot comprehend what it actually means to add an exponentially growing virus that hospitalises thousands each day into the mix.

I'm baffled every day and fed up and sick every day of this minimising, ableist shite. I am chronically ill and in the shielding group and I know what it is like to gasp for breath. I know what that 'air hunger' described in that article is like. I know it first hand and I wouldn't wish it on anyway, and I am sick and tired of minimisers causing people to relax measures 'because they are not at risk themselves,' and so causing this thing to spread more and more people to experience that shocking fight for breath and more people with other conditions to be restricted in our treatment because there is no room.

You have blood on your hands. And that is not hysterical hyperbole. I will not accept misogynistic slurs because I state facts and believe in science and observe what is actually happening.

Wake up.