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

OP - people are scared, people are worried and people are stressed. It is a novel virus and while I totally agree, we know a lot more about the virus now than we did last spring, I dont know that calling scared people hysterical is going to help them? They're struggling and let's be honest, most of us are struggling with something Covid-related, even if it doesnt manifest in the same way.

We need to encourage people to follow the rules wherever we can and reiterating the fact that the sooner cases go down, the sooner we can start looking at moving back to normal is not harmful.

Normally I'd agree with you totally but yesterday I heard of 2 otherwise healthy mid thirty year olds in hospital. One of them's a total gym bunny. They are both getting better but it did surprise me a bit & make me wonder about my personal health risk assessment.

I don't necessarily think the hysteria is a bad thing. Rightly or wrongly, if people believe they themselves are at risk then they are more likely to follow the guidelines which will protect those more vulnerable.

@Pillowcase123

Nope, hospitals are getting very close to full and 75,000 people have died.

Following the rules is not hysterical.

Although ONS statistics show that the death rate is virtually the same as in 2018 at the same time, and of course the NHS becoming overwhelmed in winter is a regular occurrence. So on the same thinking, we will have to lockdown every winter because of flu.

Of course, some doctors and scientists have a bit of a god complex and locking people away forcibly will stop people getting contractable illnesses and falling and tripping so much. But it will also lead to people developing mental health problems, losing social skills and becoming obese due to over eating response and lack of exercise.

I suspect there is a lot of people on mumsnet with general health anxiety, even in non Covid times and this is being acted out on the boards through hyperbolic responses, doom-laden forecasts, obsessive predictions and vitriolic attacks on others.

Its probably helping to alleviate their anxiety in the short term, but they'd do better to put the phone down and go for a walk or something.

[quote hamstersarse]@scolha

I don't think this is the thread for you

You are literally posting hysterical responses[/quote]
There’s nothing hysterical about those posts. They are calm and factually accurate.

It’s a different viewpoint. If you can’t bear to see that, maybe this thread isn’t for you.

I’m just saying that people need to not be selfish and think of the bigger picture.

And I’m an NHS scientist btw.

by hysterical - i mean unable to fully understand facts and becoming too emotional about it. i do understand long covid - my best mate has it and i couldnt run for six months after having it.

But my chances of death/debilitating illness are still low - so my reason for social distancing etc is to help stop community transmission rather than personal risk.

@Lsquiggles

I don't necessarily think the hysteria is a bad thing. Rightly or wrongly, if people believe they themselves are at risk then they are more likely to follow the guidelines which will protect those more vulnerable.

Until the hysterical start on others trying to get them to be the same. We've got a colleague like this and the majority of us won't take calls from them as it's become very tedious.

@PurpleDaisies

We don''t even know if lockdowns actually make viruses worse, by slowing community spread.

Slowing community spread stops itu departments being totally overwhelmed and buys time to vaccinate the most vulnerable.

Where is the data to prove this though? There is no research out there to prove that lockdowns work and do not create other problems down the line, such as reduced herd immunity to community acquired flu and pneumonia.

We don't know how lockdowns cause viruses to respond in terms of mutation. It might be that they actually encourage more infectious strains to develop, because only the more infectious strains survive by infecting people in lockdown situations.

We just don't know. Lockdowns are a massive, unproven experiment. It might not be possible to control viruses at all and might make things worse the minute you remove lockdown. They may, statistically, once this is all over, be shown to have killed many more through untreated cancers and heart conditions, suicides, and obesity related diseases. No-one has a clue and its clear that lockdowns are really there to avoid politicians being blamed in the short term.

I think once you’ve had a young healthy friend or two with no risk factors nearly lose their life you naturally become more scared of it

@Scolha

And I’m an NHS scientist btw.

In that case, do you have any information on the research done prior to putting in place lockdown measures to prevent a novel virus? Particularly the evidence shown that these are reasonable and proportionate measures in the long term to be using?

Or is it just guess work and a wing and a prayer type approach, whilst repeating the mantra "save the NHS" as a response to everything?

@PurpleDaisies

It is totally hysterical to be posting the classic "And it doesn’t just impact the elderly"

What would be less hysterical would be to understand that life contains risk. Even though I am not elderly, I could snap my ankle when I go out for a run later and end up injured for life, I could burn and permanently scar my face when cooking dinner later, I could trip down the stairs later and get permanent brain damage, I could get burglared tonight and they attack me with a metal bar....

These are just life facts. I don't expect none of them will happen, I don't expect any of them will particularly.

I had something called Guardia a few years ago - a parasitic infection. The 'Long Guardia' lasted about a year - gastro problems. So what? We have never been guaranteed a problem free life anywhere that I have seen? Maybe I missed the memo

It is hysterical to be pointing out the long covid argument without context of other risks in life.

@Scolha

And I’m an NHS scientist btw.

Cool story bro.

An nhs scientist on line posting repeated hysteria.

It might not be possible to control viruses at all and might make things worse the minute you remove lockdown.

If your house is on fire, do you leave it in case the fire restarts later?

Our nhs is in dire straits right now. This is the worst time of year for the NHS every year and with the massive numbers of covid infections it’s at serious risk of being overwhelmed. We have to reduce the numbers of people being admitted right now. The only option we have available to us right now is a lockdown.

We are about to roll out a massive vaccination programme that will significantly reduce the risk of people being admitted to hospital. That will change what happens when this lockdown is released.

@DaisyDreaming

I think once you’ve had a young healthy friend or two with no risk factors nearly lose their life you naturally become more scared of it

I’ve had a young healthy friend die in a car crash. However we don’t insist everyone stops driving which would definitely save lives.

Yes, definitely OP. I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe to some of the posters on MN.

I've worked the whole way through and deal with people on a daily basis just going about their (restricted) lives in a perfectly calm manner. I don't know that many people who have had the virus, but the ones that have had it have been mild to moderately ill.

We work in an environment without masks on and although we keep to high hygiene standards there is never any drama about touching things or being close to each other. None of our work team have caught COVID, despite months and months of working in this way.

I'm not disputing the need to have measures in place to protect the public in general and certainly follow the rules where necessary, but I can't believe how much panic there seems to be on MN.

For my daily dose of calm I go to Dr John Campbell on YouTube.
I worry if people are looking to MN for anything factual. It might be there somewhere but in amongst all the screeching about killing grannies/it's no worse than the flu/it doesn't exist because nobody I know has had it etc...

@PurpleDaisies

It might not be possible to control viruses at all and might make things worse the minute you remove lockdown.

If your house is on fire, do you leave it in case the fire restarts later?

Our nhs is in dire straits right now. This is the worst time of year for the NHS every year and with the massive numbers of covid infections it’s at serious risk of being overwhelmed. We have to reduce the numbers of people being admitted right now. The only option we have available to us right now is a lockdown.

We are about to roll out a massive vaccination programme that will significantly reduce the risk of people being admitted to hospital. That will change what happens when this lockdown is released.

Lack of psychological resilience towards everyday threats to human life correlates very closely with reduced life expectancy in all age groups.

Therefore, it you want to live longer and avoid burdening the NHS, its better to have a resilient, tough approach towards your own health.

There’s a lot of hysteria about all sorts on MN.
I don’t suppose I’m the only one who often wants to tell posters to FGS just get a grip.

@GreenlandTheMovie

I agree with you that there is no evidence of lockdown efficacy. Yet even asking the question incites a hysterical response.

Maybe we need a definition of hysterical here: an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement.

Some people are so committed to this being 'the thing' that will solve all the problems that they are incapable of even questioning it and whether it is the right thing to do. It offers some hope I suppose. But it is hysterical (i.e. exaggerated and uncontrolled emotion) to be unable to participate in reasonable questions around lockdown efficacy

How about this from a thread this morning?

We are not even seeing the deaths related to Christmas. In a couple of weeks it's going to be equivalent to about 6 jumbo jets crashing every day!

Agreed. I am baffled by the levels of fear that perfectly healthy people seem to have. Most young, healthy people will not suffer severe consequences from covid. Yes, a few will, but that’s also the case with flu. I do worry that given the levels of fear lots of people will be too frightened to resume normal life even once the vulnerable groups have been vaccinated. We simply can’t facilitate people’s anxiety forever, or we won’t have a functioning society to return to.

The uncertainty worries people. Even now, it’s an unknown quantity and the numbers are very high, aren’t they? I’m in my 50s and generally healthy, but nervous. The worrying thing for me is the number of people that are still, even now, ignoring advice and continuing to mix. I genuinely believe that they have blood on their hands. The selfish and irresponsible behaviour of many is abhorrent, yet I don’t run around arms flailing, in hysterics - I stay home as much as I can, quietly take precautions & am respectful of others. Many people do the same. The ones who don’t are deeply worrying to me, in terms of being horrible members of society and increasing risks for everyone, regardless of my own personal risk.