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

[quote WouldBeGood]@RedToothBrush think you’ve proved the ops point: hysterical and scaremongering[/quote]
You think that people on the front line think their daily experience is hysterical?

Yeah ok.

We shall see where we are in a couple of weeks...

"has everyone become too hysterical about Covid?"

No,everyone has not become "hysterical". Different people have different attitudes and tolerance levels to the perceived risk and their individual circumstances, some are more cautious than you, that does not make them hysterical. There are mountains of information on the pandemic, some fact, some believable fiction to be interpreted and applied to their own situation and risk attitude, some people will take time to do this, some won't, some can't. Regardless of all this their feelings are sincere and genuine.

The same way different people are more or less patronising, condescending, lacking in empathy and unable to appreciate people are diverse.

@Xerochrysum

"But what if I told you there were 1056 unoccupied hospital beds in London"

I don't think people should panic unnecessarily, but it's great for people to know the seriousness of the situation. Are those 1056 beds part of the beds assigned to covid related cases? Otherwise, how many empty beds in other part of the hospital doesn't make much difference in the crisis, imo.

Yep, you can't scatter Covid patients around random beds on other wards.

The world has gone insane and now I’m quite happy to go insane with it!

Open schools
Scrap track and trace and put the money into the NHS instead
Vaccinate the nhs workers, teachers, carers and large factories first-then the elderly and the rest of us.
Completely close the borders, no in or out apart from food or medicine.
Sahp-benefit claimants who are able too and any other joe bloggs into the hospitals to clean, cook, and run a round for a additional £70 a day. No previous experience needed, just a cbr check and no criminal record.

Job done.
I’m sick of it all- absolutely up to my eyeballs and I just don’t care anymore about anything covid related! Complete shit show!

@Bunbunbunny

Why didn't you just post to the corona board? It's bloody threads like this that drives me nuts, there is loads of variants of this thread on that board.

This is the corona board is it not?

YES!

Young and fit people with a miniscule chance of dying or ending up with long term problems appear to ignore who is actually dying. The clamber for the vaccine from some of the working population ahead of the ones dying is selfish too.

NO.

Hth

you're unreasonable just for the use of the word "everyone". I not remotely hysterical about it, nor are most people I know.

@FuckTheLemons

I know for an absolute fact due to a very close family member working in ICU that the situation is absolutely dire and that they have been making tough and awful decisions about who lives and who dies since before Christmas because they do not have the capacity and neither do neighbouring hospitals. Our local hospital has over a third of their ENTIRE capacity taken by Covid patients on oxygen and their entire Covid ICU is full and their main ICU half taken by Covid patients on ventilation, and since priority has been given to those with "a good chance" these are all people under 50 in relatively good health. People have died in the ambulances. Paramedics are bluelighting more and more young and healthy people with respiratory failure. People who are complying completely are getting Covid because this new variant needs far less exposure and only miniscule amounts to infect.

It's not hysteria. About half of my entire family are medical professionals, and every department is seeing massive effects of Covid. One of my parents works in cancer care, and they're struggling so much to see everyone, get everyone the treatment they need and to even get people to attend the appointments they're called back in for. My parent has wept after almost every shift because their job is to save people's lives and they know they're missing people because they don't have the capacity, or because people are ignoring their own symptoms or the need to come back for follow ups, as well as trusts closing down large parts of the hospital. Even in a split A&E system, where all respiratory symptoms go one way and the rest another it's not helping- Covid has way more symptoms than just the three the NHS are overstating. The media aren't overstating the crisis, they're understating. Medical professionals have been warned NOT to speak out about it.

My brother in law is a very experienced A & E consultant. My son's godmother is a doctor on ICU.

I echo this.

YANBU
The hysteria is ridiculous.

It depends on who you are.

If you’re 85 years old with medical conditions then your concerns are probably valid.

If you work in a hospital that’s filling up by the day, your response is probably proportionate.

If you’re an otherwise healthy and fit 30 year old but you’re hiding under the bed and spraying the post with Dettol then yes, you’re probably going a bit OTT.

Surely if there were too much hysteria about covid then everyone would be going beyond following the rules and being super careful and then we wouldn't be in this mess would we?
1 in 30 in London currently have coronavirus and the hospitals are so overwhelmed that they're having to turn normal wards into makeshift ITUs to cope with the number of beds needed. They don't have enough staff or equipment. They have admitted themselves that they can no longer provide proper critical care. That doesn't just impact covid patients it means if you get appendicitis or have a heart attack you might die from a lack of ITU beds and nurses.
So no, I don't think people are being hysterical I think far too many are being completely irresponsible and selfish

There are people on social media commenting about cars driving around and saying they are idiots and people will die! They may be workers etc but to they hysterical mass murderers are driving around. Facebook friends being dumped for their stupid ridiculous comments - some very stupid people out there especially given our area is low in cases and falling).
Our area - confirmed cases in a week 101 - cases in over 60's 90%. So not even in younger people! You can check on your own local authority for cases and the age of the cases.

This is the corona board is it not?

This thread was originally posted elsewhere and has been moved.

@Snowisfallinghere

Imagine working 15 hours shifts as an ICU nurse or doctor right now, with patients suffering and dying on the ward and in the corridors, and then reading all these dismissive comments that people who are worried about Covid are being 'hysterical'.

BTW I remember back in March the threads on here complaining that everyone is worrying about nothing and now here we are almost a year later with 75,000 unnecessary deaths just because people don't take it seriously.

And in countries where they did take it seriously (or as people on this thread might refer to it, behaved 'hysterically') by implementing strict lockdowns early on and having effective testing and tracing, life is pretty much back to normal.

Intensive care units are FULL, the NHS is overwhelmed, hundreds of people are dying daily and yet you all dismiss concern about this as 'hysterical'? It's a disgusting attitude to take.

Well said!!

The media aren't overstating the crisis, they're understating. Medical professionals have been warned NOT to speak out about it.

Yes, exactly this.

The only hysteria I've seen is from people who react to the simple request to wear a light cotton mask when they're out to decrease the risk of death to everyone a little bit like the government is sending strike forces to tattoo GOVERNMENT PROPERTY across their faces and shackle them to a radiator..

This description from the Intensive Care Society gives you an idea of what happens when there is 100% occupancy in baseline ICU beds - basically there is surge capacity

It's a really helpful description for people reading the headlines of horror.

www.ics.ac.uk/ICS/News_Statements/Understanding_intensive_care_staffing_occupancy_and_capacity_03012021

One thing i have noticed on social media they are very hysterical.

You question some of the rules coming in, and they come back with 'people like you not following rules are spreading this', never mind that you have been following the rules.

The most pious about it all l, I've found usually do break the rules but their reason is apparently valid.

It's possible to understand that the risk to the individual is low but still be worried about other things, maybe even show signs of hysteria, whatever that means.

Personally I am worried about:

The NHS falling over
My parents who are in their 80s
Other vulnerable family and friends
People I care about who are teachers
My children's education
Money (I am freelance in an industry which has closed down completely)

I don't think any of those are unreasonable worries.

A friend of a friend has hours left because of Covid. Woman in her forties. No underlying health conditions. Her husband is rushing to her side as a type.

And we are being hysterical?