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

@RedToothBrush

unherd.com/2021/01/inside-the-covid-ward/

I corner the ICU doctor, who happens to be reviewing another patient on the ward at the same time, asking him to have a glance at my patient. He agrees that he will likely need an intensive care bed at some stage, but at the moment they simply don’t have one. I worry that my patient is going to end up with an emergency intubation, much more dangerous than a controlled one in ICU.

and

We have several patients who are not “fit” for ICU in the current climate. Before Covid, they most likely would have been given a chance, but not now. When we think that these patients have suffered enough, and are unlikely to ever recover, we start talking about making them comfortable. It’s partly that we need the beds for patients with a better chance, and partly that we feel it is cruel to keep these people suffering when their chances of survival are slim. It’s difficult to work out which of those is your true motivation.

The most distressing part of their struggle is the air hunger. You can spot these patients easily, as they grasp the masks to their faces with both hands and gasp visibly for air.

and

Towards the end of the day, two of my patients are deteriorating and destined for the ICU. Another doctor had an ICU candidate in her bay. They are all between 60 and 64 years old, none of them with significant comorbidities; all were working full time until coronavirus struck. They all now require 80% oxygen at high pressures, breathing at around 50 breaths per minute and tiring. There is only one ICU bed. I leave before the decision is made as to which of them will get the bed. I am sure that whoever doesn’t get it is likely to deteriorate overnight.

We have not hit the peak yet.

Yep, clearly nothing to worry about is there?

Obviously hysterical to want to stop cases increasing as it's obviously hysterical to think it's any worse the man a cold.

Hysterical is a very loaded word and I don't think it's very helpful.

What I find genuinely puzzling is that there's a lot of reaction like this - the 'everyone's gone mad' type threads/posts on social media - that all seem to focus on the young and healthy being at very little risk of death or serious illness.

There's so little acknowledgement of the fact that plenty of people aren't that worried about actually catching it; they're worried about the capacity of healthcare services.

People have said this on this thread several times and it just doesn't seem to get noted.

I've had Covid. I was quite ill. I'd like to not get it again. I'm concerned for my (older, teacher) husband, yes. But I'm much more concerned about the health infrastructure breaking down and if locking down for a while slows the spread enough to prevent that until peak vaccination, then I'm more than willing to accept that. I don't feel that's particularly hysterical and yet those who support lockdown are told on here they're 'enjoying it' etc. That seems more hysterical.

Maybe we all just need to calm down a bit, eh?

[quote WouldBeGood]@RedToothBrush think you’ve proved the ops point: hysterical and scaremongering[/quote]
You are proving the point that people are in denial of the reality of the situation.

The OP's use of "everyone" and "Hysterical" is itself straying into the realm of hyperbole. It's not surprising feelings are running high

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.

Agree!

Re deaths in January, I gather that more old people die at this time of year anyway, COVID or no Covid. Well before COVID three relatives of ours died in early January, not of anything in particular, but all in their 80s.
Something to do with the life force being at its lowest ebb during the darkest days, apparently.

@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

DH is in ICU being hooked up to a CPAP machine as I type. My short answer to your question is, no, I don't think we're being hysterical about this new strain of a novel virus our bodies don't recognise.

You will get covid, OP. We all will get it. We all just have to hope that we don't end up like my DH. I hope you don't spend nights not sleeping and days crying in the bathroom so your kids don't have to watch your hope dissolve. I'm not being sarcastic or confrontational. I mean this, from the absolute whole of my heart, OP. I hope your days never mimic the ones I am living out now. I hope you can remain untouched by this devil of a virus. I don't know if my husband will ever walk through his own front door again.

@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.

Thank you for posting.

It would be goid if people would actually accept this is the situation, but they'll stick their fingers in their ears & accuse you of being hysterical.

Please thank all of your family from some random on the net x. I hope ALL of your family make it out the other end in good health xx

@heydoggee

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?

Yes. Because while my heart goes out to your friend and her DH and it is a tragedy - the numbers of people dying with Covid under the age of 50 is statistically very small. We cannot crash the entire country and irreversibly damage the lives and livelihoods of the tens of millions of the population who aren't, and never will be, in your friend's terrible situation.

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

Is it really, totally hysterical? Or just true?

If anyone needs to calm down it might actually be the anti hysterics, who imo do tend to come across as a bit hysterical. Here's the OP worrying about something that hasn't happened, may never happen, offering no evidence to suggest it will. Calm down, OP!

my other concern is that once some people will become vaccinated they will give up following the rules....because they have satisfied their personal risk

@GingerNorthernLass

Yes, I agree with you about the hysteria.

But...... I work for the NHS and services are inundated. Everyone is at risk not just the vulnerable. Perfectly healthy 40 year olds with it are in ITU. This is having a major effect on other services. You can have an accident, stroke, seizure, heart attack etc. at any age and now is not a very good time to be hospitalised.

Also, everyone copes differently. Not everyone is calm and coping.

I don’t believe there are very many, otherwise perfectly healthy 40 year olds (with no underlying health conditions, aren’t overweight, don’t smoke etc.... ) in ITU now.

I’m sure there are the odd few but absolutely don’t buy it that it’s the norm at all.

According to the ONS. If you are under 60 and in good health, with no underlying conditions, you are statistically more likely to die from being in a car accident, than Covid.

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

@GwendolineMarysLaces

This again? Some people are scared (often with various good reasons) , others are not. So what? The derision expressed on these threads towards people who are scared is unpleasant to say the least.

People are free to be scared if they wish. If people genuinely want to seal themselves into the house, never leave, get food delivered only, never send their kids back into school. bleach deliveries and wash their hands 10 times an hour then they are free to crack on. This does not affect me in any way whatsoever.

What DOES affect all of us on the forum is that for some of the most anxious and terrified people those measures aren't enough. It's not enough that they are taking every precaution imagineable to man, whether they are vulnerable or not. They want everyone else to join in to and to conform to their extreme version of lockdown. Anyone shopping in Home Bargains is a "covidiot". People going abroad on perfectly legal holiday are selfish superspreaders. People who actually would quite like schools to be open should never have had children as they're clearly not prepared to look after them. They want Army/Police enforcing a harder lockdown, they think everyone who doesn't assess the risk in the same way as them is a Covid denier, a conspiracy theorist, a bit thick.

[quote hamstersarse]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[/quote]
Your level of denial is incredible.

Surge capacity is already being used & additional on top of that.

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.

This Covid hysteria is unleashing too many people's surpressed Control Facism. They revel in rules. They like being controlled. The like controlling others, even more. They prefer to live with a Fear of Living. And, they want everyone else to live in fear too.

@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.

One of the most on point posts! So true

@peaceanddove your post is one of the most 'hysterical' on the whole thread:

'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.

This Covid hysteria is unleashing too many people's surpressed Control Facism. They revel in rules. They like being controlled. The like controlling others, even more. They prefer to live with a Fear of Living. And, they want everyone else to live in fear too'

Staggering irony.

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?

@peaceanddove

According to the ONS. If you are under 60 and in good health, with no underlying conditions, you are statistically more likely to die from being in a car accident, than Covid.

Oh well, that's nice for the very small number of people who fit into this criteria, considering what they include as 'underlying conditions'.

Your previous post was disgraceful too

Its obviously not everyone

Why do people see the need to exaggerate quite so much

Its like posters who say ‘ am i the only one that thinks this’ obviously not!

According to the ONS. If you are under 60 and in good health, with no underlying conditions, you are statistically more likely to die from being in a car accident, than Covid

Do you know what is considered an underlying condition