'No reason to think Covid will become more virulent’/'It could be like common cold by Spring'

[GoldFrankensteinAndGrrr]

Some positive news from people who know what they're talking about this morning.

As far as the common cold claim is concerned, there was the caveat that we have to get through winter first (wouldn't fit on my screenshot but that's all that it said, no predictions of catastrophe or anything).

Yes I know there are still vulnerable people whom covid could affect badly (I'm one of them), but this is good news. Although I'm sure someone will be along soon to tell me it's not

Did it occur to you that the minimizing of peoples' concerns is equally bad and causes distress ? Hardly supportive

@Stasiland earlier on this thread I said to N&J

Your fear is palpable and I'm sorry you're still so anxious about it all (I mean this - I've struggled too over the past year and a half and I can honestly say some of the groundless doom posted here didn't help). Perhaps don't come onto threads like this and blatantly make things up ('I saw this exact article last year') and exacerbate the anxieties of others who may be struggling, and who come onto threads sharing positive news in the hope of reassurance

I fully understand that it's likely she's struggling herself. And I fully understand how she feels - I'm on antidepressants and have self harmed for the first time in decades as a direct result of lockdown. However. That doesn't make it right for her to post things which seem designed to cause distress to others.

I agree that minimising people's concerns isn't right. But neither is inventing things for people to be concerned about, or coming on onto positive threads - which people who are similarly concerned may have clicked on for reassurance - only to cause alarm or distress.

Also (and I've said this already on this thread) - difference of opinion, fine. Making stuff up to cause upset - not fine.

No problems with K5 because a) everyone's entitled to their opinion and b) K5 isn't in the habit of telling posters who've lost loved ones that they're happy people are dying and want the bodies to pile high, or saying people who wfh live in squalor, or that lockdowns are good for women when DV increased during lockdowns, and so on.

And I don't see you moaning about the keating five who always turns up and spouts forth their opinions

What wrong with that, it’s a forum isn’t it?

If I’ve done anything to misrepresent the truth or deliberately cause people anxiety, then by all means call me on it.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion and so is NannyAndJohn, @GoldFrankensteinAndGrrr.

It's a majority of people who use this board pointing out that lies, insensitive/cruel comments and misinformation shouldn't be tolerated.

There have been some pretty insensitive comments made to NannyAndJohn in the pile on, so practice what you preach.

Personally, I haven't seen any lies or misinformation from NannyAndJohn. If there are any, report them. She just choses to subscribe to the views of scientists who have a different viewpoint to the scientists you chose to believe.

I have seen her make mistakes with her maths/"modelling" as she clearly has a basic understanding of epidemiology but not an in depth knowledge. It's just a mistake though, not misinformation for the purpose of deceit. It's far more helpful to just correct her post or counteract her points with evidence rather than accuse her of deliberately trying to spread lies.

@chesirecat99 I've not said anything awful to N&J and have said that others shouldn't, either. So yes, I practice what I preach.

I've also been very firm that people are entitled to their opinions, but that it's plainly not right to post irresponsible, inflammatory and spurious comments designed to cause alarm.

I am one of those anxious people whose mental state is suffering still. I lost my job, fear the UC reduction, long for this to be over. My heart sinks when certain posters begin commenting on a good news thread, that I had come to for comfort. Thank you to the posters who answer back when I feel overwhelmed and can't.

It's far more helpful to just correct her post or counteract her points with evidence rather than accuse her of deliberately trying to spread lies

Nannys misinformation is constantly corrected with evidence and yet they still repeat it on numerous threads.

It's just a mistake though, not misinformation for the purpose of deceit.

I can’t say I agree with this. Her ‘modelling’ seemed to involve cherry picking of high daily figures as a basis rather than more accurate weekly averages. I don’t believe that was a mistake.

Most people apologise for their mistakes. I can't say I've ever seen an apology from Nanny, only excuses.

FFS is everyone still having a go about the same poster on this thread?

Just leave them be. Surely it is time to just stop.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat forgive me but who appointed you or anyone to call 'Nanny' out ? I could theoretically 'call out' those who seek to minimise long covid or suggest we should have treated it like flu because it has a 99% survival rate or whatever....how come when someone posts anxiously about covid they are told to man up and get a life albeit not quite so bluntly ? It goes both ways.

@lannistunut

FFS is everyone still having a go about the same poster on this thread?

Just leave them be. Surely it is time to just stop.

It had stopped, til you bumped the thread up...

[quote Stasiland]@PinkSparklyPussyCat forgive me but who appointed you or anyone to call 'Nanny' out ? I could theoretically 'call out' those who seek to minimise long covid or suggest we should have treated it like flu because it has a 99% survival rate or whatever....how come when someone posts anxiously about covid they are told to man up and get a life albeit not quite so bluntly ? It goes both ways.[/quote]
If you see anyone posting misinformation then you should absolutely call them out on it.

[quote GoldFrankensteinAndGrrr]@chesirecat99 I've not said anything awful to N&J and have said that others shouldn't, either. So yes, I practice what I preach.

I've also been very firm that people are entitled to their opinions, but that it's plainly not right to post irresponsible, inflammatory and spurious comments designed to cause alarm.[/quote]
Ok, well I think accusing someone of posting irresponsible, inflammatory, and spurious comments or accusing them of telling lies and spreading misinformation is pretty awful, @GoldFrankensteinAndGrrr.

The time that I corrected N&J's maths, @TheKeatingFive, it was clear that she had forgotten about about significant figures/decimal places from school and was using an equation that is so oversimplified and didn't include important factors that her calculations were meaningless. On the other hand, the gist of her argument was correct and if she had done the calculations correctly, she could have proved her point, so I doubt she was cherry picking.

Clearly we aren't virologists or epidemiologists ? And anyone can quote a scientist whose views fit ours. Why do certain people on here think they are entitled to take the moral high ground unless of course expressed opinions are genuinely dangerous like covid or vaccine denial.

Surely it is time to just stop

Well that works both ways TBF.

[quote Stasiland]@PinkSparklyPussyCat forgive me but who appointed you or anyone to call 'Nanny' out ? I could theoretically 'call out' those who seek to minimise long covid or suggest we should have treated it like flu because it has a 99% survival rate or whatever....how come when someone posts anxiously about covid they are told to man up and get a life albeit not quite so bluntly ? It goes both ways.[/quote]
I reported a post to MNHQ for misinformation (not by Nanny before you get on your high horse) and it wasn't taken down because other other people had called out the OP and it was left to stand.

So forgive me, if MN are happy for posters to call out misinformation then I will continue to do so.

@Bordois there was a post just 4 mins before mine it never stops.

[quote lannistunut]@Bordois there was a post just 4 mins before mine it never stops.[/quote]
No there wasn't. Your post was at 1655 and the one before yours was at 1612

yes, there have been posts (usually OPs) blatantly lying. One recently claimed that ICU beds were all full with covid patients. Those with investigative powers quickly identified that the poster was misrepresenting themselves as a nurse, never mind the fact that they were spreading lies.

What I think is awful is the glee. So some posters may choose to look on the black side - that's fine as long as it's an opinion and not spouting untruths... but I think it is quite unacceptable to appear pleased about cases rising and people becoming ill or even dying. And these posts really do exist.

The time that I corrected N&J's maths, @TheKeatingFive, it was clear that she had forgotten about about significant figures/decimal places from school and was using an equation that is so oversimplified and didn't include important factors that her calculations were meaningless

Well they repeated the same mistake two further times after that and surprise, surprise, the figures always ended up on the ‘alarming’ side, so forgive me if I’m not convinced of the innocence of this mistake.

Also when called on it, nanny always blames ‘noisy’ data, I’ve never seen even a whiff of acknowledgement that it was a miscalculation.

ICUs have never been completely full with covid patients but even at its height we had very few
non covid patients because all non emergency surgery had been cancelled. At one point we had 3 green patients and 27 covid ones - our ICU is 8 bedded so you can see how stretched we were.
The only glee I've seen is from some of the posters snidely engaging in group mockery about another poster who disagrees with them.

"We'll only get to that point if we don't go all in and make futile attempts at suppression that will just prolong the time we get to that point..,, I'm thinking of the St Augustine of Canterbury High School in St Helens in the news for reintroducing strict Covid measures - way to go if you want Covid to still be a problem come exam season hmm"

I don't know if anyone's challenged this (apologies if they have, I've not read all the thread), but this is completely the wrong way round.

Yes, things are looking up in the near future, but the point of covid measures is to stop too many people from getting it. If you put measures in to stop 12-15 year olds catching it, while also bringing in jabs, then you get millions of children protected without having any more deaths in that age range, and with very few cases of long covid.
That's why countries with tight restrictions have very few deaths - it makes sense, keeping the thing from getting from one person to the next.

Mitigations don't drag it out. Quite the opposite. If everyone who could do went out and got the vaccine next week, and if all 12-15 year olds could be vaccinated, then within 6 weeks covid would have so few places to go that it would die out in this country and just become a rubbish cold. Like all the other horrific illnesses like TB and polio and measles. Stop them spreading, and then you stamp them out.

The thing that keeps it going and going is people not getting jabbed, not wearing masks and mixing in big crowds.

It’s only a tiny number of posters who are gleeful at bad news, but it’s pretty obvious. As has been pointed up thread, it’s not new behaviour from humans unfortunately.

If people choose not to see it, well 🤷‍♀️

Ok, well I think accusing someone of posting irresponsible, inflammatory, and spurious comments or accusing them of telling lies and spreading misinformation is pretty awful

Even when that's exactly what they've done? Time and again? Including on this thread? It's not an accusation, it's an observation.

Posters on this thread have said what a negative effect those posts have had on their mental health. Let's just ignore that, shall we?

And please, if people want others to stop talking about a certain poster - stop bumping this thread to talk about them.

It was a thread about positive news. What a shame it was derailed. We could all do with positive news, after all.