Please stay safe

[sushi_78]

I'm so, so sorry about your family members Matildasmom. I hope you can contact your mother-in-law soon and that you and your family stay well.

[Pebbles82]

I am sorry as well - do take care. I think what you have told us explains why it is not just about older people being at risk - it is about families and loved ones of all ages.

A Doctor wrote some advice recently to help people struggling with isolation. He said don’t think of it as protecting yourself- think of it as protecting someone else. Emotionally it is very hard for a lot of families especially when they can’t even risk visiting elderly relatives who are lonely.

In our situation we have to decide whether to stop seeing my stepson for a while. Children often don’t have symptoms but can pass it easily to those who could get seriously ill. That is very hard and also an anxiety for children. If the schools had closed earlier we would not be worrying about that. So even though isolation is hard people feel safer all at home together and not going to places where they could pick it up and pass it to vulnerable family members. It isn’t just older people who have immune conditions, diabetes or asthma.

We all need to take care and be patient.

[Vierville]

Originally Posted by Celestial

It is very strange, with things being shut down and the "social distancing" being implemented. Everyone feels super tense. In fact everyone feels so tense that I even feel uneasy at home. Even though we live in a normally quiet-ish spot, it feels quieter, almost like when the power goes out and you realize you miss the sound of the laundry and refrigerator. And there is a strange lack of "the end is nigh!!" preachers (at least on the news we have).

I don't want to sound callus, mean, or anything; I value life and personally I know some nice people who are from 80-100 years old and are extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus and also extremely vulnerable to any other virus, cold, flu, bacteria, or etc. I understand that the coronavirus is dangerous, and why places with large amounts of elderly and vulnerable should take many precautions. But, still, I feel like either there's some overreacting or I don't have the whole picture. Logically, from what little information I have, it feels like we're treating something akin to a slightly nastier new strain of the flu that gives vulnerable people pneumonia, which many other things can do, like some kind of black death zombie plague. Again, I feel like I am missing something, missing the why.

Why is everyone so tense? Are we all suddenly selective germaphobes, or is the thought of quarantine causing this tension?

Also, I wonder how long this will last? Will we still be in "social distancing" mode through the summer? The fall? Next year?
[/I]

I am feeling exactly the same as you. My own mother is in her 70s and has a permanent respiratory condition...every time she gets flu or a cold she gets life-threatening pneumonia if she's not put onto strong antibiotics immediately. Its a risk and a worry I've learned to deal with and have lived with for years every time she gets flu or a cold.

I have a deep respect for the elderly and those living with underlying conditions and also don't want anyone to lose their life and I don't want to sound callous but I am struggling to get my mind around the level of panic I'm seeing all around me.

I'm also trying (and failing I'm afraid) to understand how something that is in the vast majority of cases very mild can justify a huge proportion of the world completely shutting down, potentially destroying whole economies, wiping out jobs (mine is in serious jeopardy due to the industry I'm in) and causing immeasurable disruption all for something that is not unique in threatening those who are at risk from many other things already.

I've also noticed the quiet - yesterday morning I woke up at 07h00 and couldn't hear any traffic. We live near a busy road that is always noisy at peak times and it was eerily silent.

I went to work today to operate a chartered flight probably for the last time in a long time and in the airport terminal there were only two passengers in the entire building in sight, both with masks on and hurrying with a visible sense of unease. I watched the barrista at one coffee shop wash his hands four times in a five minute period after serving nobody.

In the supermarket yesterday there were cleaners in every aisle swabbing the floors with disinfectant, everybody looked tense and the cashiers seemed terrified.

There is a definite sense of tension everywhere. It is just horrible.

I just can't get my head around it and to be honest that is really unsettling me. I feel like I just can't reconcile the things I'm seeing all around me with the quite low threat level that covid-19 poses to most people.

I'm also really really anxious and worried about how long the situation will last. I think that is my biggest worry.Like Celestial said, will it be weeks? Months? A year? What will it take for the authorities (whose response I am already struggling to understand) to finally decide that the threat level is low enough to return to normality? China is still in lockdown I believe and their infection rate has reduced significantly. As I understand it, a virus like this cannot be eradicated completely and a vaccine is months and months away.

My wife and I had a trip of a lifetime to France and Belgium booked for May - we've been looking forward to it nearly a year and that is gone too now.

I'm also worried that if these severe restrictions continue long enough, people will begin rebelling against the authorities because they will have lost their jobs, lost their freedom and will be tired of living under drastically limited conditions.

I really do feel for those who are most at risk but I'm struggling to see how the response to all of this is justified.

To be honest, at the moment the only thing I have right now to calm me are my hamsters.

[Littlephodopusmom]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to add what I know in case it helps with the perspective of why everything is being shutdown. Where I live is in a city of 1.4 million. My husband works in Government doing population numbers. Very basically, with no social distancing, if everyone caught the virus, then 4 percent of our population would die. This would happen within 90 days and within the first 30 days of this the country's health care system would collapse. These are the numbers most countries right now are looking at and trying to prevent.

In perspective, The Black Plague took many lives, but only in Europe (versus globally) and was over a span of many years.

I don't mean to worry anyone, just explain why it's being taken so seriously. This virus is estimated to be ten times more lethal than the flu and has killed people as young as ten years old.

[Pebbles82]

Yes it isn't just panic it is trying to control a very fast spreading virus which nobody in the world has immunity to. The Uk has been slower than most in implementing social distancing but in a few days, the deaths rocketed and although the social distancing is hard, it does help organisations survive, by allowing people to work from home. It is also unknown if people will develop immunity, or whether they could get it more than once. And the people that get it mildly will be carriers.

It isn't just pneumonia - it is interstitial double pneumonia and the theory is, I believe, that it is not being caused by the virus itself, but by peoples' immune reactions to the virus. Hence even people younger than 50 can have a serious immune reaction. People in their 20s and younger seem to only have a mild case due to their immune systems being less developed and hence reacting differently. But even then there are an awful lot of younger people with asthma in the world and that is high risk with this condition.

I think the statistics are quite a lot more than 4% if nothing is done. If you lose a big chunk of the population, then everything would grind to a halt anyway. You need people, and skilled people with knowledge, to rebuild an economy. It is also the psychological effects on those who have it mildly, of knowing they could pass it to someone who could die. Children are anxious. And who would look after children if their parents die? Not all parents are in their twenties and thirties.

It is basically a national emergency, like a war, for all countries and I think it's good they are taking these measures to get control of the situation. I read that in Italy they don't have enough medical staff and ventilators to treat everyone so anyone over 40 is basically left to die. It is particularly bad there. So other countries are implementing social distancing earlier to try and prevent that scenario. Medical staff are also dying of it and there is a shortage of protective equipment for them. For the hospitals it is a very serious crisis.

I agree it is very very strange when it is so quiet everywhere and it makes you think it's not real. But a short hard time now could prevent all the economies collapsing entirely. It has changed everything - it is something that can affect every family regardless of wealth, importance or job etc.

I think of it as like during WW2 when people had to accept rationing and blackouts for the survival of the country as a whole.

[Littlephodopusmom]

Yes, it's right what you've said. The 4 percent is just the number of people lost to the virus. There are too many variables to add into the equation for the total numbers. All the things you've mentioned cannot be factored in. Everyone that needs medical help, no matter what it's for, will be affected and endangered. All medical staff will be going to try to help the most ill with the virus. Right now all medical services where I live have been cancelled unless they are emergencies and we haven't even gotten to the spike yet. Stage 4 terminal cancer patients cannot get chemo treatment because doing so will put them at more risk of lowered immunity and catching the virus. I have asthma and like you've said there are so many people with it. What is going on in Italy is truly scary and heartbreaking. The whole goal here is to flatten that curve by slowing the rate of transmission to buy us time. Time to get more health facilities ready, more health care workers and supplies, and to develop a vaccine. My biggest personal goal is to look after my health as best that I can so I don't need medical care.

But having said all this. I have faith that a vaccine will be made and am keeping positive about that.

[Pebbles82]

The good news is that China has had no new cases for 14 days so the lockdown is working. That is 3 months after it all started.

[Vierville]

Originally Posted by Serendipity7000

The good news is that China has had no new cases for 14 days so the lockdown is working. That is 3 months after it all started.

How long will China still be under lockdown?

[Pebbles82]

I don't know sorry. America also talking about clinical trials on very sick patients of a malaria drug that seems to help.

[Vierville]

I also heard that. Very encouraging news if they can find an existing drug that works. I'm holding thumbs.