Pandemic panic

I was planning anyway to sort out my larder [spices in there dating back to 2006] and restocking my freezer [pizzas in there from when my son lived at home which was a long time ago] so I am going ahead with that even if it does seem like stockpiling. As I was also doing a declutter, Swedish death clean like, I'm probably going to stay at home and work on that for a while. I'm not going to go to the cinema or the gym for a while and, when I do venture out I'm sipping water, wearing gloves but also using hand sanitiser; using cold and flu defence when I go out [have used it on holiday before] and gargling with salt water when I get home. I don't feel that I'm panicking; just doing everything I actually have any control over, to try to stop the virus spreading. What I don't understand about taking paracetamol though, is that I thought a fever was the way the body fought a virus.

What I do fear is being ill on my own. When I was very ill with viral meningitis in my 30s, I was not alone - husband was fairly useless but my parents were able to come to stay and help with the children. Now my family are too far away to come running when I'm out of action. I have good neighbours but they have children and their own parents.

I remember being thrown out of the chemists a few years ago during the swine flu epidemic (!). I had gone to get some antivirals for my husband who had stage 4 cancer, and the doctor had prescribed some for me just in case I got it. The chemist was really aggressive and would not believe that I was perfectly well.

Yes, I remember you were really poorly EV so much so it scared you at one stage.

It can't be any worse than how I felt over Christmas and most of January, along with a lot of other GN's at that time.

I remember the Hong Kong flu. I was just turned 17. Both my parents got it. My Dad worse than my Mum. They both had it around Christmas. Dad claimed that he lost his senses of smell and taste because of it.
I'm not panicking at all. DH is rather worried, but then we think he's autistic and is prone to be a worrier.

My GP, not given to consiracy theories is sure the panic is driven by the pharmaceutical companies (who, of course, have their unhygienic fingers in all sorts of pies).
She's seen the way pharma drives campaign before and from my experience as a journalist I tend to believe ther could be some truth in it.

I'm still not buying a mask, staying at home and clearing the supermarket shleves in panic though. Deaths world wide are nowhere near those of heart-disease or cancer.

True or no, I've just read a Korean newspaper which reports:
79,972 " cases of flu confirmed (out of a 1.386 Billion populaton)
2,873 deaths
42,150 perfectly recovered

Compare that to 76million deaths due to famine in China in the 60's.

Or if you have watched 'One Child Nation' the 61million girl babies deliberately killed as 'surplus to requirements' a practice which is far from defunct.

It’s not possible to test 100%, Trisher but they would test a representative sample of people, same as they do for anything else.

Coronavirus is a viral pneumonia.
The breathing difficulties that some victims experience are frightening and potentially deadly.

It is vital that we all take precautions and we really shouldn’t underestimate how potentially dangerous this could be.

I think we all know someone who is vulnerable.

Keep calm and wash your hands.

ha ha grannygravy-you are welcome. and if you stay for dinner i can do you a mean corned beef hash.

Petunia I am on my way round, sounds like my kind of diet!!

Its hard not to get swept along by the hysteria around stockpiling food and ordering hundreds of loo rolls from amazon. I suppose there are several stands to this panic. One is that such a contagious disease, while mild for the majority, will cause mass disruption to health, education, industry etc. there comes a point where essential services may be unable to function if the number of newly sick and recovering employees reaches a tipping point.
Another is social media. The number of people who seem to be stockpiling and planning to self isolate and then advertising these facts on social media is massive. It makes my own stockpile of a 4 pack of tuna and a tin of corned beef a bit pathetic

another strand is the section of the population who love a conspiracy theory. A friend of mine is convinced this has been created by Big Pharma in order to destabilize the population and to make money out of an eventual vaccine, which she wont have due to the levels of mercury likely to be in it(she has a very fanciful imagination). I'm working on a tin foil hat for her as a gift in these difficult times.
So who knows. Even if we have been told the truth, many of us don't believe it anyway.
But I have my stockpile of four tins of tuna. I may just get an extra bottle of gin then I'm all set. Tuna sandwiches and a G&T while the world sneezes.

I'm not sure I'm taking this virus as seriously as I should!

I remember the 1957 Asian fu epidemic. Schools, businesses and factories closed for a few days to several weeks because so many teachers/children/workers were affected they could no longer operate properly. My own school closed for 2 weeks.

AIDS and Mad Cow disease were not diseases like the rest which go from person to person by touch and air. They both required a specific set of actions leading in one case to blood to body infection and in the other eating food from an infected animal.

However there were, in both cases forecasts of many 10s, if not 100s, of thousands of people dying from them. In fact, so far only about 200 people have died from BSE. The death toll for HIV is higher, thousands, possibly 10s of thousands, but is now no longer life limiting in most cases.

I have heard several stories about where this virus came from, that it has crossed over from animals (specifically pangolins), that it escaped from a lab in China and that it was deliberately released to halt China's emerging economy. Unless you test 100% of the population SueDonim how do you know no-one has anti-bodies?

DD has just sent me this pic of the train carriage she is travelling home in. It's rush hour. It's London and she normally can't get a seat!

Yes they were Bluebelle.
I think the reason for the panic this time is that the epidemiologists don’t yet know how virulent Covid-19 is, or what the true mortality rate is.
I think there was panic around HIV and BSE, they both resulted in much more stringent cross-infection control in clinical procedures.

Correct me if I m wrong but wasn’t Bird Flu, SARS, MERS, Swine flu, mad cow disease AIDS all NEW in their time I seem to have lived through so many NEW viruses but never seen so much fear and panic around any of them before

Trisher the virus isn’t new in that it existed in animals and didn’t have the ability to infect humans.
But viruses mutate and this one mutated to a form which could do. Cross-infection occurred in a market in Wuhan where live animals were being sold. At least that’s my understanding.
Here is some practical advice which appeared on my Facebook page yesterday, some of which was new to me.

“ Simply put, if you develop symptoms
1. Take a cold remedy to stop the sneezing eg Sudafed and First Defence nasal spray
2. Take antihistamines to dampen the inflammatory response and protect the lungs
3. If you are asthmatic make certain you have your inhalers
4. In the evening it is likely you will have an elevated temperature so take Paracetamol as an anti pyrittic
5. You can only fight a virus when you are asleep so when your body tells you to sleep then rest preferably away from everyone else nicely tucked up but with the window open to reduce the number of airbornes in your room
6. Plenty of fluid and vitamins especially Vit C Zinc Vit D”
And here is a good article from The Conversation which explains how we can all help to develop herd immunity

theconversation.com/coronavirus-how-behaviour-can-help-control-the-spread-of-covid-19-132247?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%201%202020%20-%201549714807&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20March%201%202020%20-%201549714807+CID_e7b6906ea5806c30b3d08c640705fc73&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Coronavirus%20How%20behaviour%20can%20help%20control%20the%20spread%20of%20COVID-19

The head of the WHO says this is a unique virus and that it is not like the flu. It is the ease with which it transfers that is different.

Sorry trisher, typo .

I agree with you trisha. I believe this virus has been around in China since at least December if news reports are to be believed.

Trisher I think if it had already circulated in humans it would show up, as some people would have antibodies. Afaik no one has antibodies unless they’ve had CV in this recent outbreak.

Jennifer - while that is true, this is a new virus which no one has any immunity. Add that to the fact that its highly contagious, some people are mildly affected so spread it to others who may suffer more serious effects and then you have a perfect storm of infection spread. It's properties are unknown, there is talk of re-infection and some people testing negative who are infected. Plus of course there's no cure/immunisation.

trisher my thoughts as well. We’ve all had the flu jab but early Jan my Dgs caught a virus (presumably from school) which resulted in most of our family catching it. We were all ill in varying degrees but all fully recovered after about 2 weeks. What was the virus?? Well I have no idea because we self medicated, didn’t go near a drs surgery and it was just “one of those bugs we get in winter” I suppose. So is this a new virus or has it just been identified. Anyone seen any research?

Daisymae All your examples could equally be applied to cases of flu which occur every winter.

Yes the Coronavirus is potentially serious for some but then so is flu without all this fuss.

It’s said that some people could have such mild symptoms with the Coronavirus that they aren’t even aware they are ill.