Scaremongering or Truth?

[Geordie-Y]

Like most people in the UK of late I tend to look at what the press is saying about the Covid19 pandemic. Firstly, let me say that I was horrified by Boris’s initial attitude of “all we need to do is wash our hands for 20 to 30 seconds”, whilst the administration in Hunan were spraying the streets with disinfectant and basically sterilising the whole place, allied with compulsory testing of everyone in the whole province.

This morning I read that PHE is now supporting the announcement that the infection in the UK could still be with us next Spring and that 7.9 million people could be hospitalised in that time. If, and I mean if, this is the case then shouldn’t we be learning from China’s experience and actually following their example or is it the case that our government is playing a game of Russian roulette with the lives of the people of the UK?

I then read that President Trump had offered a German vaccine company 1bn dollars to come up with a vaccine for use in the US only. This could be and probably is electioneering on his part, although it did prompt a response from the German Health Minister that any vaccine developed by their scientists would be for worldwide usage, which means that it is probably true. Not a surprise for anyone due to all the faux pas that he has made in the past but alarming that the leader of the most powerful nation in world has this attitude to the rest of the world.

So, in finishing, I would ask the question. Bearing in mind that we are all amongst high risk population, do we believe that it’s scaremongering or what?

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I think those who use the term “scaremongering” about the media are thinking more of reports that encourage a looting and hoarding mentality than of us having nothing to be scared witless about. So it’s the worried well who need to stop being so scared not people like us with underlying immune dysfunction.

Although I am scared also about the impact on the global economy because I’m a parent of 3 young men who are all now wondering how they are going to find work in the fields that they have been trained for. One is in the middle of his masters and works in a pub and his girlfriend is a renal nurse. Their plans included buying an affordable home and having children once they both had decent jobs and had saved up enough.

So this pandemic is going to change everything for everyone I think. Some good things will happen amongst the terribleness. X

[Lupiknits]

For the moment, I think the scaremongering is the panic buying.

My son in HK, who lives and works there, finds the somewhat casual attitude in the UK scary. HK are now the ones making all travellers self isolate ( and they’ll make sure you do) for 14 days.

I’m sure the whole world is nervous at the moment.

[PMRpro]

I live in Italy. In a region with - so far - not an awful lot of cases but enough to almost fill the ICU beds available. In Lombardy they are nursing non-ICU patients in tent hospitals - Lombardy has one of the best healthcare systems in the world but is almost at collapse because of the sheer numbers. Italy has 4 times as many ICU beds as the UK - for 10% fewer population. They are not enough.

We are in lockdown, which means we must remain at home, are not to invite visitors or gather together for any reason. Food shops are open, we can go shopping for food but everything else is closed - no cafes, no restaurants, all holiday accomodation of any sort is closed. When out, we must remain 1m away from anyone else. We may leave our own town/village to go to work, for health reasons or to care for family members - and when we go we must carry a completed form saying where and why we are out and about. Be found without it and it will cost you a hefty fine. Routine hospital appointments are cancelled and visitors limted to 1 per patient while visiting to care homes is stopped altogether.

There is far more testing here - so they find the cases and then the contacts are tested. But still the numbers are increasing and it will take at least another week of lockdown to make much difference because the infectious/incubation period is up to 14 days, possibly occassionally more.

My GP told me this morning she is scared when she sees the news - if she is scared - we should be too. You are 2 weeks behind us and our experts warned the UK to act quickly because they waited 48 hours too long. This is the time where they can reduce the peak numbers and spread them over a longer summer period. The concept of allowing herd immunity to develop was always rather dubious - young people die from this too: a 48 year old paramedic died yesterday. I'm biased maybe, my daughters are a nurse and ED practitioner and are really very concerned - not least because they are both asthmatic. But this is reality - not media scaremongering.

[Geordie-Y in reply to PMRpro]

My message was really asking the question, do we believe the politicians or big business who are generally backing them? I agree that this is a really dangerous situation for everyone and none more so than the Lupus sufferers which I had stated on a previous reply to someone who had asked the question. Scaremongers was the term that Boris used when he made the statement. “All we need to do at the present time is concentrate on washing our hands regularly and forget about the scaremongers.”

Although someone replied to me talking about panic buying which I’m not sure constitutes scaremongering, although is probably the product of it.

[PMRpro in reply to Geordie-Y]

I don't have to choose - I am experiencing a reality. And there is nowhere here with empty shelves. No shortages of anything, there haven't been since the whole thing began.

If you want reliable and unbiased information go to the WHO site and read their assessment and advice.

[Freckle1000 in reply to Geordie-Y]

Just looking from the outside (from Australia) at what's happening in the UK. I think the organisations that quote honest and terrifying figures are closer to the honest ones.

I think you're Boris is playing a very dangerous game with herd immunity. Its not only the sick and elderly that die from it. -quite randomly - some young healthy people end up in intensive care and die from it too. In Italy, they've had to make terrible choices of who to offer intensive care treatment to - and the many elderly have been left to die to allow younger people access.

I believe a full on total Chinese style lockdown is in order for Europe and everywhere else. I honestly believe democratic governments underestimate peoples strength, willingness - and ability to cope - firstly - with the truth, and then with full on Asian style shut downs.

I don't know how edgy I'd get about business interests influencing political policy - but here I'm getting sick to death about learning the economic implications of the virus and believe this focus caused a slight slowing down of a proper response here. Now we're just moving past this phase and the start of proper health measures is actually starting thank god. But we had to wait for untracked - uncontrolled - person to person transmission before the economy took second place.

[Geordie-Y]

I did say in the initial message that what our PM was saying that all people need to do is wash their hands was horrifying but I think that some of the people who are replying to me have got what I was saying completely out of context. Firstly, I’m not a supporter of Boris and never could be and I also wasn’t supporting big business. It was a rhetorical question. My real point was why aren’t we asking the Chinese what their experience is?

I meant that they were the people who suffered from Covid 19 first and had basically sterilised the whole of Hunan province as well as testing all the citizens, why weren’t the UK adopting their approach?

I also broached the fact that Trump had offered the German vaccine developers to supply only to the US.

Basically, from my point of view the question was a dig at the western world and how everyone here has the attitude “ I’m alright Jack and screw you!”

It was not meant to be a dig at anyone who like myself suffers from Lupus or any other person who has an impaired immune system.

Like I said the question was asked tongue in cheek to people I felt would know it.