For those that think COVID-19 is ‘just the flu’

Please read this Twitter thread.

I know I could have posted this in the other thread, but I wanted as many people as possible to see this, as I feel it’s extremely important.

 

Full thread here for easy viewing:


https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1237142891077697538.html

 

Yeah, because people aren't freaked out enough.

 

People kind of need to be... when you see what’s going on in Italy and China. China has pretty much shut down for a month... you don’t do that for a flu.


https://www.instagram.com/tv/B9j5AvCq4Rd/?igshid=2hxh0wrv7nrg

 

That’s the point.

People don’t care. People think it’s won’t happen here’ and ‘I’m young, it doesn’t matter’

People are ******* idiots. We should be ‘freaked out’ - that’s the only way we will be prepared for this!

 

You've lost me. You want people to panic?

 

No. I want people to be concerned about it. To make lifestyle changes to help combat this.

 

Like what?

 

Like working from home if you can. Like not going out unnecessarily. Like not doing things that put you in very close contact with people you’re not normally in contact with.

 

I think people are panicking enough.

 

Sorry son , you are on to a loser there .

You expect people who don't normally wash their hands after using a public toilet to change their disgusting personal habits.
I bet they don't do it when there is a normal flu outbreak .

Don't forget that when you as a responsible citizen leave said toilet after washing your hands you open the door using the door
handle that a previous unwashed hand has used .

I have become exasperated over the years of telling people of all ages " hand over mouth " .
They look at you gone out .

And they are probably the ones that will escape unscathed .

 

I grab some toilet roll from those single sheet dispensers to hold the handle with.

 

Some people are.

A lot aren’t. A lot just see it as ‘it’s like the flu but not as bad’

Those are the idiots that will pass it on but will somehow escape unharmed.

 

This is what I wrote on Facebook a few days ago:

I've seen a lot of people saying Coronavirus/Covid-19 is being blown way out of proportion, and I must admit I've been in that camp for most of the time it's been in the news. Things are changing now though, and without suggesting outright panic, I do think this is something we need to be concerned with and our governments around the world need to be doing more to address.

A couple of the arguments I've seen online and my responses to them:

1. It's just a flu.

It isn't. The death rate from seasonal influenza is roughly 0.1%, for Covid-19 the WHO estimates roughly 3.4%. You're 34 times more likely to die of Covid-19 if you catch it. That's a significant rise.

2. It only badly affects the elderly and infirm.

Whilst it's true that these people are at a much higher risk, the virus has also been known to kill fit and healthy young adults. It does this in some cases by triggering an overzealous response in healthy immune systems, shedding lung tissue and filling the lungs with fluid and debris, causing severe pneumonia in some cases.

And besides, 'just the elderly and infirm' are people too. Some of our most loved relatives. They are not expendable. Think of how upsetting it must be as an older person to hear that it's no big deal because it's only you and your older friends who might die. It's just not cricket.

3. The overwhelming majority of patients fully recover.

Whilst that's mostly true, it is important to note that not all survivors do make a full recovery. Chinese doctors warned very early on that many who are surviving the illness are doing so with potentially permanent scarring in their lungs, which will cause significant problems in future.

Lessons from history:

Many people online are saying that Covid-19 hysteria is ridiculous when you look back 100 years to the 'Spanish' flu (p.s it wasn't Spanish). However...

The WHO estimates Spanish Flu killed between 2-3% of those who became infected. This is actually lower than the WHO's own estimate for Covid-19. This outbreak of Influenza was the H1N1 strain, a newer, mutated version of which caused the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic/scare. This newer version was less lethal through a combination of limited human immunity (potentially a genetic relic from 1918-20) and a mutation which made it less easily transmitted than its grandfather.

The 1918 outbreak is now believed to have started in Northern China, and was imported to Europe in small numbers through Chinese labourers recruited by the French and British governments. From here, it spread transatlantic in even smaller numbers to the US and Canada. The flu over time became particularly prominent in the US, where it was first noticed and recorded. The United States, currently embroiled in war in Europe with victory over Germany appearing closer than ever, couldn't afford to have morale destroyed, new soldiers fighting the draft and war bonds drying up. So it was covered up, just as it was in the UK and France.

Even over a hundred years ago, scientists quickly started working on potential primitive vaccines for the new flu outbreak. They needed as much time as possible, and halting the spread was of international importance. But then, just like now, government inaction and incompetence greatly hindered their efforts. The US military threw new recruits into hugely overcrowded barracks, acted surprised when they started dropping dead, then chucked their surviving comrades onto troop ships bound for the Western Front. One army officer shot himself in the head when he realised he had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of soldiers by loading the infected onto troop ships, despite an army medical officer pleading with him not to.

Within months these freshly inflated infection numbers skyrocketed as troops fought together and then returned home, and the virus made its way around the Earth over the next 3 years.

The top and bottom of it was that the outbreak was not treated seriously. It was 'just the flu', in the same way Covid-19 is being described by some as 'just like the flu'. The way people are putting it down now is comparible to how the 1918 flu outbreak began. Spanish flu was dangerous because it was new and humans had no natural immunity to it. Covid-19 is the same. At the moment, it's not spreading as fast as Spanish flu, but there is potential for it to. Our world is more crowded and connected than ever before. It took days or weeks for an infected individual to travel to far off lands back then; slow enough for many patients to become symptomatic on their journey and trigger quarantining. Now it takes hours, and an asymptomatic patient can easily slip through the net.

And crucially, viruses can and do mutate and develop new traits. This has already happened with Covid-19, with there now being an 'L' and an 'S' strain. There is little difference between them at the moment, although the 'L' type may be a little more aggressive in its spread. The 'S' type is the original Covid-19, so this is evidence of natural selection already at work. There's nothing to say future mutations can't make it just as spreadable as 1918 H1N1.

All of that said, I don't think it's time to panic. It's time to take caution, have personal responsibility and use common sense. I'm going about my daily life as normal, but you sure as hell wouldn't catch me flying out on holiday this week, and you would absolutely not find me on a ship. The best weapon we have now is public knowledge. They didn't have that in the same way in 1918, and didn't know to avoid their GP surgery etc. If you're self-isolating, that actually means you self-isolate. Not, as I saw someone on FB mention this afternoon, come to the GP surgery to pick up your prescriptions and go to the pharmacy with them.

The other weapon we need is responsible governance. I can't really complain too much about how our own rotten government is handling the outbreak so far, but I worry about the US. Trump's administration is involved in an active cover up of the severity of Covid-19, and risks America becoming a super spreader once again.

Why's he doing that? The stock market. It's the key to his election success. Don't let a government once again play off a potential pandemic for their own self-interest.

Be careful, report suspicious symptoms, go about your life and don't panic buy. Just keep an eye on developments.

*COVID-19 is technically the name of the disease caused by the virus, but is easier to type than SARS-CoV-2.

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*Since writing that several days ago, I now do have problems with our government's handling of the crisis. Not enough is being done.

 

Great post.

 

Over 450 people have died in Italy, presumably much larger numbers than that have been hospitalised. Clearly this is going to have put a massive strain on the Italian health care system. This is the real issue here not over loading the NHS. I don't think "freaking out" will help with that.

 

Can you point me in the direction of guidance that people should ‘freak out’.

we can agree the NHS will struggle when this gets worse, the only way to stop the current exponential rise is to change our behaviour, not freak out or panic buy bog roll, but stop going places we don’t need to go.

 

I was replying to the OP and the suggestion we should freak out.
I agree that is the best way to slow the spread and in turn help the NHS. However the government will be reluctant to bring in more extreme measures until no other option. The damage to economy will be catastrophic in Italy for example.

 

Well yes, now that's a whole other discussion!