What Happens If I Start A Thread About That "Coronavirus" Thing...?

Quite right - I should watch what I might be seen to be encouraging, even if only in jest.

Yeah - the inconvenience is annoying - I've just been to order some stuff in the local town and popped into the Aldi there on the way back - no toilet roll or paracetamol!     What did people do in the old days?     It's ridiculous.    Could you imagine trying to run a war with stupid, selfish people like this?

I get it.

It's irrational panic,  mob hysteria and herd mentality. 

Thousands of people are killed and injured in traffic accidents every year,  but nobody talks about banning cars or not crossing the road.

I'm not really worried about illness or death because I'm already suicidal. 

My main concern is the inconvenience to my life, if we get quarantines or shortages etc.

I don't get it - the death rate of this virus is much lower than most other flu types  (we normally have about 1500 deaths per year)  but the hype around it seems strangely artificial - almost like the planned 2020 recession wasn't going to happen so certain powers have decided to force it via panic & scaremongering.   Interesting that it's a US election year and the swamp is desperate to get rid of Trump to stop him digging into their scams and fraud activities.   In the US, without any truth or evidence, CNN (The Clinton News Network) has started to headline this as a pandemic to panic the population - even though almost all of the (few) deaths in the US were in one old people's home.

It also coincides with a global oil price-war so suddenly reducing demand will make that much nastier for a lot of the countries and companies involved.

It also demonstrates the lunacy of open borders where knowingly-infected people are deliberately travelling West so they don't get stranded in third-world conditions.

I'm concerned - I have no immune system - but sceptical.

Bear in mind you can't flush newspaper down the toilet.

Indeed, there seems to be little attention being paid to the negative consequences of such relentless focus on the negatives for people with mental health and neurological conditions which make them more prone to catastrophising and anxiety. It may also lead to unnecessary pressure on overstretched health services, who really need to be conserving their resources for those people who are genuinely at greater risk or who's symptoms and circumstances suggest that they may have been infected.

The sensible precautions which should be taken are no more than should be a matter of routine, and there's nothing wrong with emphasising them. But the panicked buying of anti-bacterials to ward off a viral infection seems to indicate that many people are taking home the message that "special and unusual measures" are necessary for protection, which if anything, might only give people a false, or even counter-productive, sense of impunity.

One of my coworkers is coming back from Italy tomorrow. I hope he’s not bringing virus to work because I don’t think washing hands would help. I don’t want to treat him like a leper but at the same time I feel anxious knowing I’ll be working with him. And I feel guilty that I feel anxious because I don’t want to treat him differently but then at the same time I don’t want to risk passing virus to my family (probably sooner or later I’ll catch it anyway but I prefer later than sooner)

I don't know whether to be worried about it or not, but I think there's no need to fear for civilisation just yet. From what I can gather, it seems to be an unpleasant variation on normal flu, but not much more severe in terms of mortality rate. (Not that that's much consolation for the unfortunates who die, I'm not intending to make light of it.)

Not wanting to cause further worry, but is antibacterial gel actually much use? The disease is, after all, caused by a virus not a bacterium. (There isn't any gel left in the supermarket anyway.) And yes, I have stockpiled toilet tissue, but only because I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get any soon. The shelves are nearly empty around here.

All those years of being mocked for self isolating and social distancing.

Oh, I'm laughing now. Only quietly though, I'm not cruel, just recognising the irony.

frenz said:

but I'm not holding my breath

<Groan> - oh, very funny! 

More seriously, though; I agree - there's an awful lot of inconsistency in what we're being told to do and the examples that are being set.

I'm definitely in the "nothing to fear but fear itself" camp on this. If anyone knows the classic comedy series 'Dad's Army', I keep thinking of the characters Jones and Fraser! There is a lot of confusion too. I've spent most of the weekend watching a darts tournament on TV, and the players were still doing their traditional walk on high fiving the crowd, shaking hands with each other etc, hugging at the end of the game. We shouldn't be doing any of that should we!? The situation in football is also a joke. Handshakes before the kick off have been banned, but not at full time it seems. Nor have goal celebrations, tackling, marking other players, forming a wall at free-kicks etc.

Ok I know that sport is secondary to everyday life, but if this virus was that serious then at the very least such influential figures would be severely chastised for creating such a bad example. Maybe by this time tomorrow they will have been but I'm not holding my breath.

I agree with you, and I think that the way that the media has been stoking this for weeks now is pretty unforgivable really. I can't really work out why they would be doing it. Sure they have to report the facts etc, but not blow them up to hysterical proportions which they have been doing. I'm sure that a lot of people that take an interest in these forums are easily frightened by things like this and there does not seem to be much reassurance going on. Not good.

I'm eyeing up the pile of old newspapers that I never quite get around to throwing out. People won't dare to call me a freakish hoarder when I'm the only one without a stinky bum! Bwaahahahaaa! 

I won’t talk about statistics, death rates or anything like that.

I’m just going to admit that I’m one of those who panic. I completely freaked out today, ended up yelling and crying. 

I’m not panic buying, I’m not afraid that of catching it even though I might catch it. I’m worried about my children a little bit  (I know it seems it doesn’t affect children, unlike the flu, but they’re getting vaccinated against flu every year so it doesn’t worry me) But I’m worried about my parents which have poor health and I don’t think they’ve got a chance to survive if they get it. They live abroad and I was planning to visit them in a month (during school Easter break) but I think it would be too risky. I don’t want unknowingly carry the virus and give it to them. But I haven’t seen them for over 7 months and I’ve got flight booked and I was planning to visit them and now what? I completely don’t know what to do and what’s going to happen. And if I cancel my visit - when will I visit them? In the summer? And what if they catch the virus from someone else? I’m completely freaking out and I don’t know what to do. It’s very unlikely it’s going to end in a month. All my Easter plans are ruined. My parents are expecting us, my children can’t wait to see their grandparents and I’m worried and angry and can’t really focus on anything else. I don’t need that. Something is always happening  and even if one problem ends - another one starts. It’s always something. I’ve got enough. Of everything.

It's definitely spiking my anxiety levels something rotten.. although it's more a concern about social events that might be called off. Especially the Passion Play I'm involved in at Easter.

The shelves are being emptied of Loo roll...like no other times ive ever noticed!

Im presently in london at a hospital,that has a coronavirus ,quarantined-pod!..

Many people here with masks and breathing through the neck of their jumpers...

I've stopped my panic buying and will now just top up to keep a healthy supply.  One on my worries is that although I have plenty of cereals, there could could be a fresh milk shortage in any quarantine situation.  And I hate the taste of long life milk.

The toilet roll drama continues.  They sell out as fast as shops fill up the shelves.  I was in waitrose this afternoon.  The only toilet rolls available were waitrose own brand.  Is this an example of middle class snobbery,  shop own brand products are not good enough to *** on?

I did however see one woman with three packs of 16 roll andrex paper in her trolley.

Greetings, All, especially those who replied so far!

This may be a thing I am doing too much lately, of being very grateful to all who replied so far, to know that I am not alone in thinking parts of what I posted. In any case this is a general Thanks.

It seems that this Coro-Flu is indeed just a thing to be *both* worried about and not worried about. Just like "ordinary" Influenza... a very nasty virus which I do not like. It is just now occurring to plain folk that Flu is an airborne bad thing, hence the Media and the "social distancing" and that it should not be just dismissed as "a bit of the sniffles, You'll be fine inna couple of days."...

Thanks again to all so far for this Thread could have been far worse than it so far is. (No haters, yet...) 

All I need to do is wash my hands and bin my tissues after using them.

"The Media have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent!" (Malcolm X)

People who know me on this site, will be aware that I have anxiety and mental health problems and I tend to stock up unnecessarily at the best of times.

I think my current stock is sufficient for at least a couple of months if my area is placed into quarantine,  and the supermarkets don't receive new stock, or people panic buy.