O/T:- Are we over-reacting to COVD19?

[drillerpie]

I would say that that the 'sensible precautions' are to follow the advice given by the Chief Medical Officer and DHSC Chief Scientific Adviser who is certainly more qualified than me and I suspect more qualified than you to give guidance. He has been advocating phased approach, but with extra precautions for those groups who are most vulnerable.

I certainly listen to him, just as I listen to many other experts in the field who are questioning the different response compared to in other countries. An important part of science is peer review and consensus, so when the health officials in one country take a radically different course of action to most other countries, I think it's wise to consider other points of view.

You seem to have dodged the point that by putting generally fit, well and younger folk into an excessive level of isolation, you only delay the spike and potentially cause an even bigger one down the line, because a degree of exposure to threats is required to keep our immune systems active and in a state of readiness for something like this.way.

I didn't dodge it, I answered that delaying the spike is a good thing as it gives time to prepare. Why would you have a bigger spike down the line? The number of potential infections is the same, but you would have had more time to procure equipment, train staff, build specialised hospitals etc.

My statistics weren't misleading. I compared the number of deaths against the total population whereas you compared the number of deaths amongst those known to have contracted COVID-19, which is an unverified figure anyway. It's simply a case of which context you wish to use.

It was a blatant attempt to mislead people, as is this.

On average in Italy every year there are around 4,000 suicides amongst a population of circa 60 million. The current Coronavirus death toll in Italy is around 1,440 which in terms of the number of infections is high and the toll could reach similar proportions to the suicide rate this year if not more, but COVID-19 will be very time limited in its impact, whereas the suicide rate has been fairly constant for at least two decades. Plus, where Coronavirus is known to be most dangerous to people who are old or have underlying health conditions, mental health issues have a wider effect across all ages.

You've cleared up your own point. The suicide rate is stable, while deaths from coronavirus multiply exponentially. When you posted your misleading statistics, Italy had had two deaths in the space of a few days.

Now N.Italy has been under lockdown for a week and they're still getting about 200 deaths per day. If they hadn't chosen lockdown the health service wouldn't have been able to continue functioning. That is why Coronavirus is receiving more government attention than suicides do and I think it's hard to argue with that.

The media are obsessed with COVID-19 because it is a new phenomenon that gives them 'breaking' stories and new figures every day and it is not 'routine'. Meanwhile, mental health issues which will cause the death of many more people, consistently year after year, barely get mentioned unless someone famous happens to end their lives, or an anonymous person's suicide is especially dramatic.

The media are not motivated by the 'public interest'. They are motivated by selling their products, and to do so they seek the kind of originality and drama that COVID-19 will provide globally for a period of time. Meanwhile 800,000 people across the world kill themselves each year and most go completely unnoticed, even though this is a much bigger, longer running, permanent 'story'. It just doesn't shift newspapers or attract viewers the same way.

Apart from the fact that I don't think you can tar all of the media with the same brush, because some newspapers dedicate more space than others to mental health issues, I think your obsession with the media and their motives is clouding your judgement.

I also think you are failing to distinguish between what the media reports because it is relevant, like coronavirus, what is not relevant but is in the news purely because it sells, like celebrity gossip and so on, and things that should be in the news but aren't, like provision of mental health professionals.

Just because suicide is under reported, doesn't mean coronavirus is being driven by media hype.