A Covid One

If it were me, my assumption would be that a pub is going to be full of people and some will be able to pass on viruses like colds, flu, RSV, and covid.

Some will be workers, some will be asymptomatic, some will have minor symptoms. But they are all common endemic illnesses.

I would probably still go to the pub if I wanted to. But I certainly wouldn't expect people to be testing and isolating every day.

Yes, I mentioned this upthread- I think I am largely asymptomatic to these kind of viruses. I had Covid once to my knowledge in 2020 during lockdown (I tested). I had a mild headache and a runny nose for a day or two (it was the headache that made me test because I really never get headaches), my DCs were completely unaffected. I may well have had Covid, flu or a cold since then but been completely unaware as I haven’t had any symptoms.

Obviously if I were to feel unwell, I would stay away from people, but it is a worry that I may well have spread viruses around without knowing. I don’t see how I could avoid this unless I tested regularly for different viruses.

Chickenpox is a notifiable disease, the common cold is not, you can’t compare the two.

Who said we were talking about a bad cold? These people were out and about socialising in pubs, clearly they feel well enough in themselves!

What’s your views on chicken pox? 2 of my dc felt fine with that so I should have just sent them to school and carried on with life?

We are talking about bad colds and Covid, not a little sniffle.

Some people just don’t have symptoms of whatever cold or virus they have including Covid. Years ago we all four of us had Covid, this was at the time you were supposed to test and due to DH job he had loads of tests. The difference in illness levels was huge, DS had hardly a sniffle, would be thought of as the mildest cold if that whilst the rest of us were very obviously unwell.

People are allowed to continue their life with a mild cold.
It’s not rational or reasonable to expect people who pick up a sniffle in winter but feel totally fine to not continue their daily activities because someone else has might have serious effects from the cold.

No, I wouldnt' test for Covid. What would be the point?

i wouldn't meet friends if i was ill though.

I think going to the pub when ill is different to work. He’s not expecting anything but maybe my post will make someone think twice about socialising when unwell. It’s unacceptable to take dc out with chicken pox so why is this different?

I’m immunocompromised (lifelong, it won’t go away) and in winter I avoid social close stuff. I do outdoor walks, netball and bouldering but anything like the pub or a meal I avoid for 6 months or while the weather is crap/covid is bad
that’s my compromise as I also have to live

I did miss that one.

The trouble is you could have caught it from anyone in the pub. I caught it on New Year's Eve but not from the friends I was sitting with.

I agree, it not 'just a cold'. I was really ill for 3 weeks and have no health conditions. I'd had flu for 2 weeks before I got COVID so it wasn't a great time!

Quite.

Back in the thick of Covid times I remember a poster adamant that their parent had caught covid from an Amazon package, as they hadn’t been out and only seen their carers……

I think the difficulty is telling that it's covid in the first place sometimes it feels like a heavy cold or cough and you wouldn't test for that.

I think if you know it’s going around which indeed it is it’s more considerate to test but I know people don’t x

You dont actually really know if people are in the most infectious stages of illness from symptoms. People can be passing things to you before symptoms, but nasal congestion & coughs can linger for weeks & no longer be particularly infectious.

I tend to suffer from heavy congestion and lingering coughs from about early november through to march but I'm not remotely ill, and you can't expect people to stay home for months with standard seasonal colds.

Quite common on MN for people to be certain they caught whatever ails them from someone who did something they disapprove of. Nobody ever catches things from asymptomatic transmission on here, and plenty are like OP in their ability to diagnose by vibes alone.

If you are immunocompromised, large scale indoor mixing is probably best avoided at this time of year.

Why focused on Covid, OP? What about influenza, adenoviruses, other coronaviruses, RSV? Don't you want folk to test for ANY of those, they are all potentially serious. Do you only want people with symptoms to test, or should everyone test themselves every time they are about to meet someone outside their own household.

Tests are cheap and available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SARS-CoV-2-Influenza-Antigen-Combo-Testing/dp/B0BHWGSL7P. Maybe people would use the tests if you give them out.

My aunt was hospitalised with RSV 2-3 yrs ago.

There is plenty of talk about vaccinations if you are in one of the cohorts who is eligible. I would liken it to something like pregnancy, not discussed by the general population, just those affected by it.

Covid data is still being collected, although not from the general population. It’s clear that it has not gone away. Not sure that we do have herd immunity but it’s being treated more akin to flu. What does really suffer from it mean? Yes, it kills some, some will end up with other terminal or chronic health conditions, for others they don’t even know that they have it.

Vaccines take into account risk vs benefit. It could be that its considered that the risk of having a vaccine is greater than the risk of getting covid in younger or healthy populations. Hence it now only being offered to a much narrower range of the population - over 75s and those with certain health conditions.

I was at the hairdressers rhe other day and one of the workers was wearing a mask. I asked if she'd like me to, more than happy and she said no (but thanks) she has been ill the last 3 Christmases (covid and colds) and said its not happening this year so she will be wearing hers until then.
If I was poorly I would test. We have elderly people in the family and some people my dh works with are immune compromised. Knowing means we can take some precautions to protect those people.

That is part of the problem. No one knows how we will react if we get it both in the short and long term. As well as the type of thing that has happened to your DH (and I am so sorry that this has happened to your family), there are people of all ages who have now had long covid for over 5 years and showing little signs of recovery. Some have been luckier and have had signs of improvement, but their lives have still been decimated.

It is certainly not just a cold.

If you don’t want to risk picking up covid/flu/colds/bugs or viruses, in essence you need to avoid situations which could put you at risk. I say that as a household who does have to avoid high risk areas due to a member being immunocompromised.

A high proportion of people will be out and about be it in shops, work places, leisure places or clinical settings, who either don’t know they have something, or don’t care about others catching what they have. So in our case, we avoid certain enclosed places in the winter months especially when its known that infections are rife, or minimise the risk by going shopping etc when its quieter along with practicing good hygiene measures.

Those closest to us, would generally advise if they had a cold etc and give us the option to meet up or not. So far we have not encountered anyone with Covid who was up to doing anything but remain in bed, but that was 2-3 years ago and it may be presenting differently now.

But how do you know they had covid? Its like people who assume because someone was coughing on train and they are now sick it is that person that made them sick

People are looking at the situation from the wrong angle. The pressure needed to be put on employment policies that require ill people to work or face disciplinary action. We should have learnt that from the pandemic.

I didn't want to start a new thread on this but I do find the whole Covid thing very odd now, in particular how it is never mentioned and it's like the whole thing was a bad dream we've woken up from. No mention of vaccinations. So has Covid actually gone away then? How can that be so given the whole thing was massive for over a year? Have we all got herd immunity or is it now accepted that only a minority really suffer from it?

It almost plays into the hands of people who say that the whole thing was just a hoax - and I'm not one of those people. I do find it strange that vaccinations are not being pushed any more. I'd ask if this is because a percentage of people were found to be damaged by them but I don't want to start off on a conspiracy thing. Personally I never had a problem with them - though it's a fact that one of them, gosh, I can't even remember the name, not the Pfizer one, oh, Astra Zeneca - did in fact cause blood clots in the brain so that got stopped. That said, I won't be having the flu vaccination this year because that one does adversely affect me, it has me feeling rundown and with tinnitus for much of the year.

It all seemed to come straight after Brexit so all debate on it had that same hysterical binary, right or wrong tone to it - I find the whole trans debate is played out in the same way. Similarly, just as folk don't want to talk about Brexit any more, it's like Covid is a no-go area.