Covid main symptoms - is this government incompetence or intentional?

[Earthling2000]

I’m wondering why if the main symptoms of covid in people who have had both vaccines has changed from continuous cough, fever and loss of smell and taste, the info put out by the NHS hasn’t been updated to reflect the changes? It doesn’t seem a hard thing to do - update websites, apps, The government gives out current info for use in the workplace, retail, services etc and put out some public I nformation ads on TV.

Why isn’t this being done? Is it incompetence or don’t they care that people don’t know that their headaches, runny noses and sore throats might be covid and not a big standard cold? On the shop windows, including the pharmacy, the gym, the dentist etc I am just seeing the cough, temp and loss of taste/smell signs.

Bog standard not big standard!

I know what you mean, and I'd like to know too.

I suspect intentional.. if they encouraged a test for the main 3 plus D&V, sore throat, headache, tiredness, sneezing, runny nose, aches, chills etc. they would be overwhelmed, cases would be through the roof, the whole country would grind to a halt through isolating and nobody would be getting vaccinated due to isolating/recovery from covid.

It definitely presents with headaches and blocked nose with kids...hospitals reporting same but government not listening. They recommended making sure to report via Zoe app so they have unarguably data to change symptom list

My first symptom was a horrific headache and that was before I had any vaccines.

It's been well reported for a while, so I'd presume intentional. Less clear is whether this is part of returning to normal come what may and damning the science, or being too embarassed to admit they couldn't cope with the level of testing required. Could of course be a bit of both. Much the same as why the main symptoms in children have never officially required tests.

There is from the NHS

Totally agree with you . The staff in my place ask all the old symptoms, even though the symptoms have now changed. I did say this to them but got told they are following what they have been told to say .

To me it's inexplicable.
What are they playing at?

I'm still recovering from a recent infection. Mine started like food poisoning..when I didnt get better after 3 days I took a test and was covid positive. Only on day 5 did I start coughing and lose my sense of smell/taste.

Both the kids and DH started the same way on day 6.

We were phoned today by Test and Trace because DS tested positive and they asked about his symptoms. One specific symptom they mentioned was an inflamed eye, which DS had over the weekend. I had thought nothing of it when it started but now I wonder if it’s a common symptom.

I've been surprised that the UK have stuck to just the 3 main symptoms of covid throughout the pandemic. We've had no lockdown at all here but the symptom list requiring testing/isolation is much more extensive than in the UK.

fatisnotafeeling. I've not come across this. Looks like they are maybe starting to alert people but the 3 original symptoms seem to be what's given out on most apps and sites. Im glad I'm not the only one thinking this might be a tactic to not have reported cases going through the sodding stratosphere.

We've all been or are currently unwell. It started like a bout of extreme hay fever and then feeling really tired. I was the only one to get a hellish headache and be sick. We had to lie about symptoms to get DH the first PCR.

The Zoe app has been banging on about this for weeks.

I would also observe that it has taken about 5 days between each of us getting infected for another to test positive. (We've had a lot of negative tests from a 'test each day to go out' study they put us on).

On the plus side, we've all felt better after a day or two. Unvaccinated teen has more of a cough. We all have sense of smell and taste intact.

Presumably we have Delta?

Good grief. If these were advertised as symptoms no one would ever leave their houses again - practically half the country suffer from these symptoms with hay-fever. I wake up with these symptoms every day! Very foolish to get people worked up over (probably just) seasonal allergies.

I can't help thinking that secondary school is going to be carnage in September. The kids won't be especially unwell; they will just be stuck at home.

Hopefully DD will be exempt from isolation/quarantine if she's just had it (but somehow I doubt it). I've lost track what the govt's current thinking is.

At least they've decided that it makes sense to offer the vaccine to a couple of years.

I don’t think they can list things such as sneezing or runny nose as main symptoms because the country would totally grind to a halt. It’s summer time so hayfever is rampant and people still get regular colds.

I’d assume because even though things like sneezing, diarrhoea and headache may sometimes be Covid symptoms, they still remain far more likely to be symptoms of something which isn’t Covid and if the whole country was taking tests and then isolating themselves and their entire families and any known contacts for days whilst they waited for the results it would be enormously disruptive and the country would grind to a halt, when the most likely cause of your diarrhoea is still, as ever, the curry you ate on Tuesday which disagreed with you.