Are people too casual about meeting others when they might have Covid and other illness?

[MrMay]

I met a friend last week and I could have f*cking slapped him but I didn't. He told me he was sick for the past week and hee was just at the doctor. He had a terrible flu type of illness that went to his chest and his whole chest filled with phlegm. He could have told me before he met me so that I could stay away from him for a while longer in case he was still infectious.

Now his whole entire family is down with the same illness. The thing is not one of them did any covid test to at least establish if it was covid or not.

Then I met someone else who said there's a nasty dose going around and it's a chest flu and everyone has it. Again not one person alarmed or thought about covid.

Just pass it on whatever it is.

I am so sick and tired of people being so careless when it comes to their illness and sickness and noone cares any more about covid. Everyone downplaying it as if it's a little cold. It's so so so rude and careless.

How is this year's covid presenting? Is it a heavy phlegm in the chest dose?

Some people are definitely very casual.

One woman I know:

• gave me swine flu
• wanted my active COVID husband to meet her 3 week old baby
• had her sisters baby who had noro show up at her hen party

Along with countless other instances. Her family just don't "do" germ avoidance.

My son has been to a&e three times for his breathing since he was a newborn, so to be honest I have to keep my distance from her because you never know what she's harbouring.

Some people are genuinely unaware but lots of people are really that careless, yes. It's always "Oh, it's not that bad" and other sorts of excuses because they don't want to slow down a bit in order not to risk their own and others' health. The pandemic hasn't really taught them anything.

You didn't have to do a supermarket shop. I work in a supermarket and the amount of illnesses I've caught from customers because they had to do a shop is ridiculous. Delivery, click and collect, just eat, deliveroo, make the food in your house stretch a couple of days. I swear one of these days where going to get a deadly outbreak of something like small pox and people will be saying i won't leave the house but just have to nip to tesco first.

I honestly don’t know a single person in rl who still mentions Covid, let alone tests for it. I didn’t even know you could still test.

I am not someone that gets colds, but if I did and felt ok, I wouldn’t let it stop me going out, same as before the pandemic.

Covid! What is this 2020? Nobody even mentions that now ... I agree if you're very unwell (with anything really), then stay at home, don't meet up with people, or at least give them the option to not meet you. But you can't expect testing and masks ....

I avoid getting colds as much as I can on the advice of my Neurologist due to having Multiple Sclerosis, catching a cold could trigger a relapse. My friends are very good and if we have planned to meet they will say if they have a cold. I attend a social group mainly disabled people there and a few elderly people sometimes someone is inconsiderate and turns up with a cold, v selfish behaviour.

I have chemo every three weeks and don’t expect people to test for Covid nor do I expect them to stay at home over every cough or sniffle. I only wish people would cover their mouth when they cough. I work on a supermarket checkout and the majority of people don’t cover their mouth when they cough. It’s disgusting.

People don’t do an online shop for just a couple of items, especially if online delivery isn’t what you normally do.
And if you’re under the weather you don’t always want to eat ‘what you have’. You want that particular thing.

If its a couple of items get deliveroo, uber eats etc its just excuses

This.

the same children in schools that we are telling “your fine to go to school it’s just a fever/ cough/ sore throat” etc become the adults who go out when they are sick instead of resting.

as far as testing for covid - completely unnecessary. It doesn’t matter if it’s Covid or another illness, people should stay home if they are unwell unless absolutely unavoidable.

But Covid tests aren’t expensive - you can buy a pack of five for under £5 easily. I did a Covid test a couple of times in the winter when I had symptoms that could have been Covid related because I didn’t want to risk exposing potentially vulnerable people unnecessarily to an illness that make them seriously unwell. For the sake of about 80p and a couple of minutes of time, I can’t think why people wouldn’t bother to take a Covid test. But keeping away from other people when youve clearly got an illness of any kind which could be contagious is just basic courtesy.

You can't expect people with mild colds to stay inside just in case. I feel for anyone with underlying health conditions but we can't all hide inside with a sniffle just in case.

There is only so much hibernating people can do and it's life, we will get viruses because that's nature. My kids go to school, they get a cold, they give it to me, I go to work and probably give it to someone else. I'm a lot closer to people at work than I am to people in the supermarket but I can't be off every time I'm a bit under the weather.

In that case, you need to protect yourself by wearing a mask and taking appropriate precautions when you go out. Your home is different, you get to decide who comes into your home and under what circumstances, but otherwise the general population is not going back to COVID days due to your underlying health conditions.

There really is a contrary attitude post-Covid that people "won't be doing that again" and just plough on without applying common sense. Some people definitely have an attitude that "not being told what to do" is more important than thinking about the circumstances.

Either not going or giving someone the chance to back out of a social event is basic courtesy.

The expectation can’t be that being infected with a virus is a personal affront, that someone is responsible for.

the majority of virus’ are most contagious in the days before symptoms develop.

if someone is well enough to see you they can’t be that badly affected or they’re at the end of the illness.

i think people just like to get het up about it. Virus’ mutate to become more contagious that’s their whole purpose. Being virus free shouldn’t be the expectation. Normal life has to continue

Covid or not, it's only fair to cancel or let people know you're not 100%. I know we have to work if we can during illness, but I care about my family and friends and wouldn't want to pass on something that'd make them feel grotty for a few days.

Lots of people are very selfish. I had a customer sitting a foot away from me this morning, coughing and sniffing, telling me they had flu . Can do without it a week before my annual leave.

This exactly

That’s what I try to do but it’s incredibly hard when you go to the doctors only to find someone with chicken pox sitting in the waiting room who hasn’t told anyone
i then had to mess about ringing the hospital, getting extra bloods done and tracking down anti virals when I was meant to be working

I don’t care about people out with a cold but I do get grouchy when someone spends time with me then says “oh yeah my DC was really sick yesterday, hoping it’s not measles”
I usually wait outside now, same with a&e

People are far too complacent. Viruses are part and parcel of life. However, when tens of thousands of children a year in England have their lives upended due to long covid, when millions of people have life changing health issues as a result of a covid infection, the flippancy is obscene. There is a myth that covid only affects vulnerable people, or that vulnerable people can protect themselves. How is someone visiting a dentist meant to do that? Someone in a care home? A kid in school? A baby in a doctor’s waiting room? A person recovering in hospital? People say they can protect vulnerable people, as though they know the medical history of their colleagues around them. There are also thousands upon thousands of previously healthy people who have had to give up their jobs, parenting, hobbies, exercise and so on as a direct result of a covid infection. No one is asking the world to stop, but a little caution, consideration and honesty about what covid is actually doing wouldn’t hurt.