To think you shouldn’t say you hade Corona Virus

[CorinnaSinner]

When you’ve not been tested?

Obviously symptoms are very important and you should self isolate - that’s a given. Alert people you’ve come into contact with.

I rang my mum and she told me her friends daughters had it. I asked - so she’s been tested then?

Turns out no but friend and friends daughter are still telling people she has it.

Havent about 77,000 people with symptoms tested negative so far which shows having the symptoms doesnt mean you have/have had it. So i agree op unless its been confirmed its silly to say you have had it when the posibility is you havent and are just as prone to is as everyone else who hasnt had it. Until the immunity tests come out no one will know.

There seems to be a weird determination from a large group of people to believe that hardly anyone's got it, and I'm not sure why. It's not a rare, hard-to-catch disease, that's the whole problem! Most of us will get it at some point, so why the resistance to believing that people displaying some or all of the symptoms have probably got it?

Yanbu. People love to say they’ve had it because it makes them feel special and they love the attention. Everyone should self isolate if they have symptoms etc but if you have not tested positive then no you can’t say you’ve had it.

@thecatneuterer or you had one of the other thousands of flu like illnesses which go around constantly every year?
If you aren’t tested then you can’t say you’ve had it. Simple.

Its not a weird determination to imply hardly anyones got it. Its the fear that people will assume they are now immune and act less stringent in following the rules and potentially infect themselves or others in the process.

but think of the tens of thousands that have been tested - presumably because they had some appropriate symptoms, or lately, have been in hospital - and tens of thousands of those have been negative. so there are a lot of other illnesses going around that people could have. Only a small proportion of those being tested are actually turning out to be positive.

Only a small proportion of those being tested are turning out to be positive

That was true a few weeks ago, not sure that its quite so true today. If numbers in hospitals are increasing then numbers in the general population must be too. So 4 weeks ago if you had symptoms it was much less likely you had coronavirus than it is today.

Whete I live everyone in a health or social care role is tested if they have symptoms. I know 12 people who thought they had it and every single one tested negative.

So a lot of people declaring they have it, have something else.

I think that the reason why a large proportion of tests are negative is that they are testing everyone who is admitted to ICU and maybe even HDU ( not sure if that’s everywhere) regardless of their reason for admission. They also test all admissions with respiratory problems some of which will be nothing to do with CV but that’s the criteria they test for. I think if they were testing all people who present with CV symptoms and still getting high negatives that would be more accurate to the theory that most people who think they have it don’t.

We do have ten cases in the small town (6000 inhabitants) walking distance from work, where we supermarket shop and use the pharmacy etc. None of the people I know who tested negative had knowingly been in contact with a confirmed case.

We do have ten cases in the small town (6000 inhabitants) But cases are only counted when they present to hospital. Everyone else will just be staying at home and taking paracetamol. There could easily be hundreds of cases, how would you know?

thecatneuterer I live in Bavaria - every single person I know who has symptoms has been tested (and all have tested negative). We are able to be tested via our employer and non healthcare workers are tested in hospital (organised via telephonecwith GP or a local phone line).

Ah, OK, fair enough!

I think I might have had it but my symptoms were mild. Temp only went to 37.9 cut off for self isolating is 37.8. I came home from work on the Tuesday and last week after having a dry throat, tickly cough. Felt awful and went straight to bed feeling pretty scared. Felt rubbish on the Wednesday with the croakiest voice ever (Not a symptom) and a cough. Temp higher than usual, spiked to 37.9 thatvevenimg. (Mine usually about 36.7). Was dithering over self isolating was due to work but called in anyway. Have steadily got better but had horrible dry cough since and coughing up phlegm every morning.

Just been on 20 minute walk and I'm shattered. Back to work tomorrow.

I'm about 50:50 whether I had it, I've had worse colds and this normally wouldn't have seen me off work.

Well it would obviously be great if people could be tested to prevent 7/14 days isolation just in case.

People surely aren't self isolating for the fun of it & to say that they have had it?

@TheoriginalLEM you may have had it. A croaky voice is one of the symptoms that the COVID symptom tracker asks about.

My (healthy, relatively young) colleagues who have been tested negative are/ were still off for 7 days because of something about high viral loads making people susceptible... but I do live in a nation of hypochondriacs...

Ive been caring for my sick family all week. Is it the virus? Who knows - butI'm tired worried anxious and don't need to hear 'it may not be the cocking virus' from anyone

The ones that annoy me are the news stories about extreme cases, such as very young children having it. But then when you read the story, the children had some symptoms, but were never tested. It just worries people unnecessarily. Having said that, it's obviously important to behave as if you do have it, if you do have symptoms!

Isn't it a good thing that it may not be covid Cunninglittlevixen ?

My 2 DD’s and I all have coughs, I have chest pain like I’ve never had before. None of us have a fever. We’re self isolating but not convinced it’s Covid-19. Who knows as we won’t be tested. If anyone asks I just say Covid type symptoms.

I think I’ve had it, but I’m not saying that.

I’m saying that I had a virus that caused me to have these symptoms, but as I wasn’t tested, I can’t confirm 100% that I had it.

The test can provide false negatives (plenty of stories about people testing negative, then being tested again a few days later and it showing up positive), so a negative test doesn't mean you don't have it!

I've got a virus at the moment. I feel tired, I have a headache and I've totally lost my sense of smell. Chest is okay though. Based on my loss of sense of smell, I think it probably is coronavirus. I'll still practise social distancing when I'm out of isolation next week, though - partly in case I'm still shedding virus and partly in case I catch it again (or I'm wrong and I haven't had it yet).

My symptoms were
Dry cough (which I still have 14 days later)
Fever
Sweats
Fatigue
Sore throat
Croaky voice
Loss of taste and smell.

Apart from the cough, taste, smell and sore throat, I’m just about back to normal.

I’m fed up of coughing though.

And yes I struggled with breathing too but that’s passed now