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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think you shouldn’t say you hade Corona Virus

83 replies

CorinnaSinner · 26/03/2020 13:59

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.

OP posts:
PeppaisaBitch · 26/03/2020 16:34

Most of the people tested early on were negative. Some of those were showing symptoms so presumably there's other things with similar symptoms. It doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't change your behaviour. For example if you get a cough two weeks after you 'had it' saying 'can't be that I've already had it so I'll still go to the shops'

Dylaninthemovies1 · 26/03/2020 16:35

I had the cold. No one tested me to confirm it. But no one got their Knick knacks in a knot when I told them I had the cold and demanded that I was tested for it before telling them I had the cold

Soubriquet · 26/03/2020 16:35

Definitely not changing my behaviour...since I haven’t left the house since Friday 13th Sad

I’m supposed to return to work Tuesday, but I won’t be able to do if this cough doesn’t clear

TabbyMumz · 26/03/2020 16:36

I've seen 2 stories in the press this last week, picture of a grinning Mum, holding a baby, seemingly delighted that their baby was diagnosed with it....over the phone!! And neither parent had it. One of them said the baby didnt even display the typical symptoms, just had a high temperature.

GrumpyHoonMain · 26/03/2020 16:37

I agree. The symptoms of CV are the same as flu / cold / chest infection / tonsilitis / sore throat.

Porcupineinwaiting · 26/03/2020 16:38

Almost 100% sure I've got it now and I am definitely not going to stop social distancing. Am terrified of getting it a second time (unlikely), or a first if this isnt it. If anything its made me more cautious as I was really careful before and I am still sick.

Soubriquet · 26/03/2020 16:47

Jeez I would terrified if my baby got it not grinning.

I’ve been self isolating from my kids (one who has asthma) to try and reduce the risk of them getting it

HarrietThePi · 26/03/2020 16:51

I have had: a cough (very mild), fatigue, slight fever, reduced appetite, croaky voice and chest pains - but the chest pains were not bad enough to scare me. The worst part for me has been the fatigue. I've been sleeping so much.

My dp has also had some chest pains, and he had a night sweat one night which is absolutely unheard of for him. He's also been very bad tempered - he always is when he is ill. No cough, no other symptoms.

Our DD also has seemed slightly under the weather, slightly raised temperature, but not that bad. Loss of appetite.

I am not saying to anyone that we have had corona, but if we have and got away with it that lightly, I'd be very relieved. I have asthma and another chronic health condition.

lljkk · 26/03/2020 16:51

11 March 2020.
27,000 tests. 456 positive. 98.5% negative.
Most people with relevant symptoms and even contact history did NOT have it. This will continue to be true.

I'm so rarely ill that if I get it I assume I'll know... unless I'm a mythical asymptomatic super-spreader. Long fancied myself to be a kind of fantastical magical creature.

To think you shouldn’t say you hade Corona Virus
Porcupineinwaiting · 26/03/2020 17:03

lljkk how's that going to work if the prediction is that 50% (at least) of us are going to get it at some point?

thecatneuterer · 26/03/2020 17:04

@Soubriquet I have the same. Can you tell me how long the fever lasted for you? I'm on day four now and I'm no better.

thecatneuterer · 26/03/2020 17:07

The symptoms of CV are the same as flu / cold / chest infection / tonsilitis / sore throat Apart, apparently, from the loss of sense of smell/taste (assuming you don't have a blocked nose)

Soubriquet · 26/03/2020 17:21

Fever lasted 7 days. Now it’s just a very irritating cough

thecatneuterer · 26/03/2020 17:22

Thanks

LaurieMarlow · 26/03/2020 17:27

There are loads of people with colds/flu who’ve convinced themselves they have it. In Ireland 95% of the tests have been negative, so I’m quite sceptical about those ‘sure’ they have it.

Vinylsamso · 26/03/2020 17:28

I don’t think people should say they’ve had it / got it unless they’ve been tested. I really think most people will find out they haven’t when the tests come through main stream.

I don’t get this obsession with putting a label on it. They’re all just symptoms until it kills you. There is so many different reasons you can have any of these symptoms. If it had not been labelled you’ve all just of had “the flu” or a “bad cold” or had a spell where you felt poorly. So in my opinion that’s still what everyone’s got. No need to label everything. Makes life more worrying.

lljkk · 26/03/2020 17:29

Ah, but remember, Porcupine (rub my nose), there are gajillions of people getting cv19 asymptomatically and then superspreading it around to dozens of their contacts. I read it on the Internet so it must be true.

Oh, and you have to get it AT LEAST 50 times before you even might get immunity.

And it never dies. It lasts at least 3 years on a licked envelope. I'm sure I heard that so it must be true.

(being serious)
So now almost 100,000 ppl have been tested and still only 10% positive.

97109-27000 = 77109 tests since 11 March.
9529 - 456 = 9073

So since 11 March, 9073 positives out of 77109 tests, or 88.3% negative. Don't you have to be symptomatic and in hospital to get tested nowadays? Plus sell a kidney and promise your first born son.

yet Vast majority of ppl with symptoms STiLL don't have cv19.

To think you shouldn’t say you hade Corona Virus
Vinylsamso · 26/03/2020 17:31

Plus- anyone who goes to work or has ever lived with other people must know someone/ loads of people who say they’ve had “the flu” when you know full well they didn’t have the REAL flu. I lived with a friend once who was insisting she had the flu- all while watching films and eating pizzas.

GrumpyHoonMain · 26/03/2020 17:37

Apart, apparently, from the loss of sense of smell/taste (assuming you don't have a blocked nose)

Nope this is standard for any viral illness. DH gets it with flu

Cunninglittlevixen · 26/03/2020 17:38

Anotherone - no not really because the fear is exactly the same. It minimises what me and my family are going through

funnelfanjo · 26/03/2020 17:44

The worry about people thinking they've had it when they haven't, is that they consider themselves immune when they are better again.

People thinking they are immune when they'e actually had another bug instead may well stop social distancing, and get C-19 as well.

We need that antibody test to be available asap.

Orerref · 26/03/2020 17:56

So since 11 March, 9073 positives out of 77109 tests, or 88.3% negative. Don't you have to be symptomatic and in hospital to get tested nowadays? Plus sell a kidney and promise your first born son.

^^This. So most people with symptoms don't have it, even if bad enough to be admitted to hospital. I think people with a sniffle are now paranoid. They're noticing every tickly cough, every ache and pain. In normal circumstances, most of us would be toddling in to work, spreading our germs to all and sundry. This year was predicted to be a very bad year for flu. I suspect a lot of people have a bad dose of flu as predicted.

LaneBoy · 26/03/2020 17:57

The danger with saying you've (generic 'you') had it without knowing for certain is that you will/may assume you have immunity now and you may be less careful in your behaviour accordingly, but some people will be wrong and will still be highly susceptible to catching and spreading it.
This.

My approach is, assume any symptoms we get are CV and isolate etc, but afterwards, assume it wasn’t CV, so we don’t get complacent.

I am pretty sure I’m on the tail end of it now - the symptoms DD1, then DS, then I have had match strongly. It has been beyond awful (while not, thankfully, awful in a life threatening way) but I don’t want to assume 100%

juicy0 · 26/03/2020 18:05

Don't assume that you get tested even if you have to go to the hospital. My DD is 18 and we had to call an ambulance this morning as she was struggling to breath, speaking was difficult and her temp was really high. She's had the main Covid symptoms for 6 days and we were trying to ride it out at home with rest, hydration and paracetamol but with pains in her chest and struggling for breath we had no choice.
She was taken to the local hospital and put in the Covid cubicles, they said it's probably Covid or a chest infection and sent her home with antibiotics They said they were only testing patients who were being admitted and were in high risk categories and my DD treatment is the same whether it's confirmed or not! Just goes to show that you can't place any faith in the governments official figures, there are not enough people being tested to make it a true reflection of the situation.
It would be good to know as we have to continue to self isolate just in case which means I can't help my elderly relatives and am having to ask community volunteers to help with shopping.

JoanieCash · 26/03/2020 18:16

4 Medical colleagues became ill in a week, self isolated, 1 really quite ill and so was tested. Covid negative but flu B positive (had also had seasonal flu jab). Consultants all thought they had covid, due to overlapping symptoms, so it shows you just can’t tell without testing but you do have to assume for public health reasons that if you have symptoms it’s covid until proven otherwise.