Quick one - sick 2yo and DH going to work

[Mrschips07]

Our 2yo DS woke up crying and with a chesty / croup sounding cough at 5am this morning. He seems tired and just wants to sit and watch TV, not interested in playing. He's coughing every so often, chesty sounding coughs and he has a froggy voice. No high temp. Says his nose and mouth hurts.

Should DH go to work? He's NHS non patient facing

This is making me really cross. How can NHS staff think they do not have to follow the guidelines?! Honestly this country will never get rid of this virus if people carry on like this!

I think it’s very hard for people to make the switch - it’s been ingrained in us all to go to work/school through all kinds of illness. MN is full of people proud to have never taken w day off sick and casting aspersions about colleagues who are ever off and calling them selfish. It’s a total reversal of attitude and I totally understand that people will find it hard and feel like they are letting employers/teammates/customers/patients down by isolating frequently. And it will be very frequent for parents because kids get coughs and temperatures a lot. I don’t know how much workplaces are adjusting their absence policies to allow for this either.

It has to be a culture shift in organisations and HR have to communicate clear expectations that people in this situation do isolate or else it won’t happen. I think it’s really up to workplaces to do this and u don’t think it’s fair to penalise and condemn individuals for what up until now was responsible and fair behaviour that was absolutely expected and now will have them liable for sustaining a lethal pandemic - it’s really, really hard to suddenly change gears like this and people will be afraid of being seen as slackers and shirkers. I think presenteeism is too deeply ingrained and a lot of effort will have to go into changing that.

It isn’t people being selfish - taking time off used to be viewed as the selfish thing. Employees need reassurance from their employers that isolating is the right and responsible thing to do. It needs a lot of reinforcement to undo the existing conditioning.

What hope is there if even NHS staff are turning up at work when a family member has covid symptoms? This is why we are going to have a massive second wave. Some people have no choice but to go to work/leave their homes when they should be isolating. A much larger number won't isolate just because they are stuck in their daily routine and think it doesn't apply to them.

@FinnyStory

This is the NHS guidance on what counts as a new, continuous cough:
a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

It does still leave some room for interpretation admittedly. OP, he needs to stay home and take DC to a test centre if you don't want to isolated for 14 days just in case

This post has really depressed me.

If someone who works for the NHS doesn’t understand the rules, what hope is there for schools next month. They’ll be shut by October because people who haven’t bothered about the rules will have sent their ill kids in.

Book a test for you all and hopefully he will be able to go back to work when you have the result. He shouldn't go to work today.

That's not how it works snowone. DS needs a test, if he's clear, everyone can go back to work. There's no point testing everyone until/unless they have symptoms as they could get a negative test but still be incubating it.