To find it annoying when people go on about their long term Covid symptoms when they’ve never even had a positive test result

[whenthejoyreturns]

Basically, they don’t even know if they’ve ever had coronavirus but go on about their ongoing ill effects from having had it. It annoys me as it’s just another way of scaring a load of low risk people into staying locked up unnecessarily with absolutely nothing to back it all up.

Wow, you're full of empathy. I know two people with long term symptoms from a virus in April. There was no testing at the time and antibody testing is unreliable. Gp thinks it likely they had covid. Are they just supposed to shut up about their continued ill health?

Where's the evidence that they are scaring low risk people into staying locked up?

YABU I got sick early March, unless you were royalty, a politician or a celebrity there were no tests. I had several consultants tell me it was covid, and I had every symptom. Some of those symptoms persist today. So as far as other people being scared by that, well they should be, its been life changing and awful.

Why do you assume they haven't had it? No one can prove it either way if tests weren't available so you have to go on symptoms.
If symptoms suggest COVID then it most likely was.
If you see something in a tree, it's more likely to be a sparrow than a goldfish.

@whenthejoyreturns

Basically, they don’t even know if they’ve ever had coronavirus but go on about their ongoing ill effects from having had it. It annoys me as it’s just another way of scaring a load of low risk people into staying locked up unnecessarily with absolutely nothing to back it all up.

Why does it "annoy" you?

It's not another way of scaring low risk people into staying locked up. That's how you've perceived it.

It's perhaps their lived truth, what they feel happened to them. Do we go round denying that for everyone just because it hasn't happened to us?

Do you think it's likely they had something that had very similar symptoms to Covid-19 and has similar long-term effects then?

Why do you find it annoying? Is it because it doesn't allow you to think the virus was wide-spread and can affect low-risk people, and affect them long-term? (Presuming that's what you mean by 'scaring'.)

I have had it and know several people who caught it in the same place I did who were ventilated, and one died...so although I haven’t been tested (this was back in early March) I am fairly certain it was covid and yes I am still living with some of the effects, such as fatigue and altered sense of taste. If I hadn’t had covid but had 4 months of extreme fatigue and finding that everything contains onions tastes completely different from usual I am sure I’d still talk about it.

What do you expect them to do? They were ill at a time when they couldn't get tests and all this time later are suffering. Someone I know of who has long covid thinks she caught it in her office when she got into a lift full of Chinese visitors. It's certainly not impossible. Yes of course there were other viruses unhelpfully circulating at the same time (I had something weird with a very tight chest but I don't think it was covid) but it's a lot more likely those who were ill at the height did have covid.

It would also help if there were a reliable antibody test. Well a reliable anything, really. It just seems that the virus is awkward in every way possible. Long incubation period, massive variation of symptoms and effects, no reliable test and it goes on.

*sorry that should be:

Is it because it doesn't allow you to think the virus wasn't actually wide-spread and can't affect low-risk people, and doesn't affect them long-term? (Presuming that's what you mean by 'scaring'.)

(Got all mixed up with the negatives there!)

Can’t they get an antibody test to ‘prove’ it?

You know what I really find annoying?

Stupid, ill informed, deliberately goady posts that make people who feel ill already then feel like they are being judged by numpties.

Then they have to waste time posting their very real experiences to demonstrate that your sweeping generalisations are wrong.

And pointing out the bleeding obvious that at the start there was no test and so on.

Let's save everyone the effort. You can't argue with...

Unless you are Donald Trump I suppose, in which case carry on for comedy value or whatever.

Wow. Well if you had experienced pneumonia and septicaemia as a result of Covid and were in ITU as a fit 35 year old you might feel different. Said friend is still unwell 5 months later

If you are Donald Trump, please tell us more about how the 1917 Spanish 'flu ended WWII. It seems an interesting subject.

Well you're a bundle of fucking human kindness and sympathy aren't you op?

How are they exactly hurting you? People who have long term covid19 are suffering. And even if it wasn't covid19 they are still obviously suffering the ill effects of some virus.

My sister’s had patients admitted into her ICU who absolutely have covid and multiple negative tests.

Should they just shut up and stop complaining too? Or is it only ok after they’ve been ventilated and then get a positive test from sample further down the respiratory tract?

Your username is a bit ironic.

I know someone who probably had it and has long-term symptoms and posts about it a lot but fails to mention she had an underlying auto-immune condition in the first place and appears the post-viral syndrome re-activated the condition itself, as can happen.

Sorry but I’ve known quite a few people with similar symptoms over the years, way before corona. Long term fatigue etc is not unusual.

They probably didn't have testing available to them.

This is a horrible attitude to have.

It isn't their fault they hadn't been tested for it though. Its only relatively recently we've all been able to get tests following symptoms. Early on you only got a test if you were admitted into hospital.

Surely those people who think they had it and still have ongoing issues need to be taken seriously, so that we can monitor their ongoing problems and take those into account when treating those with confirmed cases. As soon as a decent antibody test is developed maybe they should be some of the first checked too, again to help with treatment research.

And your sorry means not sorry evidently.

Hate myself for biting, but - just to be clear then - you are annoyed by anyone with a long-term health condition, Covid or not.

Because I thought you were just stupid. Turns out it's worse than that.

Have you suffered from being a totally nasty person for long? Or has it been brought on by exposure to more ill people than normal? If so then I guess you have systems related to Covid even though you haven't had it.

Do you really think that? I'd like to hear you say it out loud to my dear friend that was admitted at the height of the pandemic to a ward where people died around her.

She's had several negative tests, taken when the tests were not reliable but doctors (real ones, not like you, that went to medical school and everything) have confirmed she had CV19.

Meanwhile she's had pneumonia, lost 20% of lung efficiency, cannot climb stairs, has had a sore throat since May and has lost her hair. She worries she will never work again.

But you're probably right to be irked.

I am sorry op but there are significant number of people who are living with long term effects of COVID 19. COVID 19 is not flu, it affects your blood and almost any organ if you’re unlucky. If you want to disregard the evidence. It is up to you but the rest of us want to hear their story.

I had a little over a month of tail off symptoms, am now fine and have been for months. Had it starting march, so no tests.
I get your frustration at people being scared who really don't need to be. But you are bu in this case.