Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think you don't need a bloody PCR test for everything?!

147 replies

JuneDr · 13/12/2021 09:08

I went for a meal on Saturday night and last night/yesterday afternoon started with the tell tale food poisoning signs.

I was up last night vomitting and could feel how green I looked! Still feel off this morning but a little better. I have told work I won't be in today because of this.

They have said I should get a PCR before returning to the office.

WHY?! I have absolutely no cough, no fever, no change in taste or smell, no cold symptoms of any kind. I have been sick after eating a meal out and already feel a little better.

Is this ridiculous or just me? Do we just have to have a test now every time we feel slightly unwell no matter what it is?

OP posts:
GraceAndFaith · 13/12/2021 09:53

@Wideawakeandconfused

Of course you need to do a PCR! It’s such an easy thing to do why would you not?
No you do not NEED to a PCR for one night of throwing up. Where does it state this?
TisTheSeasonToBeVegan · 13/12/2021 09:57

I'm not saying I won't do it. If I have to I have to. I'm saying I think it's stupid

I think if the government updated the list of symptoms to reflect people’s covid symptoms, it wouldn’t feel so stupid. I only know a few people who have had covid, but none of them first presented with the symptoms on the government website. Some developed one of the 3 symptoms listed over the following week or so. They really do need to update the symptom list.

Myusernameisunique · 13/12/2021 10:00

Vomiting is a main symptom of the covid variant that seems to be doing the rounds in my area at the moment. Not that I think I you have covid but you just never know. I say that as someone who is currently isolating and awaiting pcr results after my DC1 tested positive. I only took them for a pcr as a precaution because they had complained of a headache and it came back positive. They don't have any classic covid symptoms other than the headache and that's not one that's listed as something you should get tested for. I think it's good that your workplace are looking after their other staff by being cautious to be honest.

Ohdofuckoffcovid · 13/12/2021 10:02

Although its not an official symptom, its a good idea. All 5 of us have had covid and it didn't start with official symptoms.

fedup078 · 13/12/2021 10:06

No I wouldn't get a test for this
If you look at a list of possible Covid symptoms then any illness ever known to man would need a test
I googled my chilblains to be met with pages and pages about 'Covid toes'

DrSbaitso · 13/12/2021 10:06

I see where you're coming from, but given the current situation, and given it's not a huge imposition, I'd just do it. Risk/reward.

Miraloma · 13/12/2021 10:09

How is everyone booking tests with non symptoms? The website halts your surely?

Original poster
JuneDr · 13/12/2021 10:09

@Miraloma

How is everyone booking tests with non symptoms? The website halts your surely?
By lying and saying you do I imagine.
OP posts:
Nevertime · 13/12/2021 10:11

Where's the harm?.

Food poisoning from a restaurant is actually really rare. In the current environment and with emerging "new" symptoms it is actually more likely you have Covid than food poisoning.

TisTheSeasonToBeVegan · 13/12/2021 10:12

By lying and saying you do I imagine.

Yes. But it’s a good job they are as so many people say they tested positive without the 3 main symptoms. They then isolate. We’d have a lot more people walking around spreading it if they were not testing for their symptoms.

Original poster
JuneDr · 13/12/2021 10:12

Lateral flow negative.

OP posts:
Shiningpath · 13/12/2021 10:15

You absolutely should do one. I had a dodgy stomach recently, no other symptoms and negative lateral flows. Got a positive PCR test result a couple of days later. If I hadn’t isolated quickly and taken a test, on the insistence of my employer, I dread to think how many people I would have come into contact with. Omicron starts very mildly and with markedly different symptoms in some people compared with other variants.

shinynewapple21 · 13/12/2021 10:17

I didn't think you could get a PCR unless you had the stated symptoms, a positive LFT, or a positive contact ?

Iggly · 13/12/2021 10:17

I know someone who was sick a few times. They tested positive!

Has anyone else had food poisoning? Or just you? Were you the only one to eat what you did?

I find it funny that people resist doing a PCR when it’s not that big a deal.

Iggly · 13/12/2021 10:19

@shinynewapple21

I didn't think you could get a PCR unless you had the stated symptoms, a positive LFT, or a positive contact ?
You can just lie about symptoms. Sadly that’s what this government has led people to do because they won’t update the list. Which is negligent especially as they aren’t the top symptoms anymore.
Giveaschitt · 13/12/2021 10:20

Where's the harm?

The harm is that people testing for every single ailment related or otherwise clogs up the testing system. It means that people are unable to return to work or school while they wait for results that are taking longer because so many people are getting tests. It means that we will end up in the situation we did last year where there wasn't the capacity and people couldn't even get hold of a test. Each test also costs the tax payer money, and it is not a bottomless pit of money - we will all be paying for these endless tests that everyone is taking every time their finger hurts or get travel sick.

There is a reason the three main symptoms continue to be the ones listed for testing - its because other symptoms are also much more commonly caused by non-covid things and are less useful in terms of screening. A headache for example could be caused by many, many different things, from a change to your eyesight to a hangover. If everyone with a headache tested, the positivity rate would be tiny - the test centres would be full, and the system would fall over.
It is a balancing act - we can't have every single person in the country testing daily, which is the only way we could accurately catch every single case - so instead we ask people to test when the likelihood of them having covid is higher than them not.

Mybalconyiscracking · 13/12/2021 10:22

LFT are very accurate now.
They want you to do PCR tests because they are all registered and feed into the metrics, also they can track the positive cases. That’s fair enough but do make up your own mind.

Nevertime · 13/12/2021 10:22

Well, I don't know but I tested because work insisted when I had mild cold symptoms. If I hadn't I'd have been in work for a week before I developed anything on the list.

SirensofTitan · 13/12/2021 10:22

@shinynewapple21

I didn't think you could get a PCR unless you had the stated symptoms, a positive LFT, or a positive contact ?
It's ticking a box on a website, I don't think it can detect lying Grin
Original poster
JuneDr · 13/12/2021 10:24

Has anyone else had food poisoning? Or just you? Were you the only one to eat what you did?

No, no one else has however I was the only person to have my meal. Which contained poached eggs so I was more worried about salmonella than covid actually last night!

OP posts:
girlmom21 · 13/12/2021 10:27

You don't have to say you've had symptoms on the website. You can say you're getting a test because an employer has asked you to.

Coronachristmas21 · 13/12/2021 10:30

I wouldn't test for that if I thought for sure it was food poisoning so YANBU. But at the same time many people are getting covid without the main three symptoms. Not saying you should test in your case but for others, maybe. We have covid in them household. For 3 of us it has been cold symptoms.

housemaus · 13/12/2021 10:31

I know what you mean, but DH and I's only symptom of Covid before we tested positive was both of us throwing up for a day or so.

For my sister, who was staying with us at the time (bad timing for her), it was diarrhoea. So your work aren't being ridiculous!

Pedalpushers · 13/12/2021 10:35

It's also possible to vomit from eating and not have food poisoning, if you ate something you don't normally or ate a lot you could have just irritated your stomach.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 13/12/2021 10:36

my work would not let me take time off for possible covid unless it was one of the 3 actual nhs symptoms,