To think that if you have an infectious disease, you should stay home?

[Notcontent]

So apparently the need to isolate if you have COVID will end in March. To me that seems to be sending an odd message… I am all for COVID restrictions being lifted - but surely if someone knows they have a virus, they should just stay at home??

I always thought it was pretty selfish for people with the flu or a stomach virus etc to just go out and spread their virus on public transport, to colleagues at work, etc.

I thought that a positive to come out of COVID might be that people will be more mindful about not spreading illness but it seems the message being given is that it’s fine to expose others!

The cold is a virus, and for most people, Covid now seems to appear as a cold. Did you go to work with a cold?

I also suspect that if the need to isolate goes, so will the ability to test free of charge, so people won't actually know that they have covid.

Unfortunately, as we have seen with Covid, if we all stay home every time we had a cold or mild flu bug, the world grinds to a halt. Self isolation has caused so many staffing issues that it’s just not feasible anymore to have well people staying at home.

For what it's worth @Notcontent , I'm with you. Give it a few weeks after , and everyone will have it .

Do you stay completely in the house every time you have a virus? So a cold? Life can’t stop completely for most people for days on end because they have a slight illness.

Maybe its time to rethink phoning in work sick.
Yes I and many of my colleagues have been in work full of cold and coughing everywhere, we dose ourselves up on cold medication and crack on. Inevitably then everyone else catches the cold and no one thanks the first person for passing it round.
Ive gone into work through feeling guilty of taking time off, in future if I had covid or felt truly ill I would probably take a couple of days off now.

It's going to be very hard for people to change their mindset - but we must. For two years we've been told (rightly) what a threat to life COVID is... and it was. But it's not anymore.

The pandemic is coming to an end thanks to science and the amazing vaccine rollout. We might have spikes caused by new variants (especially considering much of the developing world is unvaccinated) but for the UK it is now becoming a common flu or cold.

It will take the country time to adjust, and it will feel very weird, which is unsurprising - but adjust we will!! if science says it's time, then it's time.

And, completely agreed that everyone will and should be more cautious about spreading common colds and viruses. That's already happening at my office - if you have a cold you stay home and work from there now. Very sensible.

@Seeline

The cold is a virus, and for most people, Covid now seems to appear as a cold. Did you go to work with a cold?

That’s an interesting question. Yes, I have gone to work with a bad cold in the past when I was much younger when I have felt I needed to go. But I wouldn’t now as coughing and sneezing at people would just feel wrong.

I think there is a difference between not going to work and not leaving the house at all. Whilst in principle it seems sensible not to go to work when you have a cold, it would be highly disruptive to education if teachers all stayed away with a sniffle so it isn't always practical.

I would happily limit going outside if ill, I am very careful about sickness bugs as they're just awful. If I have a really awful flu or cough I would stay home where possible. Unfortunately work is a bit of a problem, I just had 2 weeks off with a non-covid chest infection etc, I was too unwell to go anywhere, however upon my return to work I've had to have a full back to work meeting and plan to reduce sickness. While I could have 6 weeks off paid sick, as I have hit 10 working days in a 12 month period, I have had too much sickness and if I have any more time off may face disciplinary.
How can people take time off and not spread things around when they aren't supposed to take too much sick leave.

Lots of people have infectious viruses and are out and about even now - colds, herpes simplex, shingles...

Generally I think if people feel too sick to work or go to school, they should feel empowered to stay home and rest. This is why a civilised country should have sick pay, and social norms to say that you wear a mask if you yourself are sick, and you don't drag yourself into work feeling like death. However, once they are back on their feet they can go back - for some people this will be a day, for others this will be longer but it should be for them to decide not the government.

Having legally enforced isolation has to end at some point, generally when scientists and doctors are telling us that it is affecting the majority of the population no worse than a cold. We have always had and will always have the CEV in the population to whom even a cold is a serious illness but they have to take their own precautions and make their own risk assessments, as they always have done in the past.

I have had colds more than 50% of the time since schools returned in September and so have my children. I would absolutely stay at home for flu or D&V but not for a cold. We were regularly testing and had Covid in October for which we isolated for 10 days. But my children would have missed a huge amount of education if we were staying home for every cold.

@HippeePrincess maybe that's exactly the kind of norm we need to examine - why 10 days in a 12 month period is "too much", why not 8 or 12 or 20. I don't know who writes these policies and how to decide what is too much - perhaps looking at the average number of days employees take off sick, doubling or tripling that, and then having discretion to change this as per the manager's review.

I don't work in HR but I assume there is guidance out there, one would hope informed by unions and by data.

The problem with staying at home if you have a cold is not everyone can work from home, an many work places have sickness policies ,my Dh works in a warehouse,if he was off sick everytime he had a cold ,he would soon be on a disciplinary .

But that's the attitude that's the problem isn't it, mine would have been off school, yep and then they wouldn't have past it on to others, if everyone was just a bit less selfish and stayed off when they were ill the constant colds wouldn't be going round.

I agree, have always hated people who are infectious and come to work, go on public transport etc and spread their germs around. I had whooping cough which I figured out I caught from someone on public transport and it was awful enough for me as a vaccinated adult and could be really dangerous for a baby. People should stay at home where possible and wear a mask if not.

If I'm well enough to leave the house, but have a sniffle / runny nose then I'll go out. If I'm ill to the point I'm ringing in sick to work, then I stay in!

Loads of employees don't get sick pay. Not just self employed or agency staff but staff in thousands of roles- carers, retail, call centres. Lots of companies dont pay in probation or for the first three days- and not everyone is eligible for statutory

It's not a cold for a lot of people though. I dont know any colds that have killed 150k people and I'm sure the bereaved families wouldn't appreciate the attempt to minimise it in that way.

I'm all for lifting restrictions but trusting people to do the right thing is unlikely to work.Unfortunately as we've seen throughout some people are simply to selfish to care about others.

They are still going to recommend that people self-isolate, but it won't be a legal requirement.

The law would need to be renewed in March otherwise.

I definitely will not be going out with covid.

@Ilikewinter

Maybe its time to rethink phoning in work sick. Yes I and many of my colleagues have been in work full of cold and coughing everywhere, we dose ourselves up on cold medication and crack on. Inevitably then everyone else catches the cold and no one thanks the first person for passing it round. Ive gone into work through feeling guilty of taking time off, in future if I had covid or felt truly ill I would probably take a couple of days off now.

Yes, I think this is the answer. Managers should stop guilting people for not going in when they've got a cold/Covid symptoms and allow them (if possible) to WFH for a few days while they get over it. This would make everyone a lot less likely to get sick and stop viruses from rampaging through workplaces. We've all gone in with colds and coughs and returned to work before we feel better in the past, because we know that the boss is champing at the bit to get us back in and we're worried about the impression it gives to be off sick. But the fact is, no one benefits from a sick colleague dragging themselves into work and now that many workplaces have WFH capability set up, this should be the norm in future for anyone who is feeling unwell.

I don’t think it’d be possible for people to self isolate every time they have any sort of cold - some people get a lot.

As for flu, IMO anyone who says they have flu and is still going about fairly normally, almost certainly just has a bad cold instead.

Anyone who’s had real flu will know that it’s not something you can treat with Lemsip and just carry on as usual!

I should have added, but anyone with any sort of cold should at least cough and sneeze into a tissue, or at least their elbow, instead of spreading their germs everywhere, as so many people do.

Yes! If companies can figure out how to wfh then if you have a cold or flu or whatever you call in and wfh instead of calling in sick or dragging yourself in.