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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

177 replies

Notcontent · 20/01/2022 09:17

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!

OP posts:
SweetFelicityArkright · 20/01/2022 21:44

Ignoreamor

I used to work in a carehome and the only "acceptable" illness to them was diarrhea and vomiting, unless you got a doctor's note there was no paid sickness as I worked 3 nights a week so generally would feel better by net night shift.

I would have actually been okay with it if they recommended that we wore masks if sick with like a cold. I needed the money desperately but it really feels horrible feeling knowing you might make vulnerable

Depressingly, I came on to say a similar thing about my experiences working in social care, I have also been through a disciplinary because of sickness - in an industry where care and protection of the vulnerable is supposed to be paramount, apparently that doesn't apply to the providers who employ people to do the hands on care and they can and do insist you work with anything from a cold onwards which they are very well aware can kill their clients - and discipline you for making the "right" decision by staying away from work - and that's before you get to the trying to live on no income because if you don't work, then you don't get paid for the first week, and then you get a 1/4 of your income after that.

Why do you think that things like local councils paying for care assistants to isolate and the isolation grant had to happen during covid? Because they knew fine well that people would just be left to hang, faced with the choice of going to work with covid and possibly killing someone or putting themselves in debt and risking their homes and essential living.
What a lovely choice that is to be facing, and one with the announcement of SI ending soon and no clarification on what will happen in care homes, not one that I want to have to be in a position to choose. If you want people to do the right thing in terms of protecting those most vulnerable from illness like covid etc then you need to make it a viable choice, not one that ruins their lives or makes them responsible for ending or ruining others.

Has anyone saying that we should just do it ever faced the threat of eviction because they have been too ill to work and had no income? I have.

Have they faced bailiffs at the door because the council couldn't care less that you can't pay your council tax because you were ill? I have.

Have they had utilities put PAYG meters in because you've been ill and take a % of what little you can afford to pay back your debt leaving you for a couple of days without heat and light? I have.

Have they spent years paying off debts that have been added to because they got ill and ruined any credit rating? I have.

Going to work with something infectious, for so many is a symptom of a system that doesn't give a shit about anything but productivity and money and watches as we squabble among ourselves about who's selfish and who's vulnerability is the most worthy and who should get the blame - look up.

Xiaoxiong · 20/01/2022 22:41

@Sugarplumfairy65 they can't, unfortunately. I'm not CEV but I get invited for a flu jab on the NHS every year following lung damage as a result of almost dying from pneumonia in 2015. It's shit, but I do my preventer puffers, get my flu jabs every year, avoid people who I know are sick, and changed jobs to one that allowed me to work from home on a regular basis. I hope that one outcome of this whole pandemic is that sickness norms can be changed and sick pay is available for all so that people don't drag themselves into work sick to keep the roof over their heads. I don't think we can keep everyone safe though, even if there was unlimited paid sick leave for all.

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