COVID - What would you do?

[Allelbowsandtoes]

Hi, sorry not quite an AIBU but wasn't really sure where this fit.
DP and I were due to go to Cornwall with a big group of his friends for a long weekend, this weekend. Had paid £250 between us towards massive house we were all renting in a lovely location, were both super excited.
DP started feeling a bit rough on Wednesday but assumed he was just run down as we've both been very busy. Thursday his lungs felt a bit heavy so he did a COVID test on the off chance, which was positive.
Obviously we had to tell his mates and the majority weren't happy for us to come which is understandable as they mostly have young kids and a couple had been quite ill with it before.
I know we did the right thing but we're both gutted to miss out.
I guess my question is what would you do - are people even covid testing anymore? Is this just going to carry on forever? Without restrictions people will be catching COVID so frequently, will we always have to put our lives on hold while we have it?
Fwiw DP is a lot less ill than last time we had it and I'm still testing negative and feel fine.

Sorry for the strong reaction. Mild in one doesn't equal mild in another. The virus is unpredictable. Unless negative should stay home. That is the only responsible course of action. If we collectively adhered to this we might've had a different outcome....
Re-read last few paras of your op: glad your dp had mild case. you did the right thing by cancelling. Yes, I believe this will be around for a while but I don't foresee the vast majority continuing with precautions which is why it may never end....

Don’t be hysterical.

Our hospitals are still routine testing before coming in. All staff are masked, patients are masked. Theres another surge among hospital staff again

I agree with this, and I don't really think it's "putting your life on hold" to cancel a short break because you're ill. Lockdowns and restrictions on businesses opening were putting people's lives on hold; this is just what people have always done.

I remember a few years before Covid happened I went to a hen weekend and one of the bridesmaids had to cancel because she'd come down with hand, foot and mouth. She felt OK but HFM can be quite serious for pregnant women and nasty for young children, so she didn't want to spread it around a group of women in their 30s. She was a bit gutted, but it was just rhe sensible thing to do. This is the same situation, surely.

Lockdowns were not and have never been normal. The fact that people are so blasé about this disaster that was allowed and actually cheered by people says how people have conditioned into accepting this madness forever. Scary.

Ffs, just stop testing and get on with your life as normal. Why are you even bothering about this?

@Mumtobabyhavoc Agreed.

Please stay the fuck at home if you're ill.
With anything infectious. My family aren't at risk but a lot ARE, & I choose to think of them before nipping to the shops or on hols or anything.

DH and I got back from holiday last Sunday and went down with Covid on Monday. Some git behind DH in airport check in queue sneezed and DH got droplets on his face. We still feel crap.

Fwiw op I think you did the right thing.

I was away last weekend with friends and we had another outbreak at work the week leading up to it. I let them know and tested before going which was negative. If it was positive I wouldn’t have gone,

One friend said they’d be happy for me to go even if it was positive, the other 3 said nothing until I told them that my test was negative.

There is a huge spectrum of opinions around atm and imo we need to respect the most risk averse. We never know what their reasons are and while covid is here to stay, it will always pose more of a risk to some than others. Being respectful of that is no bad thing.

Don't get me wrong that is annoying, and people who don't cover their face when they sneeze are disgusting.
But you do run the risk of getting COVID if you go on holiday, especially if it involves airports and fly

*flying

Did you read my original post? I did stay the fuck at home 😄

🤔

I wouldn’t have tested either and would have just seen how he was today

That's not realistic though.
LFTs often don't show up until someone actually feels "ill" and they may be infectious before then.
There's lots of reasons why people have mild respiritory symptoms which may or may not be infectious and are often difficult to distinguish.

If I "stayed the fuck at home" every time I had a symptom that could potentially be a sign of an illness that could potentially be infectious and could potentially lead to something unpleasant for a more vulnerable person then between hayfever and bits of sniffles that don't turn into anything much let alone actual colds/ flu/ covid then I'd spend more of the time not leaving the house than getting on with life.

Lockdowns and severe social restrictions didn't eradicate illness and many people have struggled more since then because of the lack of continuous immune updating leaving them more susceptible to constantly evolving viruses.

If you're actually "ill" then resting and recovering is a good thing anyway. DS was ill last week, had a fever mid-week, missed school Thurs, Fri, then it was the weekend so we cleared his plans and with it being a long weekend it was 5 days before he went back to school on Tuesday. I didn't test him; it was a moot point because he was at home recovering for the time required anyway. An LFT may have showed Covid, or it could be a false negative or something else. The brand of illness didn't really matter.

LFTing for every minor twinge just in case you pass it on to a third or fourth party down the chain isn't a realistic or even reliable way to live and the majority of people benefit from their immune systems being able to operate as they are designed to.

Between travel and additional health/ social care restrictions we couldn't visit "Granny" in her final 2.5 years of life. That was a very heavy toll to pay to "protect" her from the inevitable. We managed to go to her funeral.

Minor illness is a fact of life and the costs of trying to minimise that hazard is not worth it to wider society and we're in a worse place in 2022 for it than we were in 2019.

Who is still testing?? I would have seen how we both felt on the day. You would have been fine to go.

I think you did the right thing but it's interesting to see the mixed responses on here. We have no free tests left now so had to buy some.last time I was Ill. It was covid in that case (August) because it was £2 a test we only tested me and DH and planned to test the children if they got symptoms. It was the holidays so we weren't going anywhere anyway as I couldn't leave the house! I think the reality is that many people are not testing and you do run an increased risk but to actively go to a house with friends for the weekend with covid would have been extremely selfish and you would have felt guilty about it anyway.

I think that there should be proper sick pay for all so that if they have Covid and cannot work from home they can be off work. It should also be that absence from Covid should be exempt from any sickness processes such as attendance policies that can lead ultimately to dismissal.

In your situation you did the correct thing I think, much as it is disappointing.

My NB, mum and I all caught omicron last year in December. All quite ill for over a month. I was recovering from c-section as well. It was bloody awful. I know exactly how I caught it - it was the ONE TIME I associated with someone without wearing a mask...ffs. That's why I can say that we have to take extra care and not risk the health of others.

@TinaYouFatLard I work in a school and we still have a policy of testing if we have symptoms and then taking 5 days off.

Well, once I knew I had it I would isolate and cancel. I had it in June and despite barely being ill it did feel wrong to go out when I knew I had it despite meaning I had to miss a big event for a close friend.

However I won’t be testing again so I’ll go back to the old way of if I feel well enough to go out I will and if I feel shit I’ll stay in. Unless perhaps I felt slightly under the weather but was due to meet someone vulnerable.

The whole thing is a farce now. We will probably get a massive wave after all the nonsense and crowds around the Queen’s funeral, god knows how many people went out with it then but that was seemingly ok, so I’m done with giving a stuff any more.

I didn't say lockdowns were normal. I said it's normal to cancel a weekend away if you know you're ill with something infectious.

And I’ve got what I assume is a shitty cold today, it’s actually a lot worse than Covid was. I’d prefer Covid tbh, at least I have had 3 vaccines against that

Plenty of people are still testing. People who working healthcare or education, people with vulnerable family members, people who are or have family who are CEV. It's not rocket science to figure out why certain members of society are more vulnerable to COVID.

Yeah thats why I posted - I was curious to see how people are generally approaching it now. We have a lot of tests left over and I also can order more as I'm a mental health nurse, and our trust doesn't allow us to come in of we're positive.
I agree it would have been selfish to go without telling people, which is why we told them so they could decide of they were happy for us to come or not. They werent, and I totally respect that.