Covid named and shamed

[Otterspotter13]

I’m a healthcare worker, returned to work after a week of sick leave due to Covid. Kids also recovered and back at school. At home partner was weakly positive on antigen test (he tested positive when myself and kids were at end of our 7 days isolation) but he has never had any symptoms. Kids had missed their swimming lessons last week when they were isolating with me. On the day of my return to work, partner who should be isolating brought them to their swimming lesson. He left them enter the building themselves so he himself wouldn’t have to go inside. But at collection time he entered building, wrapped their towels around each of them and quickly left with them, bringing them straight to car so they could change there. I was at work on a 13 hr shift wearing a sweaty ffp2 mask out of consideration for my colleagues. I checked my texts and there was a message on a 10 member girl group I’m on, naming and shaming my partner because one of them knew he was positive and saw him at pool collecting kids and not wearing a mask. He is not in this group to defend himself. I’m obviously angry with him for not wearing a mask and have told him off regarding this, he realizes he was in the wrong. He says he repeated the antigen and the line is barely visible, he doesn’t believe he has covid as he is asymptomatic. He was in and out in seconds. Not defending his actions but his mistakes are his and he is not me. Im a hardworking hcw who has always respected covid guidelines. However now I have to deal with his mistake on this toxic WhatsApp group, who are publicly naming him and giving out, like I’m not there or something. He isn’t on this group. I feel it is not appropriate and this person isn’t behaving like a friend should, calling him out like this. Our partners are friends. I feel that if she has a problem she should have contacted him directly or asked her partner to discuss with him. I feel that this woman, a real stickler for the covid rules, she wants to keep covid alive when really it should be buried along with the bloody antigen tests. I’m so over it. I want to leave this group now as I don’t want to participate in toxic behavior. Aibu?

I would be tempted to lie and message everyone that he tested this morning and it was negative just to shut them up 🙄

My DD works in a pharmacy and I can assure you there are constantly people going in with Covid, Flu, D&V etc.

“Hi I’ve got covid, what do you recommend, my symptoms are x, y & z”

They’ve had people come in and ask for help using a test.

Coughing, sneezing, vomiting (on the floor 🤢), you name it they’re coming in, standing around waiting for scripts.

Her pharmacy offers free home delivery too!

Shes had days where she comes home with red raw hands from scrubbing and sanitising them so often!

I have obsessively followed the rules throughout covid and have silently judged others who haven’t. Your DP hasn’t broken any rules OP. Legal or moral. With a faint line and a very brief visit to the pool he is extremely unlikely to have infected anyone. We’re supposed to be living with covid now anyway. I bet there were several people there who were positive and hadn’t tested.

The woman in the WhatsApp group is an interfering judgemental stirring busybody. I’d just say your DP hasn’t broken any rules, he had only a faint line, no symptoms and was there very briefly and didn’t mix with anyone. Then ask her why she’s discussing it in the group.

@MrsDrSpencerReid why is your daughter scrubbing her hands, is washing and sanitising not sufficient? No wonder her hands are sore!

NEWS ALERT TO THE OP.
COVID ISNT GOING AWAY.
Its going to be with us for……. who knows how long?
BTW, I’m 76 and classed as vulnerable.

This response is in itself hysterical.

Not a germaphobe? Must want to kill everyone.

Strange this. I've just got out of hospital, having been taken in by ambulance yesterday. I was swabbed for covid when they were doing my obs. It came back positive and I was whisked straight off to the isolation ward.

Scrub is just what I say, she’s not actually going at them with a scourer!

The excessive amount of times having to wash them some days after cleaning up after people does leave them red, sore and in need of a good moisturise though.

Scenario added for dramatic effect I assume!

What a load of crap.

No one even tests anymore and why would you even tell people about being positive etc.

They are crazy and you are crazy for even giving it a second thought.

^scrubbed

meh. Covid is still a thing. Mess around with other people's health and you run the danger of being named and shamed. Suck it up or behave appropriately.

Personally, if I was him i wouldn’t have taken them swimming. It’s not a must and if he bothered to do the test at all, why ignore the result? We do have to think of others.
Your a WhatsApp group friends are awful though.

Why test if you’re not going to do something as a result of a positive test? And then, if you test positive and are still going out and about, WHY would you tell anyone you’re positive? Idiocy 101!

Yeah I am wondering this too? Why on earth would he take them outside still all wet. Poor kids

The only people that need to know you are ill is your employer if you are off work so I am not sure how this woman knew anyway, did maybe the DC mention it, though they must be quite young if they couldn't dress themselves

The vulnerable people will be the same ones that are vulnerable to flu and other illnesses but there is not all the testing and fuss about those illnesses

perhaps we should have been? Perhaps behaving in a cavalier fashion when we have communicable diseases is something we should have learned from? Washing our hands, wearing masks and disposing correctly of used tissues?

Flu can be a serious illness as anyone who has actually had it rather than a heavy cold can tell you. Other illnesses are available. And just because "the rules" don't say isolate etc, perhaps (as with flu) common sense should prevail? If you test and have a positive - even a faint line (laughing now thinking of all the "is that a line" posts on the TTC blogs) is a positive. So act accordingly.

Conversely: why tell anyone? why the heck, knowing that at least some people take this seriously, would you do that? except to provoke?

Some of the Healthcare workers on this thread have appalling attitudes. Hope you all manage to mask that at work.

What like sticking to the guidelines?

Exactly, I tested because I needed to know as I am due the booster which I am in two minds about anyway, and you are meant to leave at least four weeks after Covid, if it hadn't have been for that I wouldn't have bothered testing and would have just gone with how I felt for going out.

Some people are still testing, e.g. if visiting family who are CEV or if they work in a care setting and their employer requires it. The fact you are not legally required to isolate doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea in certain circumstances.

Some months ago, I went to pick up a 91-year-old friend from her holiday, 40 minutes in the car with her. I had ‘a cold’ but had tested negative the previous two days so went ahead. Guess what, two days after that I tested positive. Fortunately friend did not pick it up from me. We did then isolate, though, till we go a negative test - we are retired so no financial implications, and in any case I felt shit. Friend has it now, though - after a visit from her granddaughter, who had ‘a cold’. Hopefully she will be OK.

The children needed to be picked up, OP’s husband ideally should have worn a mask, but given who he was likely to encounter during a quick dash in to fetch the kids, he’s not exactly Typhoid Mary.

But them discussing it on a group knowing you are in it is very rude. I’d say - look, the kids needed picking up, he was in and out in a couple of minutes, he was never symptomatic so the chances of him shedding much virus are low, and what’s done is done. How about you move on?

@sst1234 you are the one whose honesty is in question!!
I gave you a figure and told you what it was and where it was from - you made all the claims up!!
Maybe clean your glasses and read it again? :)

If I read that message in a parent's WhatsApp group, I would not give a shit. I'd maybe roll my eyes at the sender for being so overdramatic, and wide think nothing more about.

I'd probably just ignore her tbh, she's made herself look silly.

There are currently no laws or requirements to test and isolate in the UK.

If somebody wants or needs to test, isolate and wear a mask, that's their call, but they have no right to call anybody else out on what they are doing.

I would tell her to get a grip and get a life.

Oh fuck off.

What scenario? That sick people go into a fucking pharmacy?

That a teenager might wash her hands excessively after cleaning up vomit or swabbing an old man’s nose & throat while he coughs all over her to the point where they sting?

This was happening well before covid, it’s nothing new!

The guidelines that say stay home for 5 days if you can. The minor inconvenience of missing swimming isn’t exactly a great reason to break this. www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/