Covid Dilemma - what would you do?

[Iamanon55]

Thought I had a mild cold but just tested and I’ve got bloody Covid! My DD has very important exams coming up this week and my DS has his 18th this week. These exams are very very important and my DD’s future relies on these. No-one but me knows about my positive test and I could keep quiet and no-one need ever know. I feel terrible about this because in any other situation, I would of course isolate and let people know: what would you do?

Why people feel the need to shame others when there is absolute no restrictions or requirements baffles me

But that's because we don't have a test for flu.

If I felt a bit crappy and there was a test for flu available, I would absolutely test myself before visiting someone vulnerable.

I think part of the issue with COVID is that we don't know the full story just yet. There are clinical studies suggesting that it's causing whole body/organ failures such as heart attacks etc several months down the line in some people, but at the moment it's still not properly confirmed - or quantified. And of course there's Long COVID too. I have a formerly fit and healthy friend (mid 40s) who has been virtually bed bound for the last year after a very mild case of COVID. She had an underactive thyroid (well-controlled, no symptoms) and her rheumatologist thinks the combination of the underactive thyroid and the virus has buggered her immune system.

It's a new virus so our scientists don't yet fully understand how it could affect the body so I think it's sensible to be a bit more cautious compared to flu etc. That doesn't mean locking ourselves away etc but just testing if you feel unwell and you're thinking of socialising etc - I don't think that's excessive or unreasonable. To be fair, it's a reasonable approach for any contagious virus but people are often loathe to inconvenience themselves.

I'm not advocating stopping our lives or living in a bubble - yes, we all need to live with COVID etc etc. But basic precautions if you feel unwell aren't unreasonable and maybe that SHOULD be part of "living with COvID".

^^This!

Why on earth did you take a test in the first place? If it was just out of curiosity then fine, but there's absolutely no obligation for you to a) tell anyone else the result and b) go into isolation.

There have been no covid restrictions in the UK for over a year. Just carry on with life in the same way as you did before covid. If you feel too ill to go out, don't go out. If you don't want to give other people your cold (which happens to be covid in this case but the same applies to any old cold), just postpone visiting them till you feel better.

Try not to panic OP!
Last year I was staying with my parents who both had Covid (completely separate times), I didn't take any steps to isolate from them as I wasn't all that concerned about it and I never caught it. I even had to take my mum on the car at one point!
I had Covid a couple of weeks ago and my sons who live with me, one co sleeps, never caught it.
I don't really know how the virus works and how certain immune systems just seem to keep it away but I guess what I'm trying to say is that the rest of your family may well just be ok and not catch it!

Are you worried about your daughter worrying about you/catching it and therefore putting extra stress on herself?
I don't have any advice OP and I'm not sure what I would do on that situation as you can't just isolate with no explanation!
Just remember we all catch thjngs all the time and it's not necessarily anyone's fault. It is just life unfortunately.

I really hope you have a miraculous recovery! When I had Covid vit D and vit C really helped pull me out of the worst of it!

Yes totally agree with this!!!

But that's because we don't have a test for flu.

There is diagnostic criteria for flu. Yet there has never been any kind of strict guidance on what to do if we have it.

Im sure a test could be developed very quickly if we put our mind to it.

The point is, we've always lived with it, so its spread doesn't seem to bother us. Covid is only different because it's new. But for most, the novelty is wearing off and they are treating it similarly to flu.

I haven't tested for months and months.

However, I have had flu symptoms from Friday and was planning on visiting my elderly mum this morning. She is vulnerable and being cared for.

I, out of courtesy for her and the caters, took a LFT.

It's positive so I obviously will stay away from her, but apart from that I understand I don't have to isolate or inform anyone I have tested positive?

Your daughter and son are free to do their own thing from what I can understand?

What a load of piffle. Can't begin to dissect this nonsense.

I lost close relatives to Covid, their lives mattered. One since restrictions ended because some selfish infected person gave it to her.

Your ignorance of the science is embarrassing.

*I haven't tested for months and months.

However, I have had flu symptoms from Friday and was planning on visiting my elderly mum this morning. She is vulnerable and being cared for.

I, out of courtesy for her and the caters, took a LFT.

It's positive so I obviously will stay away from her, but apart from that I understand I don't have to isolate or inform anyone I have tested positive?*

Even so surely it's courtesy to inform anyone you were, for example, planning on sharing a meeting room/car/other small indoor space with in case THEY are planning on visiting their elderly mum - or that they have some condition you don't know about - or that, like me, it kicked their ass last time and they don't want to risk getting long covid.

If I gave someone a lift or something and they later disclosed they knew they had covid id be annoyed.

You isolate in your room. Your kids go about their business. They're presumably either revising or taking an exam at the moment rather than out with friends. Students are sat apart from eachother in exams to prevent cheating anyway. As long as they're feeling well they go to their exams as planned.

I would also have tested. However - I would stay well away from my family if I were unwell (whatever I had) and they had important events coming up . And yes - if your DD shows symptoms but still feels well then she should go in and take her exams. Desks are normally spaced out in exam halls anyway and she can come straight home afterwards.

Hopefully you will feel better by the time it's your son's birthday . I don't know what his celebration plans are - but if it's a family party including elderly grandparents I would just be a bit wary .

@Iamanon55 I live with someone who is about as CEV as it's possible to be. It's absolutely fine for your DD to take her exams, no problem at all. No way would we expect her to miss them because you're ill!

Just a side note to those saying it's just like any other illness, that is not so for everybody. Recent (ie today) advice was – if you catch a cold or a cough, don't worry too much; if you catch flu rest, plenty of fluid and contact us (the hospital) if you are really feeling ill; if you catch Covid, come into hospital as soon as you can as you will need to be monitored. So no, it isn't just like any other illness for everyone.

We are - my husband has leukaemia. He was incredibly unwell in hospital when he last caught covid.

I have recently been infected and kept my distance for over a week to reduce the risk.

@SpidersAreShitheads

But that's because we don't have a test for flu.

They sell them in Tesco

Im,sorry for your loss but the virus killed your relative ,you can't blame somebody else for passing it on ,they might not have even known they had it ,people have to work,they are not getting paid to.sir at home now with covid,we are three years into.this now unless everybody stays at home for evermore than people will continue to.catch covid,and sadly some people will die.

That's why it's best not to test!

As long as she is feeling well, she should carry on and do the exam. If she is unwell, check with school, college, uni etc.

Oh ffs this is ridiculous, and I say that having lost my dad to covid in 2020.

You really do need to get a grip

You don’t NEED to test/isolate and I was in the “I won’t be” camp until I got it last month and decided to use up the tests I had that were going out of date soon anyway when I had a cold. Except it wasn’t a cold. All I did was not go out for a few days but I appreciate I am lucky to wfh. It’s made me more likely to test not less so as it was so like a cold I could have easily been spreading it. That said it’s a judgment call. It was no hardship for me to stay home but would I expect my kids sitting exams or people who need to go to work to test and isolate - no.

You don’t NEED to test/isolate and I was in the “I won’t be” camp until I got it last month and decided to use up the tests I had that were going out of date soon anyway when I had a cold. Except it wasn’t a cold. All I did was not go out for a few days but I appreciate I am lucky to wfh. It’s made me more likely to test not less so as it was so like a cold I could have easily been spreading it. That said it’s a judgment call. It was no hardship for me to stay home but would I expect my kids sitting exams or people who need to go to work to test and isolate - no.

Exams are socially distanced

Do you tell people you've been in contact with everytime you have any illness? Because the same principle applies, you could give them your illness and they could then pass to vulnerable family, so presumably you message round everyone you share a room with every time you get a cold, a cough, a sore throat etc?

And for the PP who tested to check if their flu symptoms are covid - do you mean if it was negative, you'd have cracked on and visted your vulnerable elderly mum? You realise that the flu, which would have shown negative on a covid test, would have been just as potentially deadly to your mum? Surely if you're showing signs of illness, you just wouldn't go and visit a vulnerable person?

As much as it goes against everything I believe in, I'm going to keep quiet as I know to say anything will cause my DD undue anxiety ahead of her exams. That means I've not been able to tell my DH either which feels deceitful but I'm doing it to give my DD the very best chance. Trying to keep my distance.

I just wish I'd never taken a bloody test and I'd have been none the wiser!

No, but some of us don’t want to infect someone who might be seriously ill or die from Covid.