Morals… I know no one cares about COVID but…

[aussierules1]

… I work for the NHS and a colleague tested positive last week. We don’t have to test, and I wouldn’t have bothered, but my Nan and Grandad have travelled from another country and are visiting this week. I had a tickly throat and would hate to make them ill, so I tested. I was positive.

My boss told me that as long as I feel well, I should continue to work. I’m feeling a bit rough and VERY tired but fine enough to work. However, I just feel bad for my clients. I work with kids, who come with their parents, who may have vulnerable family members etc… I just feel a bit bad.

I know many people don’t care about COVID and I don’t really either, but I’ve decided to tell my clients and let them decide. Every single one has declined, saying they have vulnerable family members or don’t want to risk it, so I’ve stayed at home and done a couple of virtual sessions/lots of admin.

My boss hasn’t replied to me; I don’t think she’s particularly happy but I think it’s fine.

Am I doing the right thing? Or am I just overreacting and should get on with the sessions? The more I sit at home, the more guilty I feel!..

You are doing the right thing! It is absolutely irresponsible of your boss to try to pressure people to work while infected with Covid. Not only risks health of everyone around you, but also puts you at higher risk for Long Covid! Resting is key - even when symptoms are mild.

It is tough for workers who aren't paid sick pay and need to get by on Statutory Sick Pay if they are off work due to covid. These staff are already on low pay as it is. I know of those in a care home in this position. The organisation, with many homes, don't pay their staff when sick. I was really shocked about this and understand why they carry on working, even with vulnerable clients.

Totally agree with you OP, you're doing the right thing and I'm sure your clients appreciate your honesty, I'm disappointed that your boss. DH went to visit his mum with our kids a few weeks ago (we live abroad - I joined later) - he walked in to her house & she announced she was ill with covid. Deliberately hadn't told him because she didn't want him to cancel his trip. I was so angry at how selfish & irresponsible she was. Yeh OK we've had the vaccine but neither of us has tested positive for covid & wouldn't choose to deliberately expose our selves to it. Let alone our kids who have not been vaccinated. DH always ends up on antibiotics with anything chest related and I have a rare autoimmune disease so I wouldn't choose to risk getting it.
I don't understand why she tested if she didn't think it was a real disease, because she certainly didn't make any attempt to isolate or protect the vulnerable, still went shopping/out with friends, no mask. Some people are so selfish

You are doing the right thing OP. You do right to give people a choice. I can't understand how we have gone from major restrictions to nothing.

Definitely doing the right thing imo, I tell photography clients if I'm not well before a session and leave it up to them as to whether they're comfortable with me coming as is, or if they'd like me to test first or reschedule.

No one has wanted me to test or rearrange yet, and I'm sure some might think I was being overcautious but you never know who people are going home to or if they themselves are immunocompromised

I agree with you. Nhs here, I've had to call in sick when I tested positive for covid a few weeks back but was told I can work if I wear a normal mask. So I've had to decide not to go in as I work with pregnant women.

Good on you. But what the hell are Infection Control doing?

Thank you for this thread, OP. Hope you feel better soon.

Poivresel Sorry to hear of your recent diagnosis. If it’s any reassurance to you, my mum was diagnosed with CLL 18 years ago and to date (touch wood) she hasn’t had the need for any medical intervention at all apart from regular blood tests and has kept very well. We obviously kept her in a bit of a bubble during the height of Covid and this new wave is a bit worrying for her. I hope you manage to keep well.

Nagging us about having non laminated posters on the wall mainly

JFC, @TrixieFatell! It must be very stressful to work with such irrationality.

You're absolutely right to! And thank you.

We've been sold a lie and people just have this psychological need to believe it's over and it's mild and things have to be getting better now.

But that's buIIshlt.

Everything is not hunky dory now. People are too weak minded to face reality. And the peer pressure to conform is too strong.

Read the science journals on long covid. It's been described as an "unfathomable" oncoming burden on the healthcare system in the most recent review of the current state of knowledge in Nature Immunology.

Long Covid sufferers can be as badly effected as late stage cancer sufferers.

The WHO say 1 in 10 get long Covid and hundreds of millions of people will need dlomger term care.

UNICEF, CIDRAP are say children getting long Covid. #longCovidKids

Watch the ITV reports. They are being disabled by it!!!

It's airborne. We need HEPA filters and Corsi Rosenthal Boxes in schools.

The risks of long Covid for children INCREASES with reinfections.

There is subclinical organ damage which is going unnoticed. Damage to the lungs. Vascular, endothelial harm.

Consultant cardiologist Dr. Rae Duncan:

"I do not want our kids to be repeatedly infected, every 3 - 6 months with this illness and end up potentially with blood vessels of a 90 year old by the time they are 40."

3M Aura FFP2
HEPA Filters
Nasal Sprays Boots Dual Defence to protect and VirX when you're infected.
Use a CPC containing mouthwash like Plax when you're infected
Still positive on antigens= Still infectious. (Prof Michael Mina)

If you don't want to infect other people with this brain, cardiovascular system and Immune system damaging virus, which increases risks of Type 1 diabetes, dementia, epilepsy, heart attacks, strokes with INCREASING risks on reinfection l, which dysregulates and depletes the immune system in multiple ways and will likely end up leading to massive increases in cancer rates in the not too distant future then isolate until you're definitely negative on antigens.

Swab throat and cheeks then nasopharyngeal. Low and slow. Horizontal. to back of nasal cavity.

Not just nostrils.

Prof Christian Drosten

"Immunologists are currently getting findings that suggest that this aging of the immune system in children after corona infection is much more advanced than one would expect.

To put it bluntly, one can now ask whether an unvaccinated child, after being infected, will perhaps have the immune system of an 80 year old at the age of 30. Infecting the children would then have been a huge mistake."

"It is incompatible with my job as Minister of Health that children are falling Ill in large numbers. Infecting an entire generation is irresponsible. It's about millions of children. We don't yet know what this infection does to the children's immune systems when it occurs repeatedly. As a society we cannot take the risk of mass infections in schools"

Prof. Karl Lauterbach
German Health Minister
Sept 2022

You’re absolutely doing the right thing. I recently cancelled a respite booking because I was home with a cold, and the first thing the agency wanted to know was if I’d tested for Covid, because they didn’t want their workers exposed on care visits later that week. Doing a RAT had been my first response when it started.

I think healthcare settings should do their best not to infect you with anything else while you're there.

That's basic "Do No Harm" Florence Nightingale stuff surely?

I think it's awful that clinically vulnerable people have to take risks with covid to access healthcare.

Especially now we know that the initial illness is not necessarily the end of it and it's like Epstein Barr and HIV etc and can lead to long term illnesses.

Lockdown was bad for us physically as well as economically and socially.

The way the nation gets used to a disease is to have it and recover.

Separately, people will die from the resulting cost of living crisis.

You are suffering the after effects of psychological trauma imposed on you by Govt.

Next time, raise your defences if Govt starts telling you to do things you haven’t done before.

Seriously questioning my relationship. I thought a partner was someone you confide in but I am getting increasingly annoyed that my partner repeats things I say in confidence to others.
One recent example is going out to meet friends I went to school with in town I was brought up in. My partner tells everyone I hate the place.
I have moved away and my friends are still there. So in a way obvious that I prefer living elsewhere. I must admit I don't like the place but I do like my friends and want to be nice. So i am very annoyed at my partner saying I hate the place. Should I be annoyed at him? Or am i being dishonest not admitting I don't like the place? I thought my comments were said in confidence to my partner and am upset that he told my friends..But not really sure how I should feel as in reality the statement is probably true that I do not like the place but do find hate a bit strong. Now I feel that I can't really say how I feel to.my partner as he will repeat it to people with no filter.

You’re definitely doing the right thing - thank you 🙏

We need to follow our morals and the science as our government can only be trusted to follow the money.

You're definitely doing the right thing. It's appalling to go into work or around people if you have any contagious illness, yet alone one with potential serious effects.

You’re on the wrong thread, this one’s about Covid.

I'm NHS as well, we have to isolate for five days , ten in some departments.

For a while I've felt the 5 days isolation is as much to force people to rest and recover as long covid or even buy at a post covid lingering fatigue is v real and quite common.

Obviously tests are now not free so it will be everywhere.

Takes me 3-4 months to fully recover after an infection. Had it x3 now.

I have hugely increased the type and amount of exercise I do while I don't have it (and for another more serious health issue) to try to give myself the best next chance! Plus diet.

Didnt add - yes definitely the right thing though it goes down like a cup of sick in some hr depts.

I'm in a school and our head does encourage 5 days simply as more staff end up I'll plus a few children are vulnerable. Plus we've people with mild long covid now.

Hr couldn't understand it.

It's flat out unethical to knowingly expose people to COVID, as it's not just a cold or a flu, despite the fact that governments keep comparing it to any other respiratory virus. Especially if you work in a field of health and are entrusted to protect the health of your patients.

So you're doing the right thing and I congratulate you. Keep it up! COVID is a virus with "post sequelae" effects (like HPV), that can severely harm health and any number of organs down the road. It will be awhile before there are effective treatments.

Unfortunately, our employers put pressure on us to relax mitigations, AND come to work sick, which is unbelievably short-sighted. All that happens is that you get your coworkers sick and then they're at home, and your workplace is even more short-staffed. COVID should've resulted in a permanent expansion of paid sick days to prevent this. (Among other permanent mitigations, like good comfortable masks for healthcare workers and patients, to be worn in medical settings for the forseeable future)

You’ve done the right thing. You didn’t cancel but gave people the opportunity to decide for themselves.
Hope you feel better soon.