To go to the shop with Covid?

[Homelessnottoothless]

My friend has Covid. Feeling crap but not at death’s door if you know what I mean.
I text her today to check and see how she was and if she needed anything. She said she didn’t as she was just back from the shops and got all she needed.
I said “should you be out with Covid” and she got really annoyed and said it isn’t the way it used to be and you can go out without a mask even though you are testing positive.
I didn’t want to cause an argument so I just said “ I don’t think you can” and left it like that. She is now bombarding my phone with links and all sorts trying to prove it is ok. I could have gone to get her anything she needed. She insists life goes on as normal and nobody needs to stay home.
AIBU thinking it is incredibly selfish to do this?

Sorry I am in Ireland. I learned today here that we have the same guidelines as the UK.

Most people I know DO still test if they feel unwell with Covid-like symptoms. My husband is clinically vulnerable and my mother is law is 93 and is very frail in a nursing home. She spent a year in a TB ward when she was in her teens and has been extremely susceptible to any chest/lung infections for her entire adult life. She also has asthma. If she caught covid it could be incredibly dangerous for her. Having had it myself recently, it was most definitely not 'just a cold' and I was unable to get out of bed for several days. I felt much worse than when I've had flu in the past and I isolated and tested because I wouldn't wish it on anyone, let alone a vulnerable person. I tested myself every couple of days, as did my husband, and a couple of friends I had spent time with before I started to feel unwell, because we all wanted to try to avoid passing it on to anyone else. I didn't leave the house apart from a couple of short walks until my fear was negative, even though I felt ok after a week.

The difference is that what is stated is guidance rather than actual rules/ law as it was during Covid restrictions. Employers will have their own guidelines, some say employees can come to work if they feel well enough (I know many retailers and hospitality do) others will not want them in the workplace especially if they have vulnerable employees, some may have the option to WFH.

Plenty of people DO go out with flu though. Because they often don't KNOW know they have flu! Never in our lives have we tested for what virus we had before covid tests came along. (Obviously hospitals etc would sometimes test but not at home).
I'm not here to debate the rights and wrongs of going out ill. But you can have mild colds and severe colds. Mild flu and severe flu. Mild covid and severe covid. Unless you test for ANY virus, you have no idea what you have, if you could pass it on and if you do how severely the next person will get it. So overall people make a judgement and yes some people, both now and years past, will have left the house with flu, thinking it was a mild cold, then passed it on and almost killed someone.

What was the point of her testing if she was just going to carry on going out/meeting people anyway?

Teachers in the uk are told to go in as long as theyre feeling ok.....

Totally selfish to do so though.

Our GP surgery is asking everyone to wear a mask as covid is rife where we live.

No way I would test so I wouldn’t know
If I felt ill I would keep my distance but not isolate
Thought it was madness when it wa the lm law ,no wayI am doing it voluntarily

Gosh, I haven’t given Covid a thought in probably a good 18 months. I don’t test. I’ve had some rotten colds but still gone into work (teacher) because my school expects us to. I didn’t wear a mask even when they were mandatory, because frankly breathing in my own co2 gave me a headache.
I’m always surprised when I hear that people are still isolating and mask wearing.

No one with flu would not know they had it. Flu knocks you out totally and you certainly know you have it.

So many people just have a cold and insist they have flu (like the people with just a headache who insist they have a migraine)

Whether it is legal or not, it is not ok to be out with it unless you cannot avoid it - like taking a sick child to hospital when there is no one else who can.

I’m not disputing that at all but her job told her no.

Yes you can. Flu has the capability to knock people out yes. But you can even have flu without ANY symptoms. In the same way you can have covid without any symptoms.

Idiotic post. Many many people are bothered if someone has covid and just gaily goes to shops etc. Totally selfish

I'm a teacher, we're expected in work with covid unless we feel too poorly.

I know you can have covid without any symptoms but I have never ever in my 70 years heard of being able to have flu with no symptoms.

Out of respect for others she shouldn't be out in shops. She could pass it on to someone who could be vulnerable to it!

I think you need to accept that most people really don't care about Covid any more. Of course some still do and isolate, but most don't even test, let alone self isolate. Whether you think it's morally OK or not, that's how it is now. Pointless moaning about it.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm#:~:text=Some%20people%20can%20be%20infected,virus%20to%20their%20close%20contacts.

Bottom of the page from the CDC. There will probably be other sources I can find if you like.

I’ve probably had covid multiple times in the last year or so (I am a teacher and come into contact with hundreds of teenagers each week, none of whom will be testing) plus I regularly get public transport, go to pubs, football matches, restaurants etc, and almost none of the people I contact will be testing. I get my fair share of sniffles and sore throats etc, some of which are likely covid. Obviously I go about my days as normal and don’t wear a mask or do anything different. If I am too sick to work I wouldn’t work, but generally I would try to work, because I feel a sense of responsibility to my students.

2m people have got long covid. Myself included.

Yes she is wrong.

well, yes, if you have flu, of course you need to keep away from people, that goes without saying, surely?

You need to stay away from people if you have any infectious disease - measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, flu, Covid, any. But the most dangerous of these is covid, with a death rate 100x higher than flu for unvaccinated people

If you had flu, you wouldn’t be physically able to go shopping!

One of my colleagues needed an amputation because of covid last year - it is a big deal if you catch it. And even if you have shrugged it off as a bad cold 3 or 4 or 5 times before, it could devastate you next time. And I have heard suggestions that the risk is accumulative, so catching it leaves you in ever increasing danger even if you think you've got away with the mildest of symptoms this time

As it's no longer a pandemic you just treat covid as any other virus; stay at home if you feel really poorly and carry on if you're OK.