Travelling with Covid

[PatricksMother]

I am currently on holiday with friends. We have been away for nearly two weeks and we're due to go home on Friday.

I started feeling a bit unwell last night and this evening tested positive for covid. I wouldn't normally test, but one of my companions is still very nervous about catching covid and insisted I tested. I am now self-isolating in my room at her insistence.

On Friday we will be catching a ferry home and it's likely to be very busy due to the time of year. I will then leave my friends and catch a (pre-booked) train home.

My covid-nervous friend is appalled that I intend to travel and thinks I should find a hotel room somewhere and self-isolate until I get a negative result.

The house we are staying in is booked for someone else from Friday.

Even if I was able to find a hotel with a vacant room, I would struggle to afford it and may have to pay again for the ferry and train. I am also due to return to work on Saturday and my employer will expect me to work if I am well enough. They would not be impressed if I told them I was still away.

I haven't had covid since 2021 and I thought people weren't testing or self-isolating any more. I feel a bit under the weather, but not too ill to function normally.

So am I being unreasonable to travel on Friday, or is my friend right to be appalled?

I have cancer and at the moment I also have Covid. Your friend is being ridiculous. Carry on with your holiday as normal. Don’t bother wearing a mask either, they are completely useless. I’m one of the immunnocompromised and don’t expect the whole world to isolate over Covid. You wouldn’t isolate over any other cold or ‘flu so what’s so special about Covid? I can’t believe so many are still brainwashed four years on.

The ffp2 masks aren't useless @berlinlover?
They do help.

You wouldn’t isolate over any other cold or ‘flu so what’s so special about Covid? I can’t believe so many are still brainwashed four years on.
Health professionals do usually recommend staying away from others, especially vulnerable others, if you're sick with any contagious illness.

People don't listen, and don't comply for a variety of reasons (quite often good reasons), but that's a different issue.

I never said it was mandatory, I said guidelines.

I didn't know where you were travelling from when I replied.

You said the guidelines were the same everywhere, I only mentioned Ireland to inform you that our guidelines are different, according to here, you carry on as normal if you feel well, that includes work, you can't work here and you are advised to keep away from people especially vulnerable people.

I'm not sure what you are saying about me wanting it made into law? I didn't say anything of the sort .

It's not about wanting to be different, why you even say that confuses me. All I have tried to do is inform you that there are very ill people in this world depending on those who test positive to not knowingly pass it on to them.

You took a test, you tested positive and you are happy enough to travel home amongst many people and go to work. That's your choice.

Just because some think people don't test anymore, they do, just because it doesn't happen in 'your' world doesn't mean it doesn't happen, I still buy all our tests, in our situation it's a case of having to test, otherwise if left untreated can lead to complications and more serious issues. That's my world and there's thousands and thousands in the same situation. I know now not to get worked up trying to explain online, it use to upset me reading posters writing "fuck them", "their problem", "let them stay home", "not my problem" etc I just try explain the other side the side where we still have to take precautions, we don't like it either.

Your friend is being a tit. It's not reasonable to expect you to hang around for an unspecified period with no booked accommodation, until such a time as your tests show as negative. You're taking a mask, so travelling and using that is the maximum that can reasonably be expected of you.

What Country are you travelling from ? Just because the UK has rules to carry on, other Countries don't. For example, Ireland has completely different rules for COVID.

I have copied and pasted the first paragraph of your first post above as a reminder of what you actually said.

Just because the UK has rules to carry on.

The UK has no rules to "carry on" (I'm not even sure what you mean by that to be honest). In fact, like Ireland, the UK has no covid "rules" at all. Only guidance.

For example, Ireland has completely different rules for COVID.

Ireland doesn't have any rules for covid at all. Just like the UK and France. All three have issued advice and guidance which is substantially the same. You haven't demonstrated that any of the guidance in Ireland is substantially different from the UK.

I haven't said you want it to be law (although your posts suggest to me that you might). I had the impression you don't know the difference between mandatory rules and guidelines/advice. Hence your assertion that "Ireland has completely different rules for COVID", which you now seem to be conceding is not true.

You imply that it is mandatory to stay away from work if you have covid. It's not. Like everything else it's advice. But if it was mandatory, how could it possibly be enforced when - as you have conceded - most people don't test?

FFP2 masks work. Homemade masks or gapey surgical masks are useless. There is a difference.

"I never said it was mandatory, I said guidelines."

Not true. You said:

"For example, Ireland has completely different rules for COVID."

To be clear, rules are mandatory (you can be prosecuted for breaking them).

Guidelines are not mandatory and the individual can decide to follow them or not without fear of prosecution.

It's a very important distinction. "Rules" and "guidelines" are not the same thing and in extreme circumstances could mean the difference between prison and liberty if you get it wrong... 😉

As we know Covid is airborne, so unless you are in a room on your own, please wear a mask on your journey home.

Ps and a well fitted N95 mask is not useless, will decrease significantly amount of viral particles you breathe out.

We're going around in circles here.

Many, many posts on here state that when people have COVID they can go to work if they feel well, I don't know who said it as I don't know your government. There's plenty of posts on this site saying this.

I have not used the word mandatory, I have used guidelines and rules as in follow it you want.

If you test positive here and tell your employer you are to stay home, of course if you keep it quiet then no one knows.

People are still testing I haven't said anything differently about that, in my world which is surrounded by illness and hospitals, tests are used regularly. I can't speak for the rest of the world but I have said there's still people testing. Of course there's some that don't.

Look you are wasting your holiday nit picking my posts, go off and enjoy your holiday, travel home and go work and don't even give this another thought.

I second this. Wear your mask at all times when you’re around people. If you do this OP you’ll have done your best to avoid passing anything on.

My headache is getting worse and I don't think it's the covid this time.

One more try, because I want to help:

You might not have used the word "mandatory", but you did say "rules" which you claimed are "completely different" in Ireland.

Rules are mandatory and there are no covid rules in Ireland. Only guidance.

There is no difference in how covid is treated in Ireland, France and the UK.

I hope that explains it. If not it will have to remain unexplained...

Of course you can travel! Just because your friend is paranoid and [insert insult of choice] you don't have to go along with it. Stop testing, stop isolating and just carry on as normal.
Oh, and make a note never to go on holiday with this friend again.

I wouldn’t have tested in the first place.

Oh and don't faff around with all the mask and anti-bac nonsense, because they don't work and only feed other people's paranoia.

Excellent, common sense post.

It transmits by aerosol, it doesn't matter if you're not close to people. If you're in a crowded space it will just hang in the air for other people to inhale. You know you have it, if you don't wear a mask you will pass it onto a lot of people.

Wearing a FFP3 mask will significantly decrease viral particles being breathed out, so they will decrease risk of the infected person spreading the virus.

I'm not too long after covid in Northern Ireland and couldn't find any specific guidelines for isolation. I was trying to find guidelines on isolation time (to work out when it would be safe to see the very vulnerable people around me). It's crazy that you guys have stats and restrictions/guidance like this. I'm gonna have a look see if there's any here as I'm interested. Covid is definitely everywhere here at the minute.

Once I knew I was positive, I isolated myself out of choice. I found out very very difficult to just say - to hell with it and put possible vulnerable people at risk.

the nhs guidance:
If you or your child have tested positive for COVID-19:

• try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day the test was taken if you or your child are under 18 years old – children and young people tend to be infectious to other people for less time than adults
• try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days after the day you took your test if you are 18 years old or over
• avoid meeting people who are more likely to get seriously ill from viruses, such as people with a weakened immune system, for 10 days after the day you took your test

Note it doesn't say 'try to' about people who are likely to get seriously ill. It says avoid them. Do you know the health status of everyone who will be on your ferry and train?

And also from the NHS, How to avoid spreading it:
avoid indoor or crowded places (including public transport or large social gatherings) or places where there is not much fresh air if you need to leave your home
wear a face covering when it's hard to stay away from other people

Wear a mask. Please.

us nurses are expected to work now when we have Covid! Albeit with a mask, the only areas exempt from doing so in my trust is oncology wards

I am very sorry. I know a form of long covid can be extremely disabling and life changing, with people unable to work, some mainly housebound and some still remain bedbound, horrendous.

Neither would I. The friend really has no business insisting anyone else test, just as it would be unreasonable for anyone else to tell the friend she shouldn't.

I've just went on holiday with Covid. I've been keeping outside and in well ventilated places. If I'd been travelling on a train I'd have been wearing a mask and wiping surfaces.

Don’t forget these little gems from the Matt Hancock WhatsApp’s :

“frighten the pants off everyone”

“We frighten the pants of everyone with the new strain,”

“When do we deploy the new variant?”

“Small stuff looks ridiculous. Ramping up messaging – the fear/guilt factor vital.“

Hancock, Whitty and Johnson knew full well that non-medical face masks do very little to prevent transmission of the virus. People were made to wear them anyway because Dominic Cummings was fixated with them; because Nicola Sturgeon liked them; and above all because they were symbolic of the public health emergency.

As early as 3 February 2020 – long before anyone outside the Department of Health was taking the prospect of a pandemic seriously – ministers were told the masks make no significant difference. In April 2020, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) reiterated this advice. At the end of that month, the Sage committee said much the same thing, telling ministers that it would be unreasonable to claim a large benefit. An ‘obsessed’ Cummings was the driving force behind mandating mask-wearing in all healthcare settings – and then in retail and hospitality.

But still there are the paranoid who just can’t let go.