To wonder what the current guidelines/conventions around Covid are?

[Jjiillkkf]

I have no idea where we are with Covid, it's not easy to track down a test and they're £2 each! Are people testing if they're unwell - what are workplace policies like? Stay at home until negative? Are people really testing everytime you feel unwell?

Some of us don’t want to get long Covid again. End up with more heart damage. Waste 2 -3 years of our lives stuck in the house, ill. No way is it a bloody fetish. Good on you being soooo edgy.

At work we stay at home if we think we’ve got it but that’s about it

ds recently almost certainly had it but we didn’t test. He just mostly confined himself to his room (his choice) but still came to the table to eat. After the fourth day he was feeling better so sent him back to school
and didn’t give it further thought

Same it’s been like that for ages. If we do test we are supposed to stay off but we can go in with illness. If we feel well enough to work. We don’t have access to free tests. That went over a year ago. Staff were wearing masks with patients if they felt a bit unwell ( not told too)

I think it’s a little stricter in areas people work with very at risk people. But it’s been crack on…

Of course if i’m too unwell to work i’m not going anywhere else either. Sensible choices!

None of my friends and family are testing. As before covid, everyone just carries on with life if they feel well enough.
The only person I know who tests is someone who hates going in to the office. So she 'has covid' every few months to have a week WFH. Even though she can come in to the office with Covid and can WFH 3 days a week anyway.

I have just come out of hospital. Ive been in a week with covid

Its still life threatening for the immunosuppressed

Please be considerate if you have symptoms

I treat it like a stomach bug/ flu. Stay away from others so I don't spread it and I'm off sick/ rest when I need to be.
I had Covid recently (had some tests in the house still so confirmed) and I was absolutely on my arse for almost a week, affected me much worse than last time. My hair has been shedding like crazy since so it really knocked me.
We can wfh if needed within my business though so we still do if ill with anything contagious rather than making the whole team ill, which would be detrimental to the business.

I'm in the fortunate position of being able to avoid people pretty easily, since I don't work and am a full-time carer, so we can be flexible. If I have symptoms, I stay home if feasible. If going out is rather important, I will alert the people I'm going to see that I have a sniffle and either socially distance or wear an FFP2 mask.

We do test whenever we have symptoms as it affects how thoroughly we avoid other household members - if I definitely had Covid I would be scrupulous about shutting myself away. As a family, we are quite healthy, so we only end up testing a few times a year.

Long Covid worries me more than it does most people. There are a lot of people suffering with it now. I really don't want to be responsible for giving that to anyone or getting it myself. The similar condition of CFS/ME blighted the adolescence of my eldest child.

I don’t think there’s any need to ‘mask up’. Your breath comes out the sides.

I still see a lot of people in masks, including at the park where people are naturally distanced. What I don’t understand is why said mask wearers happily open doors at shopping centres or on public transport with their bare hands.

The best and most frequent way to give yourself the lurgy (other than allow yourself to be sneezed or coughed on) is to touch handles that sick people have touched. Rub your eyes or itch your nose and hey presto, you have a cold.

The existence of long covid the way its reported in popular media has long been contentious.

Most respiratory diseases have some instance of post viral syndrome. This is common and covid is no exception.

The extremely high numbers of purported "long covid" were based largely on:

• self reporting of symptoms
• incredibly broad criteria (over 200 symptoms!)
• vaguely defined symptoms
• no requirements for persistent illness from known infection to reporting of long covid (meaning symptoms which could relate to all sorts of other things were attributed as long covid months later)
• no requirement for causal link between symptoms and covid infection.

This means a lot of the numbers spouted in the press & even in medical research are not very reliable.

There's a good BMJ article about it here:
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/29/3/142

In RL i know no one who's actually had long covid. 2 women i know who were late 40s at the time thought they did and attributed various things to it, both have now identified in hindsight that it was likely perimenopausal symptoms which have been helped by HRT.

I remember reading an article that said the majority of long covid sufferers were women in their early fifties experiencing extreme tiredness, low mood, general lethargy.

I don't know either. I've been unwell for 8 days and it's either a bad cold or Covid but I haven't tested as I haven't got any tests. I've just worked from home when I've been well enough to work. I feel as bad today as I did last Sunday so I am wondering whether I should get a test. If I feel well enough to go to the office on Tuesday or Wednesday is it okay to go in? Or should I isolate a few more days. I'm not really asking you but I would assume once symptoms have gone I can mix again.

The best and most frequent way to give yourself the lurgy (other than allow yourself to be sneezed or coughed on) is to touch handles that sick people have touched. Rub your eyes or itch your nose and hey presto, you have a cold.

Have you got something scientific to back this up? Probably not so here's something to reassure sensible folks:

sites.manchester.ac.uk/covid19-national-project/2022/10/05/how-likely-is-it-for-respiratory-virus-transmission-to-occur-via-surfaces/

Viruses really don't live long on surfaces.

Mil3nnial - do you realise other viruses can be as nasty as covid?

My DC ended up in intensive care on a ventilator as a result of RSV, another virus. Thousands of DC require oxygen or ventilation due to this every year - when my DC was in intensive care with it pre covid, 80% of the beds in the unit were DC on ventilators with RSV.

Same DC had another hospitalisation due to a severe adenovirus infection.

Covid initially had such a noticeable impact because it was new, there was no bank of immunity in the general population. The same impact has been seen before with new viral infections, such as the spanish flu outbreak and the asian flu outbreak of the late 1950s (the latter almost killed my grandfather, who was at the time a healthy man in his 30s).

Now most people have had previous infections & vaccinations, there is far more immunity, so most infections are mild.

HFJ I'm friendly with a lot of doctors including one who was a respiratory specialist studying covid. Most think long covid has been hugely overreported and conflated with other things (including menopause) and that over time, better evidence will show it having similar incidence rates and severity to other post viral conditions.

Do you also do this for seasonal flu? Kills gar more each year. Unless you're vulnerable.

It's a 'I've got that' type of condition. Underlying mental health issues. A way of avoiding society etc.

Some people are testing if they feel too ill to work. However most employees want people to come in anyway if they feel ok.

NAndJIsLockingDow

Do you do this for RSV?

I get annoyed that people who've been blissfully unaware of RSV which has landed kids in hospital for years and has no real, widely available vaccine yet, will go to any lengths to prevent covid purely because the media told them to be scared of it.

These same people complain that healthy people aren't prioritised for covid vaccines but hadnt noticed no one putting up the money for a proper RSV vaccine.

Please realise how much you are being influenced by scare mongering in the media rather than evidenced science.

I'm suffering with Covid-like symptoms right now and have got tests in deliberately - partly because I wanted to understand what's going on for me, partly because I have regular contact with a family member in their 90s and partly because of imminent social plans affecting me and a number of others. That said - I'm testing negative but because I'm feeling so lousy I'm just applying common sense and staying away from everyone anyway until my symptoms improve. I'm currently too sick to work whether it's Covid or not.
The vaccination programme means that there is no longer the need for the level of regulations and restrictions there were in the past. But at the end of the day sickness is sickness, and we all should know whether we are well enough to work or not, or whether going into social /office situations could spread an illness which in turn could have an effect on vulnerable people. That applies whether it's Covid, flu or chicken pox for that matter. It's common sense now rather than guidelines. I find the dismissive attitude of some people to the whole matter incredibly selfish.

It's a useful excuse for some

I had it in May and felt shocking for a fortnight. I tested because I was curious. My son had it first but was only really ill for a day so he didn’t bother. It hit me a few days later. It was also helpful when I needed a sick note for work for the second week. I just did an e-consult, said what my symptoms were and when I tested positive and they issued the note without further contact. Had I felt able to work, I would have WFH as is my normal, but I really couldn’t. It was not like any ‘cold’ I have ever had. I keep tests in because I like to know what’s wrong with me. The first time I had it I was ill for 4 weeks although that time I was given antibiotics for a chest infection and the coughing triggered gastritis. Again much much worse than the mild illness people claim it to be. If it is mild for you great but that isn’t everyones experience. Tests are £10 for 5 from Amazon or available in all pharmacies so not hard to track down. I think I have only ever bought 2 boxes since they stopped being free so only test when feeling particularly ill. I also don’t keep testing once I know it is covid. I just avoid people for a couple of weeks.

Did you mask up and social distance before covid, for other viruses?

Madness.

(Can see you've posted below that you're not vulnerable.)

The amount of bullshit being spouted on this thread and gaslighting going on is extraordinary. There is now stacks of peer reviewed research on the damage COVID does, and much of it is not linked to self-reporting but on cases that were tested. It's a vascular illness, not a respiratory illness and even a mild case can do your body damage. Every infection adds to the cumulative damage and rolls the dice on you ending up with long COVID.

I have to admit I've mostly given up masking except on public transport etc as I got so worn down by people not giving a shit, but I'm hardly in denial about the dangers. Flu is a seasonal illness and people can get COVID 5 times a year; they're not alike at all in that sense.

We aren't the ones in denial, you are by saying everything is normal. You're much more afraid than people who are simply informed about the risks and keep an eye on the research. Look at the havoc it wreaked at the Olympics in a world where we're back to normal.

Air filtration in public spaces would be one of the best things we do for public health (not just for COVID, for other illnesses too) and wouldn't be that expensive compared to all the work and school days lost to sickness. They have it in parliament and at Davos; that should tell you something.

And the person saying did we mask up for other viruses. People took precautions around polio, masks were worn by many at the time of the Spanish flu and they even filtered air in some theatres at that time. Mitigations against viral illnesses are not new - and polio is probably a better comparison to COVID as it was mild for many, but permanent disabled others or left them in an iron lung.

Something else to consider is that communicable illnesses and viruses have always been around. In general, it is better for the immune system to encounter them and to be able to mount an immune response and to develop antibodies, rather than to be hugely isolated (unless you have a severe health condition).

Jennylamb1 this is true.