Why do some people get wound up if others test for covid?

[Adaytoday]

What is it about testing for covid specifically that seems to wind people up?
AIBU to find it really odd? People don’t seem to have the same reaction to any other test.

YABU - it is not odd to be wound up because another person does a covid test

YANBU - it is odd that some people get wound up because another person does a covid test

I test partly because I want to know what I've had. If I'm struggling with lingering chest problems or start to have heart problems, later, then knowing that the virus I had a month ago was definitely covid (or flu - there are lateral flow tests for that too) is relevant medical history.

Aren't you just projecting what you feel about covid on to them? You see no value in testing or warning other people so the only reason left must be being performative. Other people don't see covid like that though. They may want to warn people it's going about, for a start. Also lots of people who aren't even immune compromised have had a much worse time with covid than with other viruses. It's its own thing, a virus that isn't just like all the others (even if it's spun that way). I wouldn't want special sympathy but I'm not going to call it just "a virus" any more than I would say I just had a virus if I actually had chicken pox.

💯. I’m fine for my team to take time off sick or WFH if they need it, most will just say I’ve got a cold/virus/not feeling well or whatever so I’ll WFH for a few days, but there are a couple that insist on dramatising every illness, and ‘I’ve just tested positive for Covid’ is up there with the favourite ailments for these people since the pandemic. No objection to whoever wants to testing but there is zero need to announce it to everyone else.

I haven't heard of anyone testing for Covid in years.

I can imagine someone being 'wound up' (slightly annoyed) if someone tested for covid and then said they couldn't work in the office for two weeks or whatever

Some people definitely just look for things to be cross about

In my experience, the only people who still test do it because they want 'no questions' time off work.

Since the end of the pandemic, I've had a COVID test twice, both times when I'd been around someone who’d had COVID and had symptoms. Last year, there were a few cases at church we were told about, so when I developed viral symptoms I took a test and it was positive for COVID.

If there hadn’t been other cases, I would have just assumed that it was a cold. We hadn’t even thought about COVID testing for a long time before then. Despite me being someone who’d had Long COVID since 2020.

It doesn't bother me if others test for it; people have their own reasons, like I did.

I didn’t actually know you could test for flu. I don’t think we’ve got any viable covid tests left, but I otherwise would test. But I admit the reasons may sound slightly selfish - I obviously don’t want to spread germs of any sort around and seeing as I do an office job where I can do my job just as effectively at home (but we’re supposed to come in 3x a week) I think when someone is ill they should wfh - they’ll avoid passing it on to others and they will recover quicker. But some people in the workplace are a bit martyr like and seem to think you should always press on regardless even if you’ve got bubonic plague. So I would test for covid if I thought I had it so I could say no Janet I’m not coming into the office and spreading Covid around, I shall stay tucked up at home thank you. I genuinely thought I had covid earlier this year and was saying as such. When I eventually went to the GP it turned out I had pneumonia instead, albeit that did have a suitable similar effect of keeping people quiet as to why I was off sick

I am certainly not "wound up about it" but I do find it utterly bizarre that you'd test for Covid when not feeling well so to avoid spreading it others and yet if its not Covid, you'd quite happily spread your cold/flu germs to others.

Why? if someone is vulnerable then they are vulnerable and just as likely to be negatively affected by a heavy cold/flu which could easily develop into a serious chest infection.

Ultimately, if you stay away from vulnerable people when you are unwell then you have no need to test.

My dad has to test before going in for chemo and every patient being admitted to hospital is tested for flu, Covid and RSV as an outbreak on a ward of vulnerable people can be deadly. I’ve not come across anyone in rl who gets angry (well, one person but she’s anti vaxx and doesn’t believe in Covid so wore a disability lanyard despite no disability).

See, if I had Covid I would say so not to be performative, but because i work somewhere it’s rather frowned upon to be off sick - I think people would eye roll if someone took time off for a cold (even though a really bad cold can indeed lay you pretty low), whereas the couple of times I’ve knowingly had covid (and tested) I’ve been can’t drag myself out of bed type of unwell and it’s lasted quite a while, so would feel I need to say covid so that people know I’m ‘really’ unwell. I realise that sounds performative if you’re that way inclined to think! I think we all know that yes some people are a bit dramatic over a sniffle, and some people really try to soldier on, but workplaces don’t always make the distinction if that makes sense.

It's fascinating that some people think it ever went away, or that it is an insignificant infection with zero repercussions.

As someone who has never taken a Covid test in their life (and doesn't intend to), I would say I'm more "baffled" than "wound up". I just don't see the point of it, and it suggests virtue- signalling. But then I don't understand people's general obsession with their own health, and the need to label or self- diagnose, which often approaches hypochondria.
But, I accept that it's a free country, so if people want to spend their money on Covid tests, then I guess that's up to them.

Nothing to do with willing lockdown to come back

I think the difference is that someone can have Covid and not be particularly unwell themselves but could harm others if it was spread. Covid also has more varied symptoms which could equally be down to other things, eg someone may have a few digestive issues, be shivery and have a headache for a few days. Flu isn’t like that.

I think people who spend time around older people or those who are more vulnerable health wise tend to be more cautious and aware.

I would not assume you are ‘really’ unwell just because you said you had Covid or look more favourably on you being off sick and I doubt your boss does either. In fact probably the opposite and I would think that you are just wanting a better excuse to be off sick for longer by saying upfront it’s Covid. The vast majority of people are only mildly ill with Covid and are more than capable of WFH, however appreciate this doesn’t apply to everyone and if you are too sick to work for whatever reason then just say that, it’s absolutely fine for people to take time off when they need to but I don’t see Covid as some magical illness that makes it worse than a cold or flu or whatever. Without testing you wouldn’t know which particular seasonal virus it is.

@Sunloungerhogger i ended up in hospital with pneumonia. Took me about four years to get back to normal, as kept getting repeated chest infections (& covid) as immunosuppressed.

I’ve only just been discharged from respiratory department, in the last few weeks actually.

I think a lot of people want to put covid behind them and move on. They see the testers as trying to hold on to a very restrictive and unhappy period in time, when there's no need to do so. Testing is also rightly or wrongly associated with being a bit dramatic about covid and the sort of people who want everyone to stop their lives because of it. The attitude is, why do you even care now? If you're too ill to go our you stay home. If you're well enough you carry on, as per government guidance, so why the unecessary fuss.

Got it. You're insecure about your value system so label those who have different values as "less capable".

@Adaytoday - I think this is your answer. Insecurity.

I get that. The way I see it, those people are the ones hanging on to covid-the-pandemic - they are the ones who haven't been able to move on and accept the idea of covid just as a disease we have now and need to learn to live with. Any testing, any talk of covid, to them is talk of the pandemic, so it can't be done, and the only acceptable way to 'learn to live with it' is to pretend it's no big deal. But the fact is the disease has not gone away and it can be more dangerous than lots of other viruses. I think facing up to that fact and making decisions based on the present, not fear of being reminded of the past, would be healthier long-term. It is a disease that it's rational not to want to catch more often than necessary or to want to pass on more often than necessary, and it can also just make sense to know when you've had it if you do have the means to find out.

I test for Covid and flu. I need medication for either as quickly as possible if I happen to catch one of them. same for my husband.

We also go into within household isolation protocols if anyone has either or any other serious illness.

it infuriates me that people don’t still test

You can have Covid with minor symptoms though, so you would act differently than if you had a slight sniffle but knew you had Covid (e.g. I wouldn't do church activities or visit older relatives). I'm also living with long Covid and if my husband contracts Covid he sleeps in the spare room to reduce my risk or getting it again.

I am not employed so I'm not just after sick pay, thanks!

Maybe it's annoying if someone tests positive and then doesn't do anything to prevent spreading it about. Just gleefully socialises and casually drops it into conversation. Not really even giving the people you're with a chance to consent to being near someone with it or not?

Some people are not well enough to start with so it's dangerous to catch anything like that.