Do you think there’s a risk of people assuming every illness they have is coronavirus?

[Purpleclownsuit]

I keep seeing a lot of people saying things like “I’ve had a mild case of coronavirus” “I only had a headache and sore throat with my coronavirus” etc. Is there a risk that people will assume they’ve already had it when they actually just had a cold? And then they’ll slack off on their isolation assuming they’re immune?

I know some people who’ve been tested have it very mild but it’s making me nervous to see people who aren’t tested assuming they’ve had it based on whatever they’ve read online about other peoples experiences.

My hay fever has me coughing, and so any time I feel a bit ropey, I do wonder. But I doubt I've had it. I had a terrible breathless cough back in February, but, again, statistically it's highly unlikely to have been that.

111 told my friend a few weeks she most likely had it.
She later had to consult a GP. Turns out she had Labrynthritis.

Last time I had flu I had all the symptoms of this virus, that was 4 years ago. My doctor told me that stress had caused my flu. Just saying.

It is hard to tell, I’ll admit I’m anxious about it but then there are some very random symptoms reported and talk of a significant number of people not realising they’ve had it (hence the ease of it spreading).

Theres a couple of occasions I would have jumped at the chance for a test for myself or DP because I was just waiting for relatively innocuous symptoms to develop into more.

I think if people stick to the two main symptoms, fever or a cough they can’t go wrong, yes there may be other symptoms but if you don’t have a fever or a cough as well it’s unlikely you have it.

I have hay fever and I had a migraine today because of the stress I am sure. The symptoms tracker would be worried but I have no temperature or cough and I can still smell and taste everything even the chocolate I can't have because of the migraine.

It is easy to have some of the symptoms especially as the list grows.

We've swabbed lots of patients at work, I reckon about 90% of the positive results had a mild fever or cough but a few had neither symptom and were swabbed due to known contacts and turned out positive.

We've also swabbed lots of patients with a fever and/or cough that have come back negative.

I cannot tell from face to face care who does/doesn't have virus so there's no way 111 can. The advice is simply to isolate for fever or cough as a precaution.

Our county has low hospital admissions still but looking at FB you'd think most of the population has/had it which would make no sense when corralated to the hospital admissions

Agree. I had a random bacterial chest infection last spring. If I had that now everyone would think it was “the virus”.

There’s a danger, especially with kids, of not getting checked out for bacterial infections.

All the attention seekers on my FB “have it/partner has it”. Of course you have only their word for that. They’re too special to have just had something else.

Several of DD’s classmates have “had it”. DD had a bacterial infection around 6 weeks ago. My suggestion that their DCs are statistically more likely to have something else (like my DC) was not particularly popular because if you “have it” you can in certain circles get a bit of attention and I expect I was pouring cold water on their five minutes

I agree. I’ve had a lot of the symptoms very mildly (cough, breathlessness, slightly raised temp, lack of taste, head ache, sore throat, sore eyes, tired) I live and work in central London and got the tube to work every day before lockdown. However I also had a bad cold and was phlemmy So I assume it was just a bad cold with me just being hyper aware of different symptoms. I would love it if that was my cv19. I doubt it is though and I remain vigilant.
My fb is full of people who’ve definitely had it etc etc. I’m sure some have but not all.

The longer in the tooth you are, the more likely you are to notice subtle differences as you will have accrued experience of ‘typical’ symptoms of other conditions. Colds, Flu, Tonsillitis, Bronchitis etc etc etc. You become more in tune with your body over time.

I think I’ve got it currently, as there are subtle differences in symptoms I’ve experienced compared to some of the above, more familiar conditions but can’t absolutely say so 100% of course without a test to confirm.

But yeah, the types who say ‘I’ve had it’ whilst attributing everything to it are probably the same types of people who don’t know the difference between a Cold & Flu

Dd was very ill a week or so ago, the vast majority of covid 19 symptoms OR a nasty case of flu

Id be very interested in her having an antibody test to see if it was covid 19

BUT we are saying that without a test she can’t be sure one way or the other so we should continue on the basis that she HASNT had it (although we are obviously self isolating)

(I do know that the likelihood of her ever getting an antibody test is incredibly low )

And with regard to minor symptoms...she was very very ill, certainly wasn’t just a sniffle in her case

I had an identical illness in February. I'm presuming it WASN'T coronavirus even though it was so similar, fever cough breathlessness loss of smell. So there is clearly something very similar going around.

I just thought I had a cold, and still would if it wasn’t for the complete lack of smell/ taste.
My boss has referred me for testing so hopefully I’ll find out.

I think so. I think 111 is partly to blame too as it’s become very covid-19 orientated (which is understandable).

Out of interested I started to enter synptoms that I had earlier this year (which turned out to be severe acute tonsillitis, which I was told to get straight to A&E Urgent Care for within 2 hours to be treated with antibiotics. I was dehydrated from my fever and was obviously over heating and they wanted me seen pronto.)

Yesterday I entered the details... Temperature, yes. Sore throat, yes. Cough, no. Etc. The end result was suspected coronavirus symptoms, advice to stay at home and not visit hospital.

This is scary considering in January I was advised to get treatment by the 111 service ASAP. I hope people with other illnesses aren’t mislead too often.

Yup. Who knows.

I don’t even trust the current tests as i know someone who has been hospitalised needing oxygen and tested negative.

OCS🤦🏼‍♀️

@ladypete Jesus!!! I’d only been thinking about this issue in a sort of eye-roll way. The old ‘when you hear hooves, think horse, not zebra’ sort of thing.

Your post points out the much more serious part of it. How many cases of infant meningitis or someone’s chest infection becoming sepsis are going to be treated the same way. ‘Stay at home, call us if you turn blue’. Terrifying.

Self diagnosis is one thing, but walking around claiming experience and sharing the bullshit with others is a whole other level of stupidity.

@Bimbleboo precisely. It’s a hard one because of course we shouldn’t overwhelm the NHS and the 111 service is brilliant, but equally some things aren’t covid and do need to be seen too in a timely manner!

I think I’ve been equally frightened of me or my dc becoming ill or injured with something NOT covid as I am of actual covid. Because I’m afraid of the potential of the nhs just not being available or able to be reactive to a crisis other than covid.

Absolutely.. I've got something, temperature at night, sore throat, headaches, tight chest, dry cough, etc.. but who knows? could just as easily be hayfever as ive got itchy eyes!

Impossible for anyone to say without actually being tested isn't it?

It is very worrying that people will think they have had it when they haven't. I had a really bad head cold in January which then settled on my chest leaving me with a persistent cough for over 3 weeks and a chronic occasional cough thereafter. I stiil cough now but don' t think I have Corona. Wfh and not left the house since 20th March. Daughter been home too - at weekend anxious as she had sore throat - then we realised she gets slight hay fever and the pollen count is quite high in this sunshine. Sore throats and coughs can be allergic reactions so everything very confusing now.

The main problem as someone like an asthma sufferer like me is that you can no longer see anyone to help you, and the usual treatments you would take are being contraindicated
I work directly with GP’s and they are all pretty sure I have had it based on my symptoms. But that for me is not enough as I haven’t actually been tested and I still need help for my asthma, COVID or not

It’s the amount of people that insist they had it in Dec / Jan that annoys me. Yes, of course loads of people had it with no increase to hospitalisation levels! FFS!

Been saying all along that there are many many illnesses which have the same or similar symptoms. So you can't tell exactly. Especially as the list of symptoms for COVID -19 is quite extensive.