Dreading the cold and flu season

[Northernsoulgirl45]

It happened last night. I had a sore throat. Today I have a blocked up nose and I have been Sneezing. Clearly I have a cold but dreading taking myself to work as I fear I will be judged.
Anyone else feel this way or just me?

Obviously also dreading it because flu can be a serious illness and can put added pressure on NHS and kill etc etc.

Cologne

I meant I have no idea how we caught whatever it was!

We have been told from now on we never go in ill it just can't be done at the moment as it could be covid so stay home

Tests have up to 30% false negatives
(Almost no false positives now)

Just to expand on BigChoc’s statement, that means that if you’ve got it you have a 30% chance of testing negative. I know she knows this stuff backwards but it’s always worth clarifying for everybody’s benefit because it’s tricky but important.

Whether that means you should trust your own negative test depends on how likely you were to have it in the first place. If you are just back from a year on the International Space Station and have no symptoms then your negative test is correct beyond reasonable doubt. If you live with a husband and children who’ve just tested positive and you have a full suite of characteristic symptoms yourself then that negative test is more likely wrong than right.

Unless we can refine the tests to get the false negative rate down it will make the cold and flu season even more of a minefield.

Result is in. It was negative as expected.