AIBU to say if you have a cough get a test

[ShouldWeChangeTheBulb]

I’m getting increasing pissed off with people online and IRL about not getting tested because ‘it’s just a cold’ or it’s ‘obviously not Covid’. FWIW I don’t get annoyed if someone visits family even though their not supposed to in their area. I think it’s inhuman not to have social contact so I can understand that but for god sake if you actually have symptoms lockdown straight away and get tested. I know it’s a pain in the arse but not wanting to do something is not a good reason for not doing it.
For context we are currently locked down as DS has it (he caught if from his teacher). When I tell people his symptoms I’ve lost count of how many people say ‘my dd has those symptoms but she had a runny nose last week so it’s just a cold’. You cannot tell if it’s Covid or not, the symptoms can be the same as any other illness.

I HAVE A FUCKING COLD! I know myself. Please, in the name of all that's holy, trust what I say about myself

You may have a cold. But the point is you can’t 100% know that without a test. To say you can know without a test is ridiculous.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

Someone else should (a clinician or very clear signposted guidelines such as a set of questions to gateway to a test)

Many of us have been told not to test with mild coughs by NHS doctors.

That is good, a triage from a clinician is much safer than us deciding for ourselves. However there should be clear national guidelines that they can also follow so that everyone can get that kind of triage, and a set of questions online may well be sufficient.

What we shouldn’t do, is decide for ourselves that a cough is just a cold. Unfortunately the symptoms do seem to be too varied for us to make that kind of assumption.

@MadameMinimes

Frangipani I can’t work out if you’re serious. The “+ runny nose” but is totally irrelevant. It’s the cough bit that matters. If the cough is “new and continuous” then you self isolate and get a test regardless of what other symptoms there are with the cough.

I was quoting the OP!

A friend of mine tried to get tested with a cough and a sore, tight chest. They sent her away with a flea on her ear and told her to stop wasting their time!

@Bumpitybumper
I agree. But not testing isn’t going to help us it. Just because it’s not the answer to everything doesn’t mean we should just ignore the guidelines.

Uselesscats is one doctor in an area with plenty of testing capacity. There are thousands more who are dispensing different view. Ask around, Useless, you will find that your colleagues in areas with no capacity are quite definitely advising many people with seasonal post nasal drip coughing not to test.

No you're right, but it doesn't say cough plus runny nose means get a test, which is what you said in an earlier post!
Cough + any other symptoms or no other symptoms get a test.

[quote ShouldWeChangeTheBulb]@TooLittleTooLate80

Taken from the current government guidelines-
You can have a swab test to check if you have coronavirus (COVID-19) now.

Who can get a free test
You can only get a free NHS test if at least one of the following applies:

you have a high temperature
you have a new, continuous cough
you’ve lost your sense of smell or taste or it’s changed
you’ve been told to have a test before you go into hospital and you live in England
you’ve been asked to by a local authority
you’re taking part in a government pilot project
You can also get a test for someone you live with if they have symptoms[/quote]
You never said continuous

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland but no doctor has told you that you have just decided to make your own rules up and refuse to accept that that’s probably not a great idea. Because you ‘know’ you don’t have Covid.

[quote ShouldWeChangeTheBulb]@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland
3 coughing episodes in a day isn’t that extreme for a mild cough. Continuous simply means not the odd cough here and there. If you have ‘ a cough’ you would be coughing (having a coughing episode) more than three time per 24 hours.[/quote]
Again, your interpretation.......

@TooLittleTooLate80 I have said a million times. Having ‘a cough’ is obviously not coughing once or twice and it had be clarified on almost every post.

@ShouldWeChangeTheBulb

Continuous (in the guidance) does not mean coughing all the time.

The word continuous literally means "without interruption" so yes, a continuous cough means ALL THE TIME!

@FrangipaniBlue
a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)

• Taken from the guidelines

[quote ShouldWeChangeTheBulb]@TooLittleTooLate80 I have said a million times. Having ‘a cough’ is obviously not coughing once or twice and it had be clarified on almost every post.[/quote]
Nope

Even though I am definitely not advocating we all decide on our own symptoms, I did look up coughs and it does say that 3 episodes of coughing a day is a new continous cough.

This really is something everyone on this thread should feed upwards back to track and trace, and their local MPs to get the system to clarify. As I don’t think it is very clear and certainly many people who are coughing more than 3 times a day are not going for testing. And this is something the system should know about.

@TooLittleTooLate80 so you think people should only be tested if they literally never stop coughing?

@ShouldWeChangeTheBulb
But not testing isn’t going to help us it. Just because it’s not the answer to everything doesn’t mean we should just ignore the guidelines
No but the guidelines have been written in a way that is open to interpretation so people aren't necessarily ignoring guidelines, but interpreting them differently to you in the context of being slap bag in the middle of common cold season and there being a shortage of covid tests.

There is quite clearly a distinctive "covid cough" that would alarm most people if they were to develop it and would prompt most of us to get a test. On the other hand mild coughs are insanely common around this time of year and are not usually continuous in the same way as the aforementioned "covid cough". The government has not really made it clear if we should be focussing on the former or the extent that the latter should be considered. Millions of people without Covid will cough more than three times on an average day and the proliferation of snotty noses will generate a lot of morning coughs as a result of mucus drip. If we have to prioritise people (and with current testing capacity it seems that we do) then I would be looking to test the "covid cough" cases first and then expand testing to the more speculative "common cold symptoms with a slight cough" cases only when and if capacity was high enough to handle the ridiculous amount of negative results you would have to process.

@IdblowJonSnow

A friend of mine tried to get tested with a cough and a sore, tight chest. They sent her away with a flea on her ear and told her to stop wasting their time!

Who are “they”?

DS had a slight productive cough and a runny nose and was positive.

I had a very slight tickly cough when I had covid. The more obvious symptoms were excruciating 24-hr long headache, severe body pain for 5 days, and struggling for oxygen from day 8. My kids must have caught it but only had heavy colds and no other symptoms, so none of us would have qualified for a test as there was no continuous cough, no high temp (well, 38.1 for one day) and change in sense of smell at the time. That developed much later and persists 6 months on.

The most common symptom of covid is fatigue followed by headache and they’re not even on the list.

There is quite clearly a distinctive "covid cough" that would alarm most people if they were to develop it and would prompt most of us to get a test
Sorry but this isn’t true for every person. Non of the people I know who have tested positive have had a ‘Covid’ cough. There isn’t anyway to know unless you test.

I think you are probably right about the ambiguity being deliberate though.

[quote ShouldWeChangeTheBulb]@TooLittleTooLate80 so you think people should only be tested if they literally never stop coughing?[/quote]
Not what you said

It sounds like children’s symptoms very much more than adults and most are probably asymptomatic. Given there is nowhere near enough testing capacity for every child with a cold and half of the positive cases have symptoms it begs the question of whether we should test children at all? Weekly pooled testing of classes seems like the best way to test them. The pooled test is positive so the bubble isolates for ten days. . You could also then do individual tests to work out which households should isolate.

Because we are all public citizens & adults. We share as much responsibility as you do to apply the guidance to ourselves. The guidance refers to episodes which is non specific and allows for interpretation. Most of us have not made such interpretation without some steer from a clinician.

@TooLittleTooLate80 what?