UK obsession with 3 Symptoms

[SLAW70s]

Anyone else utterly infuriated by the UK’s obsession with fever, cough and loss of taste/smell.

I believe that this may be contributing significantly to the failure of many to isolate and test when needed.

Compare UK / NHS guidance to CDC guidance (sorry can’t do a link):
*Watch for symptoms

People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19:

Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
This list does not include all possible symptoms. CDC will continue to update this list as we learn more about COVID-19*

Anyone care to summarise/ link to symptom lists from other countries? ( With translation if needed!)

What do others think?

Yes I know, thank you @stellagib. I have had all the same announcements as you drilled into me since March, I don’t need it explaining.

The PP with the runny nose mentioned she had a sore throat as well. Not any of the 3 symptoms that you need to isolate and test for.

Many assympomatic cases are picked up when people feel normal, so we clearly should treat feeling normal as a symptom, self isolate and test for it

@BogRollBOGOF

Many assympomatic cases are picked up when people feel normal, so we clearly should treat feeling normal as a symptom, self isolate and test for it

Other countries - those who've got on top of Covid, tested (and sometimes isolated) people who'd been in contact with confirmed cases, symptoms or not. Hence why these countries aren't in the same mess as us.

85% of cases presenting with those 3 symptoms sounds a lot, but the question is whether it is a big enough % to control the virus spread.

Also:
Assuming that every person with 1 of the symptoms gets tested you’ve still got 15% of cases and their contacts wandering around potentially infecting people. On top of which you have the false negatives and their contacts.

And that then gets mixed up with compliance and a lack of job security & financial support for those that need to isolate.

It looks like whatever we are doing isn’t working. Maybe adding another symptom or 2 would help but I wonder whether ensuring that people weren’t worse off for testing and isolating if contacted by test & trace would have a similar effect.

I'm in the US in a state with a low infection rate and enough testing that anyone can get a test for any reason. We haven't hit capacity.

BUT a big factor IMO is that children are not getting coughs and colds from each other despite school having restarted.

Everyone is wearing masks and staying far apart in school. They are staying home if they feel at all unwell. Teachers are teaching classes to both in-person and online students at once. Everyone has the tech they need to be able to attend.

Because kids are not getting other viruses, when they do show symptoms like cough, sore throat, fever, runny nose etc the assumption is that they might have Covid so they test straight away.

We haven't seen a significant increase in need for testing since schools returned.

Universities are doing their own testing, which leaves capacity for everyone else.

We also expanded our state testing capacity significantly, especially the lab processing.

When there is a need for a lot of testing on one site, they now have Covid testing buses that go to the sites. One school had a Covid outbreak - they tested everyone (1500 tests) in two days.

Other countries - those who've got on top of Covid, tested (and sometimes isolated) people who'd been in contact with confirmed cases, symptoms or not. Hence why these countries aren't in the same mess as us.

But here you have to self isolate for two weeks if you’re in contact with a confirmed case as well?

Other countries - those who've got on top of Covid, tested (and sometimes isolated) people who'd been in contact with confirmed cases, symptoms or not. Hence why these countries aren't in the same mess as us

But here you have to self isolate for two weeks if you’re in contact with a confirmed case as well

Except there will be people who aren’t.

You can have the best system in the world but if some people don’t adhere to the rules then it won’t bring results

I agree op, I’ve just tested positive and have none of the three symptoms. I was tested through work otherwise I wouldn’t have been tested at all. I had a runny nose and felt a bit tired, that is literally all.

I think my concern would be not whether you develop the symptoms eventually - I'll buy that - but whether you develop other symptoms first.

So okay, yes, if we must then hold testing until those 3 symptoms develop. But at least tell people to maybe stay home and don't go to the pub if they're getting those others.

And really really review kids where it shows up differently.

If you went by the CDC list you'd never get out of the house again. In the last week all of us have sneezed more than once, I've had one one bad headache, I've felt marginally nauseous, dh said he was feeling slightly dizzy when he got up this morning and I've been a bit sniffy.

All of us have had more than one sore throat over the summer, I think wearing masks causes those, so wouldn't want it added to the symptoms list!