Time to change the top 3?

[MrsWarleggan]

Am I alone in thinking that the "top 3 covid symptoms" bollocks should be scrapped. My office is currently in the midst of a massive covid outbreak and not ONE person had any of the 3 covid symptoms?

11 out of 13 people have since tested positive. I was the first to test due to being invited by the Zoe App to have one. The invite even said "you are not displaying covid symptoms".

We are being torn to shreds by our employer saying that we should not have been in the office, but due to an archaic attendance policy if everyone was off work whenever they had a sore throat or headache everyone would be on the verge of dismissal for unsatisfactory attendance!

I think there's an argument for broadening the list of symptoms, yes. The trouble is, there is still limited testing capacity, and too many Covid symptoms are more likely to indicate something else (a bad cold for example). Plus many people are asymptomatic and would never get tested anyway. So actually the "solution" would be the ability to mass test everyone, regardless of symptoms or not.

Your sample size of 11 is not large enough to deduce that the list of symptoms is wrong. This is being monitored at a national and global level.

@RedskyAtnight

I totally agree, but the UK seem to be the only ones sticking to the top 3. Other countries have a large spectrum of symptoms. Mass testing does seem the only way forward for me.

What would you change them to, though? Even the Zoe app says that the most common initial symptoms are headache and fatigue, but that only approx 1 in 10 that they send for tests with those symptoms come back positive so that would mean 9 in 10 people taking time off work, losing money, struggling with childcare, for a negative test outcome. As much as I dislike and disagree with the government's approach to this pandemic, I can understand them continuing to use the top 3. Zoe app also states that 85% of those testing positive for covid will have at least one of those three symptoms (not counting asymptomatic people).