'Do an LFT before you go out'

[Powersout]

I'm feeling pretty stupid at the moment. My husband tested positive on PCR on 23rd December and started isolating but as my daughter and I were testing negative on LFTs we decided to carry on with the original plan to go to my parents' for Christmas day. My parents were informed about the situation and had no hesitation in letting us come as long as LFTs were negative on the morning. Of course, I woke up with symptoms on Boxing Day and tested positive on an LFT and later PCR. Yesterday my Mum tested positive and now my Dad is showing symptoms...

In hindsight it was such a stupid thing to do. Earlier in the pandemic theres no way I would have gone to my parents house if someone in my household had tested positive. But I have followed government guidance throughout and was therefore following the 'do an LFT before you go out' message that seems to have been rammed down our throats over the last few weeks. But you can be highly infectious 2 days before you get a positive LFT cant you? So why aren't the government qualifying the message at all with this information? I get that it's a simpler message for the majority of the public who have no known exposure to positive cases but shouldn't the message be different for those of us who have had prolonged contact with a case? Or are we meant to just use our common sense which surely is not a great idea for a public health message?

As I said earlier, I feel bad and stupid for passing this on to my elderly parents. Not looking for sympathy but wondering if anyone else agrees that the message is confusing?

@Powersout your DH shat it all out! What a hero! I reckon the Daily Sport would pay £200 for that story, if your hubby is willing to pose on the loo, with a mask on and two thumbs up.

@doublemonkey

Surely if you've all had covid now and recovered, it's a good thing? Also shows how crap the vaccines actually are.

You'll be happy in the long run to have proper immunity now.

Yeah of course the vaccines are crap, they're only stopping people getting seriously ill & dying.

Stop spouting utter crap!!

Seriously though OP, shoulda woulda coulda. You followed the "advice" and took a risk to have Christmas. Lots of us did. Many of us didn't. But still, lots of us did. Don't beat yourself up. Your parents will be fine and, provided they're all vaccinated, they'll be walking antibody factories. It's all good, baby.

Omicron is the Sunak Strain. He's taken advantage of most businesses having a Christmas shut down and they're letting us all drop like flies. 😅 I wait all bloody year for these golden days between Christmas and New Year... but this year I'm spending them in isolation, refreshing the Ocado slots and rewatching back episodes of Couples Come Dine With Me. Deck the halls.

You checked with your parents, they said they were happy for you to still go and now they are dealing with the consequences. Personally I wouldn't have gone in your situation because it's common knowledge that you can be infectious before you test positive. I'm astounded at the number of people who seem to have not picked up this nugget of information over the last 2 years. Or is it that people are choosing to not acknowledge it so their plans are not messed up.

I think blaming the messaging is a way to absolve yourself of guilt.

Now, by saying that I don’t mean you need to sit there blaming yourself. But it should’ve been pretty obvious there was a risk and that your parents might ignore it just to see you. You ignored it to see them. That was your risk calculation and almost certainly all will be fine. But don’t blame the messaging because you feel a bit daft now.

The other thing is, I don’t think many of us will be escaping omicron. The question is more of timing. If you’re boosted and not about to go on holiday or something, then maybe it’s not such a bad time to get it. So maybe you don’t need to feel too bad.

I had covid and positive pcr tests but lateral flows showed absolutely nothing. They're good to pick up the odd case if you're well that otherwise wouldn't have been picked up but I wouldn't trust them if I'd been exposed to someone with covid

"Theres a lot of people in the general public who cant do an accurate risk/benefit analysis'.

This seems pretty ironic given the topic of this thread.

There have been lots of cases of parties weddings etc coming down with Omicron despite everyone there being vaxxed and lft negative beforehand.

The government were quite clear that the lft for seven days was about reducing chances of another pingdemic. Reducing isolation to 10 days to 7 with lft use was also to reduce staff absence. We have abandoned almost all attempts to control cases and are relying on NHS admissions still being manageable over the next few weeks due to omicrons reduced severity.

With Omicron It seems likely that if you've been indoors with a positive for even a few hours you are very likely to test positive. I'm back at school next week and will be amazed if I don't catch it by the end of Jan. This term will be 'i teresting'

Most people will crack on as getting infected with current prevalence levels and minimal mitigations seems inevitable for most people.

PCRs when you have symptoms, are testing children, or have a close contact positive case. That has always been the case I’m afraid and the rules have always been really clear about that.

@InaccurateDream

I think blaming the messaging is a way to absolve yourself of guilt.

Now, by saying that I don’t mean you need to sit there blaming yourself. But it should’ve been pretty obvious there was a risk and that your parents might ignore it just to see you. You ignored it to see them. That was your risk calculation and almost certainly all will be fine. But don’t blame the messaging because you feel a bit daft now.

Yes true. Pretty poor decision making. And then blaming the guidance which couldn’t be clearer. OP is at fault 100%z

I don't think you should really feel guilty, OP. Yes, you and your parents took a massive risk and you're all now dealing with the consequences of that risk, but it was a decision that you took together. They could have asked you not to come, but they chose to risk it anyway. It's pretty common knowledge that lateral flows aren't that reliable.

I do agree that the government messaging needs to be clearer, and personally, I think that the rules saround household contracts hould be stricter. It simply doesn't work to rely on people's common sense because so many people seem to lack the ability to make sensible decisions. However, I guess leaving it up to individuals to decide makes it easy for the government to absolve themselves and blame the public instead.

In the last few months where many of my friends have been dropping like flies with COVID, everyone else in the household has gone for PCRs once someone in the family had tested positive

It used to be that you were advised yo get a pcr and many workplaces still insist
You took the risk going its been nearly 2 years with info online etc
Also when my ds had it and I read the rules it still advised against visiting vulnerable people and masks in enclosed spaces etc

Well this advice is moot now given that there are no lateral flow tests left to send out…

Sorry go be blunt but every death of someone claiming a state pension saves the Government money not only once but every month.

I'm sorry OP but i can't comprehend how you 'work in healthcare' but also think this

I had no knowledge of incubation times for Covid - I only figured this out when Test and Trace asked me for all my contacts between 24th and 26th Dec i.e. 2 days before symptomatic.

It's like saying I work in healthcare but my child/mother/partner has the flu and I'd have no idea I might be infectious until I actually had strong symptoms. Every virus in history has been transmissible before it's higher symptomatic - that's common knowledge, not healthcare specific. If you knew your DH was positive and chose to go ahead you did so at your own/your families risk.

And I'm not saying that in a judgy way, people In my family did similar and we all agreed to it. But you can't fake faux shock and blame the government when you failed to follow common sense. It's like it's not illegal to drive when 'tired' but we all know how to we are/how urgently we need to get somewhere/how high our risk tolerance is. If somehow has a crash when they've only had 6 hours sleep rather than 8 it's not the govs fault for not explicitly ruling on 8 hours, you've gotta take some responsibility for yourselves and your decisions in this case.

It's so confusing and that is infuriating. Op followed the guidelines. Similar situation here. Negative lft on Xmas Eve. Elderly in laws came Xmas day and left Boxing Day. DH did precautionary lft on Boxing Day to see elderly
Relative and it came up positive. No symptoms. Mine is still negative. I can't do daily ones as there are none available and I don't want to waste them so only doing them
On days I need to go out. Email telling me to get pcr test unless exempt. No explanation of exempt so did some digging on internet and confirmed (I think) that being double jabbed means I'm
Exempt). Therefore I can go about daily business out and about with recommendation I do daily lft with negative result. I'm going out but trying to avoid people as much as poss and wearing face mask and cleaning hands a lot.

Work have told me if I'm Double jabbed and had booster, as long as I have no symptoms, if I do test positive I've got to still go in which baffles me as the vaccine and booster doesn't stop you passing it on. And they wonder why rates are going up

@Ostagazuzulum OP didn’t follow guidelines thought which state if you are a close contact of a positive case then you are ‘strongly advised to take daily LFDs’ and to limit contact with people outside your household

You’re legally required to self isolate if you test positive so your work are wrong, assuming you’re in the UK.

If it had been a week after he's tested positive I could understand your logic, but it was 48gours. I know you're already feeling bad, and I'm hope everyone is ok, but in your situation, I can't imagine I would have ever done the same.

It does surprise me that you went to be honest.
If someone if our family tested positive there’s no way I’d go to other people’s houses unless it was unavoidable, I have absolutely no trust in anything Boris says.

@Meandmini3

The government really don’t give a sh*t about us. Never forget that when you’re following their guidance. Always be a cynic.

exactly which is why i dont do anything they advise , i refuse to go back to wearing a mask because we have all been ordered to and iv never done a lateral flow test ever , i wore a mask through most of 2019 and 2020 and strictly adhered to the first lockdown , but they can fuck off with it all now , just amazes me that there are still loads of people out there willing to comply with the latest directive

@chaosrabbitland you do realise that the virus doesn't give a fuck about what you or the government think?
Wearing a mask and doing lateral flows helps keep yourself and those around you safer. Refusing to do it isn't a "fuck you" to Boris, it's a "fuck you" to the people you mix with everyday.

@Ozanj

PCRs when you have symptoms, are testing children, or have a close contact positive case. That has always been the case I’m afraid and the rules have always been really clear about that.

In england it isnt. It changed in mid december to lateral flow for non symptomatic close contacts for 7 days for over 5s. Unless not double vaccinated then 10 days self isolation regardless of any negative lateral flows.

Interestingly DD was doing daily LFTs and all positive so did a PCR which came back negative. She did another PCR to confirm and that was also negative 🤷‍♀️

Similar scenario here. Adult dd tested positive on pcr a few days before christmas. Her partner was testing negative daily on lfts and wanted to still come to us on christmas morning with the dgcs. We weren't happy to do this and lo and behold dd's partner tested positive on boxing day.