No isolation when covid positive in March

[Whathefisgoingon]

I just cannot get my head around this.

As far as I know, no other country has announced this.

For two years they’ve told us that it’s dangerous and now they’re prepared to send me to work directly next to someone infected with covid?

I had always believed it should be more socially acceptable to simply stay home when sick, as too many feel forced in to work with flu etc, but this takes the biscuit.

I understand we need to find a way to get back to some kind of normal but this seems extreme.

Will this really happen in less than 2 months!?

Do you know what, I'm so over reading "but what about those ECV......"
Should the rest of us give up our businesses/jobs and social lives so that people who are vulnerable can be put first in society? The economy is on its knees, the hospitality sector at breaking point..... and yet people want restrictions to carry on forever so that it validates their chronic health anxiety.

Our business has scraped through this pandemic by the skin of its teeth. DH and I thankfully had savings so we could afford not to draw a wage but there are a hell of a lot of businesses/self employed people who couldn't do that and just went without. We've lost so many fellow traders who just couldn't carry the burden..... hard working decent people who'd put their heart and soul into their business.

There was a time in this pandemic when we rightly put the vulnerable first. But that was never a promise to carry it on forever at the expense of everyone else's sanity and wellbeing.

@CrymeaRvr

It’s all part of learning to live with it. Though I’m Not sure how my colleagues would feel if I was testing positive and came into the office…

Well you probably won’t be ‘testing positive’, because there won’t be any community testing.

Letting the bodies pile up or become disabled is an ableist, ageist, and racist policy (and it is systemic racism - and let's not forget all the research indicating an increased risk for certain groups, potentially genetic - even after taking into account vaccine take up).

It's also going to disable a significant minority of the population. Which, as well as individual devastation, will impact heavily on the NHS and the longer term economy.

Good! My DC has covid. Had a fever on Friday. Tested positive yesterday. He's been running around the house today like normal, he's absolutely fine. He will need to miss the next three days of school and potentially the whole week depending on how he tests, even though he is not ill. DH and I need to take time off work to look after him in this time. Even though he's not ill. We get paid dependency leave for this and I have a flexible employer who allows me to WFH in the evening when DH is home. Not everyone has that.

www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-third-wave-sees-continued-ethnic-disparities-in-deaths/

The higher mortality rates seen in Bangladeshi groups and Pakistani men are also partly explained by lower vaccine take up but the ONS said this did not explain the disparities completely.

www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/04/gene-common-in-south-asian-people-doubles-risk-of-covid-death-study-finds

@KKslidoff yes there must be so many children off with Covid who are absolutely fine. It can’t continue.

@Tealightsandd

Letting the bodies pile up or become disabled is an ableist, ageist, and racist policy (and it is systemic racism - and let's not forget all the research indicating an increased risk for certain groups, potentially genetic - even after taking into account vaccine take up).

It's also going to disable a significant minority of the population. Which, as well as individual devastation, will impact heavily on the NHS and the longer term economy.

So what do you suggest long term then?

It's not 2020 any more you know, you're going to have to let this go soon.

www.nihr.ac.uk/news/lung-abnormalities-found-in-long-covid-patients-with-breathlessness/29798

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/29/long-covid-study-finds-abnormality-in-lungs-that-could-explain-breathlessness?

From the above article:
Findings raise possibility Covid may cause microscopic damage not detected by normal tests

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/12/long-covid-wife-suicide-give-others-hope

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/12/long-covid-trial-britain-short-term-virus

www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/long-covid-help-me-get-my-life-back

it cant carry on indefinitely but i do feel march is too early to drop all isolation-especially people having chemo

No difference for teachers then…

Good! I've just taken over a week's unpaid leave to look after an isolating DC that is not in the slightest bit ill and I've now got the worry of how I'm going make my next wage cover all the bills. This isn't the first time I've had to take 10 days off to look after a dc that's perfectly well. It's not sustainable. I have every sympathy with anyone medically vulnerable, but we can't allow others to become socially vulnerable to protect them.

@Tealightsandd

Letting the bodies pile up or become disabled is an ableist, ageist, and racist policy (and it is systemic racism - and let's not forget all the research indicating an increased risk for certain groups, potentially genetic - even after taking into account vaccine take up).

It's also going to disable a significant minority of the population. Which, as well as individual devastation, will impact heavily on the NHS and the longer term economy.

Look, you alway pop up on these threads with this kind of thing. What do you hope to achieve? The fact is, all restrictions will be over next month whether you like it or not. If you want to personally carry on with mitigations then go for it. But you cannot expect everyone else to do the same come March when it's not longer the 'law'.

My DS tested positive for the 2nd time in 3 months. Last time he was poorly for 2 days but I was positive too. This time no symptoms whatsoever! He was running round the house having the time of his life. I am vaccinated but a lone parent, and finding someone willing to look after a positive child let's face it, is impossible! So I was forced to take unpaid leave. 7 days later he was allowed back to school and then I test positive and isolation started again. So that's more time off unpaid and a very very annoyed employer.

So though I don't understand how after 2 years we soon just get to carry on with is as normal, I welcome it. My DS can't afford to lose time at school when he isn't poorly and I will work whilst ill (unless sickness) because I cannot afford to lose income

@toomuchlaundry

Do people who think all isolation should go as they don't get paid, do you go into work with flu, D&V, notifiable diseases?

I'm never ill. Never had flu in my life, haven't had D&V in nearly 10 years. If I was genuinely too ill to work I wouldn't go in. But with Covid I wasn't that ill and it was 10 days at home, which is far longer than I've ever had to take off work with any other illness.

@Sparklingbrook

If you have flu and D&V and you don’t go to work it’s because it’s symptomatic.

And so it's no different to how Covid will be in that regard in time.

@BlueberryBalloon

No difference for teachers then…

Why do people keep saying this? I know many, many children who have isolated due to a positive test since Christmas (including us). Most asymptomatic but picked up on routine LFT’s. Our school has had 60 cases (therefore isolations) in the past 3 weeks. So to make out that no one is testing kids is actually pretty offensive. I couldn’t work for 2 weeks due to isolating with my asymptomatic children.

I don’t think it’s a given that every CEV person will be badly affected if they did happen to catch Covid.

So what do you suggest long term then?

Longer term? Well we don't know yet what will happen with this still new and evolving disease. But we will hopefully have more of the rest of the world vaccinated, which is the moral thing to to but also important to reduce the risk of a more vaccine resistant mutation developing.

In the future we'll also have better knowledge, and wider availability of the for now globally short supply drug treatments.

In the meantime, what should we do? Well that's easy. What the world's experts - doctors and scientists including the WHO advise. Vaccine Plus.

We do what we do with cars. Sinple and basic mitigations. Just as seat belts, child seats, and speeding limits don't prevent all car deaths but reduce the risks, so do masks, vaccine passes, and good ventilation reduce the risks of SARS-COV-2.

Mitigations which of course keep the economy going.

Basic infection control mitigations are how we genuinely 'live with' a disease that kills and disables many.

[quote treeflowercat]@Sparklingbrook

If you have flu and D&V and you don’t go to work it’s because it’s symptomatic.

And so it's no different to how Covid will be in that regard in time.[/quote]
I think we agree with each other.

I hope to fucking god the shit analogies end when isolation does. Especially seatbelt ones.

@ShallWeTalkAboutBruno

I hope to fucking god the shit analogies end when isolation does. Especially seatbelt ones.

Hear hear.

@ShallWeTalkAboutBruno

I hope to fucking god the shit analogies end when isolation does. Especially seatbelt ones.

Absolutely 100% this. Because the analogies are bullshit.

@CakeRabbit

This is already happening in schools

Really? Our school won't even let kids in if there is a positive in the household and they are negative

@ShallWeTalkAboutBruno

I hope to fucking god the shit analogies end when isolation does. Especially seatbelt ones.

Yep I’d welcome that

Well. I’m CEV, shielded population, work in education, have a child at home. I’ve had 4 jabs.
I’m also self employed, so is my dh.
We have all had Covid in the last two weeks.
I reported my + test on day 1, was triaged for antivirals (which I didn’t take, under careful consideration with direction from my marvellous consultant, who has gone above and beyond for me and no doubt countless others throughout this pandemic) on day 2, felt shit for three days and then continued to test positive for the next five. I could have gone back to work.
Dh tested positive, felt a bit ropey for 2 days then had to isolate for another 8.
Dd tested positive, fluey symptoms for about 24 hours, went back after two negative results day 6 and 7.

We lost close to 5k in income over those two weeks between us, which was vexing when we both felt able to work after the initial illness.

I think it’s appropriate that we go back to non enforced isolation - antivirals and vaccines are doing the heavy lifting.