How do you feel about testing/isolation ending?

[Usernumber5253747293]

If it happens ^

I was speaking to a relative earlier and I was saying how glad I will be when and if all the isolation and testing rules end. It's not that I don't take covid seriously, because we really have. I spent nearly 2 years being so anxious about getting to catching it and being fine!! I know not everyone gets away with it's so mildly but my experience of covid wasn't too bad at all!

Anyway, both dc have sen. Isolation periods have been hard (Dd has had covid twice) m, holding down to test them has been hard, waiting for test results etc. I can't bloody wait to feel like I don't have to anymore. We all had covid in December. The isolation period was hell, far worse than the actual illness. My dc were climbing the walls! Dc had barely any symptoms really and found the isolation hard.

Of course if dc were ill I'd keep them off until better as I would have before covid. I've always kept my kids away from people when germy.

My relative is moaning about all the rules ending and how it will spread it! Which is ironic as they were very poorly last month with covid symptoms and didn't test or isolate but that's another story 😅

I just feel people should use their common sense. If you feel ill, stay home. If you have to go out when ill don't go too close to people, wash your hands and practise good respiratory hygiene!

It's a good thing right? Surely I'm not the only one waiting ever so patiently for any announcement over it 😅

You are already surrounded by Covid positive kids I can assure you

I don't think so. We test our kids every Monday at the moment. We caught an asymptomatic one a few weeks back. He went home. Another kid tested positive at home mid week. Some of them test at home when they get a cold. It helps. When all that goes as obviously it will when isolation ends how can it not have an effect.

I'm sure we'll be fine for a bit but it's only a matter of time before people start getting it again. Some staff and kids have had it 3 times. I know of a kid who had it twice within a 90 day period. We're a small school with small classes but still have been hit quite badly with it.

Not everyone gets a truly mild case, in fact everyone I know who has had it recently has had an unpleasant case, children included

But this is the case with flu, an endemic illness that peaks in winter and we sometimes have a bad variant. We carry on

Well we all just had very mild cases.

Under any normal standards DS would have had 1 day off school and the rest of us would have carried on. Instead, we all isolated for 16 days in total. There is no way that's proportionate or sustainable, so absolutely, time to move on.

But I don't remember a time when loads of staff were off with flu. I just don't. I also don't know several young, healthy, fit people who had flu then ended up with lasting breathing/lung difficulties.
I don't really believe it's comparable.

I’m glad. The last few months for us have been constant disruption due to asymptotic cases or people feeling a bit coldy for a couple of days. I really couldn’t face another possibly 10 days of trying to juggle work and childcare. It wasn’t so bad when everyone was dealing with that, but colleagues have very little sympathy now and quite honestly I don’t blame them.

I’ve thought many times over the last few months how much easier our lives would be if I didn’t work. And I know quite a few women who have just given up work as a consequence. That is not a good outcome for anyone.

As a teacher, if I now test positive and feel well enough, I'll be in teaching over 180 students each day. Working in close contact with them. Let's just hope none of them are CEV or have family that are. Or are the unlucky ones who are left with long term effects. Several of my tutor group have not been able to taste or smell for over a year. Not life threatening but life changing. One has bad asthma when was fit before COVID. But hey, Covid is 'just a cold'.

@Shadeelane

But I don't remember a time when loads of staff were off with flu. I just don't. I also don't know several young, healthy, fit people who had flu then ended up with lasting breathing/lung difficulties. I don't really believe it's comparable.

I don't know a single person who has had lasting lung difficulties after Covid. And I know probably about 50 people who have had it now of varying ages.

And it's certainly not over. We need to be cautious.

I've got news for you, it will never actually be over

We don't seem to have learned anything at all from the pandemic. People seem determined to return to where we were before with people forcing themselves in, only to make those who are vulnerable really unwell. If we are to drop testing and staying at home then we need much better and stronger public messaging and a decent sick pay system that encourages actively infectious people to stay at home, thus reducing overall sickness levels in the country.

if asymptomatic kids can come in and spread it around unchecked I can't see it ending well.

Well, that will already be happening. Loads of people aren’t doing regular asymptomatic testing anymore, and even if the rules didn’t change, that number would only increase as more and more people stopped.

We don't seem to have learned anything at all from the pandemic

We'll I've certainly learnt that limiting my child's exercise out of doors, time in school and social contact with their peers is appalling for their health and development.

@mumsneedwine

As a teacher, if I now test positive and feel well enough, I'll be in teaching over 180 students each day. Working in close contact with them. Let's just hope none of them are CEV or have family that are. Or are the unlucky ones who are left with long term effects. Several of my tutor group have not been able to taste or smell for over a year. Not life threatening but life changing. One has bad asthma when was fit before COVID. But hey, Covid is 'just a cold'.

You are aware that your extremely vulnerable pupils are just as much at risk from a cold yes? If not then you bloody well should be. Colds can range vastly from being very mild to almost flu like. I assume you will be happy for teachers to take sick leave for colds too then. Nobody gave a shit precovid about vulnerable people getting cold/ sickness bug germs so I find a lot of this sudden concern for them rather false. The amount of people who would happily send kids into school after d and v bugs without observing the 48 hour rule was off the scale. Didn’t see huge concern about that. I can under anxiety after all the media over the top scare mongering but please don’t dress it up as concern for others.

@TheKeatingFive

We don't seem to have learned anything at all from the pandemic

We'll I've certainly learnt that limiting my child's exercise out of doors, time in school and social contact with their peers is appalling for their health and development.

Too many people don’t seem to care about that. It’s all about Covid, Covid, Covid. Lockdowns should only ever be an absolute last resort.

People are already being forced into work when they have covid, because of inadequate sick pay. That isn't a new thing.
@VikingOnTheFridge Some people with Covid are doubtless being forced in to work due to inadequate sick pay, but that certainly doesn't apply to everyone. Your argument is a bit like saying, "Some people ignore the speed limit when they drive, so we might as well abolish speed limits."

I'm curious to know how employers/managers will handle this.

For example, you know that one member of staff has a health complaint, one has caring responsibilities and one is pregnant for example, but another member of staff comes in looking dreadful, sneezing, feverish etc but says they don't want to test or go off sick. Other staff members are concerned. How would you manage that situation? Genuinely interested.

Of course. It’s at a manageable stage and we must get back to normal.

Too many people don’t seem to care about that. It’s all about Covid, Covid, Covid. Lockdowns should only ever be an absolute last resort.
I haven't seen a single poster on this thread argue for another lockdown. Requiring people to self-isolate if they have Covid is not a "lockdown"

@containsnuts

I'm curious to know how employers/managers will handle this.

For example, you know that one member of staff has a health complaint, one has caring responsibilities and one is pregnant for example, but another member of staff comes in looking dreadful, sneezing, feverish etc but says they don't want to test or go off sick. Other staff members are concerned. How would you manage that situation? Genuinely interested.

Same as you would have done previously if someone comes in with a bad cold or flu.

Requiring people to self-isolate if they have Covid is not a "lockdown"

Trust me, isolating my perfectly healthy family for 16 days felt like a lockdown. It was a lockdown on a shorter and localised basis.

@containsnuts

I'm curious to know how employers/managers will handle this.

For example, you know that one member of staff has a health complaint, one has caring responsibilities and one is pregnant for example, but another member of staff comes in looking dreadful, sneezing, feverish etc but says they don't want to test or go off sick. Other staff members are concerned. How would you manage that situation? Genuinely interested.

I remember getting an email pre Covid re people coming in sick as it was a company with high number of freelancers who preferred to get paid than stay off.

People asked to not come in. It was different to usual due to pay structure but it can be done by management.

@containsnuts Employers would have a responsibility to stop an ill employee from attending work whatever the illness was.

Firstly, because an unwell employee is potentially an unsafe employee who can't perform their job.

And also because if the unwell employee is infectious you've potentially got the whole workforce off ill and the business grinds to a halt.

People being sick with contagious illnesses is not a new thing.

BUT I do think it's too soon to stop mandatory isolation for covid because we have a third of the population (37%) unvaccinated. That means we'll get another wave I should think.

@2X4B523P

Very happy that we'll be back to normal and think it'll be fine. There was concern from some with the dropping of the mask mandate but just over three weeks later and cases are just under half what they were on the 26th of January and deaths are nearly half too.

That’s true re cases dropping

Trust me, isolating my perfectly healthy family for 16 days felt like a lockdown. It was a lockdown on a shorter and localised basis.
One family isolating due to Covid is not a "lockdown" in the sense in which that word is normally used. Isolation due to being a close contact was abolished some time ago (save possibly for unvaccinated adults ,which I agree is an anomaly). If you mean your family was self-isolating due to actually having Covid, you were not "perfectly healthy ".

Thrilled. It has caused me no end of bother in my work life.

When I was pregnant, I took a day off sick to avoid a colleague who came in two days running with awful sickness and diarrhoea but for some reason refused to go home despite everyone else encouraging them to do so (we got sick pay, btw). Nothing was worth risking my pregnancy so I made that decision for myself - however unpopular it made me. I was lucky to get away with it but others in a similar situation wouldn't. I feel for them re covid. It's a horrible feeling being knowingly exposed to an infection that might be dangerous for you or your loved ones.