Being honest, who else is doing this?

[HonestTest]

Talking to a group of friends who are split between what they now do in regards to Covid. None are CEV.

Some still testing for every symptom on either LFTs or PCRs and isolating if positive as previously required for up to 10 days (or early if neg day 6/7).

Others, like me, now not testing at all even with potential symptoms and just staying in until they feel well enough like they would have in 2019 whether that's 3 days or 10.

What are you doing now?

When tests start to cost I imagine we'll see the number of people bothering with them drop but it's been very freeing to not have to bother anymore with the circus of scrambling to find a box of gold dust lfts every time my DC or I sneezes and just treating what could be potentially Covid (I wouldn't know) like anything else.

(I appreciate the answer to this will be entirely different if you are CEV and that these people will still have access to free testing and will understandably want to do so).

@Watapalava

Collective advice for CEV is gone yet people still perceive themselves at the same risk as pre vaccines - they're not! - nowhere near.

The risk is lessened, but still there, and is different for every CEV person. Some of these people don't respond to vaccines at all, so their level of risk is the same. Some were not able to receive the vaccine at all, like my sibling with late-stage cancer.

People now are fully working alongside others with covid daily and then you have idiots calling for masks/ventilation/bubbles!

They aren't idiots. Remember the advice? Wearing masks primarily protects others - so if the Covid-positive among you wear masks, at least you have a modicum of protection. Well-ventilated spaces can't hurt either. I'm not sure why you have a problem with these measures.

Yes some people will be ill - i was ill with covid for 3-4 weeks despite being in 40s and healthy and double vax and boostered but i still think we should go back to normal.

If you, healthy and fully vaxed, were ill for a month, then consider for a moment how a person with a few co-morbidities would get on - even fully vaxed like you.

The sooner testing stops the better imo-. People are obsessed by a risk that no longer exists

It exists. Sorry.

We aren’t testing. We haven’t felt under the weather throughout most of this ridiculous period (we are lucky in that we are a very healthy bunch of people) so haven’t felt the need. We tested when we were told Toby school/choir etc but other than that no. I think there are some people who like the drama of it all tbh.

@cantkeepawayforever I'm the poster in the factory!
I work an 8 hr shift standing shoulder to shoulder with colleagues with no ventilation. 78% of our staff are Eastern block workers with the vast majority living in HMO. We've worked through the pandemic, had screens, done mask wearing and at some stage implemented testing. Two colleagues died of covid on ventilators side by side in icu 2 days apart. One was my best mate at work.
We know how important it is to stop the spread of covid and keep people safe. Two weeks ago we stopped wearing masks, screens were removed and we stopped twice weekly testing. The workforce pushed for this. We've had a shit two years and we've had enough. We want our lives back. Maybe 1 in 20 are still wearing masks, out of hundreds. I know most aren't testing. I also know some who are. Me and dh worked with covid positive people last week. Dh has it, I dont. Both same symptoms. Both feel rough enough not to go into work. No sick pay and ssp doesn't kick in till day 4. So very little wages for our household this week. Do I blame those working with covid? No. I guess we were just unlucky. I appreciate some unlucky people will get seriously ill when we haven't but I'm done with covid restrictions. I'm going for common sense and personal responsibility. But not regular testing.
Bit of a rant, and certainly not directed at you. I think anyone that's had to work through this pandemic everyday has come out the other side a little different to how they went in.

i test if we have symtoms. I have had it badly twice, long covid nearly a year. My youngest has also had it twice and is suffering long covid too - 9 years old and on a beautiful spring day like today she is in bed so tired she can hardly open her eyes instead of playing (she went to bed at 4.30pm yesterday!) All because people refused to test their kids and sent them to school went it was still mandatory to isolate.

It's all well and good for those that feel a bit rough to want to carry on but plenty of people have serious reactions to covid and just going about your day while spreading is going to make others really sick.

The governments lifting of restrictions is mad - he's just doing to be more popular and swing attention away from all the illegal parties. The NHS staff i know all say it's insane and bloody dangerous.

Then there are people like me who cant have the vaccine as i'm allergic to it and others who are triple vaccinated and still get covid and die.

Personally - i dont want other people to go through what we have been through over the last 2 years so i will test and stay home. Though once we run out of free ones i wont be able to afford to pay for them, but maybe by then they will have changed their minds and issue them again! As a family we never get colds, or other illnesses and the covid hits us so suddenly - fine one minute then 10 mins later blinding headache like no other, shortly followed but fever and intense sweating and shivering and goes rapidly down hill from there so it would be obvious if we did get it again.

@dorisdohnson Yes indeed, it would add up quickly for a large family testing regularly, although maybe the price will come down further once free ones go. But I don't think most people will be testing regularly.

At say £1.50-£2 a test, less than a cup of coffee, many people will be able to test before mingling indoors with very vulnerable people, which is perhaps what matters most. If I were in charge, I would be looking to help those on low incomes do the same. I don't know what the answer is for very vulnerable people in f2f jobs and as some pp have said,

@Rowgtfc72, I am so sorry about your experiences.

Still testing, still isolating. Husband tested positive a couple of weeks ago, completely asymptomatic but isolated until day 6 following a neg lft on day 5&6. I then caught it very recently and isolated until second negative result on day 9. We follow these protocols to keep the more vulnerable safe. We have a my elderly mother to consider too.

Why test kids when it’s been widely broadcast that the kit contains Ethylene Oxide.

One of the worst affected people I know of was a late 20's, female, PE teacher with no pre-existing health issues who caught it early 2021, so that's a massive assumption to make.

It's not a MASSIVE assumption to make at all. Even prior to vaccines, the overwhelming majority of young healthy adults would have coped with Covid just fine. You knowing one 20 something who didn't doesn't change the fact that statistically it is a mild disease for most.

@dorisdohnson

Nearly £2 for a single test is still pretty expensive though, especially for families with multiple people to test.

Exactly.

We have 4 kids in our house, two of whom are in nursery and come back with some cold or another weekly. Multiple tests on all kids plus me and DH adds up even at "just" £2 a test.

Add to that I'm self employed as well, I certainly shall not be seeking out cases of Covid.

And since everyone likes to be very anecdotal with their evidence on here, my Dad had Covid recently (CV) as have two of the four kids. All of whom had nothing more than a headache and a runny nose for 3 days and felt fine after that.

Not denying others get it a lot worse of course but everyone always comes on these threads with the horror stories and seems to dismiss the MANY that have had extremely mild Covid.

Put simply, I cannot afford to not work for potentially 10 days because of a runny nose. Whether I isolated or not would be decided on how ill I was, same as it was prior to 2020.

We stopped testing after we all had covid 3/4 weeks ago.

If we are poorly we will stay at home if we feel well we won’t.

I felt unwell with it but nothing worse than mild flu, certainly not worth shutting down the whole country for. Just my opinion and I won’t judge others who still feel the need to wear masks and carry on testing etc.

@bemusedmoose So what’s your solution? Hide away forever?

@ThisTownAintBigEnoughForBoth

You definitely can get tests in lots of places, if you want to. Sounds to me like OP doesn't want to.

I can't. Let me know where I can get tests, and I'll be there.

@bemusedmoose, that sounds hard, I'm sorry. FWIW, I didn't get any sense from your post that you wanted people to hide away forever!

It’s gone all 2020 on here now @HonestTest.

Selfish granny killers again. Bonkers.

I presume you've all seen the news of the recent study that covid literally shrinks your brain?it's equivalent to about a decades' worth of brain ageing and shrinking. This is in addition to all the other hidden effects, including damaging the heart.

This brain damage occurs even in people who only experienced mild symptoms.

It doesn't matter if - lucky you - you only get a mild case. You get ageing, shrinking brain regardless.

This isn't "just like a cold". This is a ticking health time bomb.

All of you planning to go into work with covid, regardless of the effect it will have on other people's lives - shame on you.

@ArcheryAnnie
I'm really not convinced that every person who has had covid will have a decades worth of brain shrinking and aging, although that could be just my post-covid aged, shrunken brain speaking.

I don’t think it’s my brain that’s shrunk

Nor mine.

I don't think you would notice yourself if your brain has shrunken. You might want to ask your family or friends if your behaviour/personality/memory has changed. I am sure your gp can help if you or your relatives suspect brain shrinkage.

@WouldBeGood

I don’t think it’s my brain that’s shrunk

Pretty sure mine shrunk years ago...or maybe it's just never worked...

Anyway I'll be continuing to go to work even if I turn green as long as I feel fine because unfortunately I earn minimum wage and I don't get sick pay. I quite enjoy being able to eat, feed my kids and pay my mortgage. I haven't yet figured out how to do all that by not working but if anybody knows then I'm all ears 👌

DD currently has it. She's little and despite a bad cough she's roaring around the garden on her bike and playing and being her demanding usual self. I've tested myself out of curiosity. Negative. I suspect it's only a matter of days until I get a positive. Not really worried and if my symptoms were like the last time I had it (which was none!) and as long as I feel generally well then I'll probably still go out and do necessary things like food shops etc. Would obviously skip dinner with friends though.

I’m with you @mightbealittlebitmad

Our area is so bad at the moment we have been advised by the council to pretty much go back to the original advice of hands, face, space. Obviously next week the virus will magically disappear when Boris announces we no longer need to test!

@mightbealittlebitmad thank you for putting so politely something i was certainly going to much less politely.

If we are poorly we will stay at home if we feel well we won’t

Seems sensible!