Is covid growing rampant again

[Prizlime]

I read an article online and it says it is growing. Another article says that a newer symptom for starting off is a sore throat.

I am in work and my colleague and boss both have sore throats.

I'm supposed to be going away on holidays. I feel fine to be honest but the idea of getting sick right now or withing the next week doesn't appeal to me.

Why would people bother testing if they were going to go to 'gatherings' regardless of the result? Why would they spend the money? People who say 'we just have to live with it' are not likely to be testing at all (and in a way, they're absolutely right, we do have to live with it, because what other option is there?).

If you're CEV and likely to be at risk of becoming seriously ill with covid (or live with someone who is), you're not likely to be attending large gatherings anyway (I don't, while cases are high). There's a huge chance you'll encounter someone with covid who doesn't know they have it. Or who has tested and got a negative result - my last two infections were symptomatic, but I didn't get a positive result for almost a week with both.

Just as I was careful in cold/flu seasons previously, I'm now careful when cases of covid are high. It's annoying, but it's part of life when you're immunosuppressed, and always has been. I certainly don't want families spending their last tenners on tests or people losing their jobs to 'protect' me. People have done enough and lost enough already.

Just a sore throat

Ripping through

Bodies piling high

Kill granny

Wear a mask or stay home

LOCKDOWN, NOW!!!

100,000 infections a day by the seventytwelfth of Junevember

If you don't like masks, you'll hate a ventilator

Etc

If you don't like masks, you'll hate a ventilator

Ah sweet memories!

I ve known and still know people who go into work when ill, as some sort of badge of honour and take the attitude of "i m ill, so you can have it too" not helped by all the fuckin stupid ad's for Beechams and Lemsip that make out you can carry on with your normal life regardless.

Of course there are many who genuinely have no choice and that of course is down to a real lack of care by both Govt and employers.

Out of curiosity, what term would you use instead of 'selfish' for those who do behave in a selfish way?

I'm not talking about the people who could stay off but choose to go in, though. However it might be worth examining the culture of presenteeism in those cases (ah, remember at the start of the pandemic when we were told that presenteeism was a thing of the past?!). You can be fairly sure that even if sick leave is offered, some people will feel incredibly pressured to crack on regardless.

And to be fair, staying home for a bit of a cold is probably a bit much. If I stayed home every time I had a sniffle I'd barely leave the house!

@VampiresWife people test for all sorts of reasons - from needing to take antivirals, to just wanting to know, to deciding whether to visit elderly parents or go to work and a whole host of reasons. Some will use this knowledge to limit exposure elsewhere, some will choose to increase someone else's risk of a shitty outcome instead - CEV or not. There are those at immediate risk and those who will be at increased risk of or develop conditions as a result of covid.

Depends on what you mean by selfish though, doesn't it.

On this thread people have been called selfish for not wanting to lose their jobs/needing to pay their rent. On others, people exempt from wearing masks due to often debilitating conditions have been called selfish.

It's been bandied about so much over the past two and a half years it's almost meaningless now.

@VampiresWife

How on earth is that cheap? If you're a family of five with DC in school and you're testing for every sniffle, how much might you be spending on tests every month? There's a cost of living crisis, on the offchance you didn't know.

This is what I mean about privilege. Imagine thinking that people can afford to spend upward of £20 a month on tests, and that it's 'cheap'. Incredible

It's fascinating that you instantly sprang to this. I meant that, in comparison, tests in Australia are quite expensive. If you cannot afford them, you can get a free PCR - did you read that part? Schemes also exist for eligible people for free tests.

So, no, I don't think people can necessarily find that much extra on tests, and I never said that. Thanks.

You said yh

@VampiresWife I was referring to what I called selfish in my post. 'Lots of people talk about cost. There are however people that will go to a gathering knowingly positive, go to a playgroup, go to a restaurant, get a taxi etc. They will sneer at someone supplying tests with a golden anniversary gathering, using the phrase 'we have to live with it / it's just a cold / anxiety / someone could be asymptomatic' to excuse anti-social and (yes, I'll be flamed, but selfish) behaviour. They'll also say 'why shouldn't I do x/y/z as someone else could have covid anyway' - again an excuse for shitty behaviour, as though maximising the risk in every situation is a good thing.'

@PerfectlyPreservedQuagaarWarrior

It would be interesting to hear the views of Australians whose financial situations are challenging enough that they can't view twenty quid as cheap, who can't afford the fifty Australian dollar test packs.

Read my response to @VampiresWife above.

Out of curiosity, what term would you use instead of 'selfish' for those who do behave in a selfish way?

It's just your made-up definition of selfish though. You want people to adhere to rules that you set and when they don't, or won't, or can't, then you call them selfish.

There are a very vocal set of people on here who have been more than happy to sit at home whilst other people pick and pack and deliver things to them, happy for other people to empty their bins and keep the lights and keep their internet working. To outsource their perception of risk to other people and then call these same people selfish for cracking on with going to work and paying their bills.

See how it works?

@BeserkGiraffe
It's not about people not being able to sort out their logistics - it's about people in minimum wage jobs whereby they are just about keeping their heads above water but where they get no sick pay when they are off (SSP kicks in after 3 days but will not cover their rent etc). A LOT of people are in this position and it's not their fault . Imagine having to drag yourself into work and feeling shit but knowing if you don't you can't feed your kids or pay your rent .

I have far less sympathy with people whose employers will pay them when off sick but where there is a culture of 100% attendance .

In both cases I agree it would be helpful for the unwell person to wear a mask to help prevent spread .

You said that it was cheap.

Really? That's cheap. Your words.

It's not cheap.

Ah yes. The sainted individuals (like @Prizlime, actually) who believe that it's ok for zero hour contract workers who have to come into work and spread covid to other zero hour contract workers, regardless of their vulnerabilities, and who m

(aaargghh my phone keeps posting too soon)

...must use public transport etc, to service their needs. Again, privilege.

@Dishh we no longer get free PCRs so its paying for the LFTs (unless your work provides) or not testing at all .

Up until now I have been buying the LFTs and testing before I visit my mum, even after the care home no longer required it. However, given that LFTs only seem to be showing up a positive after someone has been symptomatic for a couple of days, recently, there doesn't seem to be much point in doing this any longer .

@VampiresWife

Really? That's cheap. Your words.

I'm so sorry. I omitted to say after the words "That's cheap," in comparison to the price we pay in Australia. I thought what I wrote after "That's cheap" would sufficiently indicate this meaning, but I can see it did not.

Although I do still believe the price of rapid tests in England is quite reasonable in comparison to Australia, I recognise it would be out of reach for many. At least, for the ones who wish to test at all.

I was referring to what I mentioned in my post 43 minutes ago. What would you call that? If you're asking if I thought lockdowns were inequitable - yes, of course they were. Even people in similar situations to each other would have struggled in different ways to each other. If you're asking if I think govt and employer policies put some in an impossible situation - no question. I also think recent govt comments have been a massive slap in the face to many 'key workers' and are abhorrent. With regard to 'selfish' though, I'm referring to my earlier post, where people have a genuine choice.

Read my response to @VampiresWife above.

Wouldn't suffice. You referred to them as cheap, and only several posts later stated that you meant cheap in comparison to Australia which is not the same thing. You also said generally people do buy them or go for a PCR and wait, but obviously the free PCRs you have to wait for by definition won't fill the same role as the home tests.

The Australian tests in fact being expensive, as you agree, what would interest me is hearing from poorer people for whom that simply isn't affordable. If you think generally people do buy them, which is what you said, that isn't telling us anything at all about what the cohort of people who can't afford them and won't be in a position to wait for a PCR at every cough or headache do. Presumably it's common ground that these people exist in Australia.

@PerfectlyPreservedQuagaarWarrior

The Australian tests in fact being expensive, as you agree, what would interest me is hearing from poorer people for whom that simply isn't affordable. If you think generally people do buy them, which is what you said, that isn't telling us anything at all about what the cohort of people who can't afford them and won't be in a position to wait for a PCR at every cough or headache do. Presumably it's common ground that these people exist in Australia.

From my post to VampiresWife - 'Schemes also exist for eligible people for free tests.' I'm aware of this as I am one. Schools and some workplaces have free tests. If you really require a free test, you can get one. As for the PCR wait - it is rarely past 12 hours now.

I say people generally do buy them as that is my experience. The experience in England - where tests were provided to you for a long period - isn't ours as we never had free tests, sadly. We're used to it. 😕

You knew what I meant. These posts are just nitpicking,

The fact that you think wanting to hear from someone who hasn't had your experience amounts to nitpicking Dishh says it all, it really does.

The PCR wait seldom being less than 12 hours isn't relevant to anything I said either, because it still demonstrably wouldn't fulfil the same role as home testing does.

And in relation to some of the other posts, the difficulty with the term selfish is twofold. One, it's been so ridiculously and hypocritically overused during the covid period that it's become a trope. Which I appreciate is unfortunate for those of you who aren't being completely hatstand when you utilise it.

And secondly, it's such a relative term. Most people would agree that there is some voluntary behaviour when knowingly ill that's selfish and unethical, so eg a person who's had an upset stomach and was last sick 3 hours ago shouldn't be going to the cinema. Just as most people think it's a shit for brains take to call a person who won't eat if they don't work stupid for going in with a cough.

The difficulty is more along the middle ground, about what level of sacrifice it's reasonable to expect other people to make and at what point someone thinking they're entitled to expect others to limit their activities becomes selfish in itself. We all make a value judgement on that point, which is inevitably going to be influenced by our own context as well as wider cultural factors. It would be sheer arrogance for anyone to imagine theirs should be definitive.