Are people still testing for Covid even if they don’t have to for work/family members?

[Lucky457]

Just that really! I used to test for covid whenever I had any cold/feeling unwell symptoms but I’m wondering if people who don’t need to test for work or elderly/immunosuppressed loved ones are actually testing? I don’t work in a medical setting or care home, nor does my husband. Our eldest relative is 60 and well. We don’t have anyone immunosuppressed in our friends or family circle. My little girl has recently started at nursery and has a constant runny nose/sneezing/cough that she’s passing on to her baby sister and I think that’s what’s making me wonder if most people are testing still, as I’d be spending a fortune on tests in that case the way my little ones are picking things up. I’m just curious what others do.

I do because I like to know what is wrong with men and because Covid can still make some people very ill so if I have it I would prefer not to pass it on

I’m in the exact same position.
I’ve caught Covid off my dh who got it from a work colleague, apparently this guy felt ropey but pushed himself to go to work. A few days later he went off sick as he felt so rough by then he’d passed it onto half the depot.

I care for my elderly mum who has Alzheimer’s and breast cancer, it now means my poor dad is left to look after her with the help of my sister but she works full time and her partner came home last night with a what feels like a rotten cold so no doubt he’s coming down with it so my sister will have to stay away too!

People are so so selfish and don’t see beyond their own lives.

So sorry to read that @Theyearwas1973 ....as a fellow carer, I feel your pain. I hope you feel better soon so you can get back to helping your parents. I'm not actually ill but am still not going to take the risk and will stay away in case I might be brewing it. Its so difficult to know what to do for the best but I'm a naturally caution person and would never forgive myself if I made my parents ill especially as they are so vulnerable 😔

Of course not, I don't think I've tested for about 3 years. If you're ill, you're ill - stay home. Doesn't matter what it is. And I'm pregnant so technically more vulnerable.

I had this and then tested 3 days later and it was positive. I'm now on day 5 and feel absolutely awful still, I ache all over, a horrendous headache and cold and my temp just won't go down.

Not for colds.
Recently was hit by all the classic symptoms and used an old test out of curiosity, it was positive and I've avoided people until better as I'd hate to pass it on.
I wouldn't buy more tests though.

No. I don’t and have never understood it. Some people i know are still testing. Some seem to like the attention and like being ill if you know what I mean. I think you just need to use your common sense.

I would if I thought I might have it. I have the luxury of being able to stay home, so I would. Wouldn’t want to spread it unnecessarily.

Some seem to like the attention and like being ill if you know what I mean

No, I don't think I do know what you mean. Could you explain?

You see I just don't understand this logic. I'm someone who's very prone to colds and sniffles. I often have back to back colds for months, most of them very mild, and I couldn't just stay in the house for 6 months! Covid is MUCH more likely to be harmful to people than a common cold. Although someone might experience Covid as a sniffle, the next person might be seriously ill. So yes I will test. Having seen my fit and healthy best friend end up in a wheelchair for two years with long Covid, I've seen how devastating Covid is. Having seen my mum end up in hospital a few months ago, delirious and incontinent for weeks because of Covid, why on earth wouldn't I test??

Yes, we are using up old tests here.

We have a 100 year-old relative who we visit and I still believe the current strains of covid can be more serious than the common cold.

I consider myself fit and healthy, but was ill in early June - fever, vertigo, nausea, fatigue... I tested and got a positive result. 5 weeks later and I only just feel I am beginning to feel vaguely normal again!
I think it helped me to validate why I was cancelling out of events and having to stop doing certain things. I really, really needed to spend time just resting and recuperating and I think people understand that covid can cause this. If I'd just said I was still recovering from a 'cold' I think DH and other people would have been less understanding!

I agree that I think there's a particularly nasty strain of it around at the moment.

You’ve never understood why people would test to see if they have a virus that has the potential to kill the clinically vulnerable? A virus which can give almost zero symptoms in some yet can hit others like a sledgehammer with horrible flu like symptoms?

You obviously live your life away from vulnerable people and have zero idea. I care for my mum how has breast cancer, CLL and Alzheimer’s, I am also a pa for a wheelchair user. I am in bed with Covid atm and feel like shit, of course I will be staying away whilst feeling like this and testing positive. However, my dd16 is also positive but has only mild sniffles. If she had visited her grandparents without knowing her sniffles were actually Covid she could potentially end up sending either into hospital. As a paid pa and unpaid carer 52 weeks of the year I can’t afford time off with just a cold or the sniffles, so this is why I and many more like me test, it’s about others, not ourselves.

It has zero to do with being an attention seeker.

Maybe you understand now?

I think if the tests were still free, more people would test.
But, lots of people are really struggling with cost of living etc. I'm afraid tests are a low priority to most people on a very tight budget. Understandably so.
I've got some old tests that I save for when I'm visiting anyone in a clinically vulnerable category. But, other than that I don't test. I'm very careful though. If I ever felt ill I'd be careful to stay away from others.

No I don't test . I work in a school and there's no requirement to test there and we have some extremely vulnerable children.
If I'm sick i stay off work if I feel OK I go to work. If I feel I have a cold I still go to work ,if I can barely stand I stay off.
A cold may well be covid but I wouldn't know I don't test everytime I get a sore throat , runny nose , hacking cough , aching ( like I have now )
Because I feel well enough to go to work.

and then teachers will wonder about 'behaviour' in school, whilst never attributing even the slightest whiff of a percentage of that increase to covid infections and how they affect the brain.

I have, in the last year or so (and before the last fortnight), taken a test maybe 4 or 5 times? When I've had a nasty cold and am curious to see if it was Covid, OR I'm due to meet my mother, who's in her late 70's and not healthy. I know I should be concerned about everyone's elderly mothers but this is where we are in 2024. We all have to make individual decisions about our own safety and that of the ones closest to us. I also tested (when I had a nasty cold) if I was later on likely to see a couple of friends who have crappy immune systems because of the drugs regime they're on.

None of this holds up to logic, I know - why not just stay at home every time you have a cold, just in case? Why not test to protect everyone, rather than just the people you care about, you selfish cow? Why treat Covid any differently to a common cold, given that so many people experience it as cold-like? Why test at all, when virtually nobody else is bothering/thinking to nowadays, because your efforts are a drop in the ocean?

I can't answer any of these in a way that people who disagree with me will accept! I just take some precautions in certain circumstances because I think it's maybe better than doing nothing at all.

All those tests, up until a fortnight ago, were negative. I don't mind spending maybe £10 on that box of 5 tests over the course of a year.

Right now, I'm getting over Covid. I started feeling unwell while abroad. Of course we hadn't brought masks out (f-ing stupid of me to travel without a mask, airports are Petri dishes and that would have been one of my 'reasonable' precautions). Or tests. I went to a pharmacy and bought both, prompted mostly by the fact that we were meeting the very elderly mother of a friend out there the next day, who was fairly gung ho about meeting me if I had a cold, but ... I'm so glad I tested. (In all honesty, by the time we'd got hold of some tests, I'd already decided to cancel our meet-up as I was feeling so crappy. Whatever it was I didn't fancy passing it on to an octogenarian if I could help it!) We then had to mask up and be as careful as we possibly could be in getting back home on public transport and the plane. We isolated from my husband when we returned and so far, so good.

I started testing negative on day 8 which surprised me, and I'm still negative on day 12. I'm still exhausted and quite muzzy-headed, and went out (necessary appointment) for the first time yesterday, knowing I had 3 days of negative tests behind me. It was great to get out but I felt utterly wiped out afterwards. Covid is NOT 'just a cold' in so many cases. I don't spend nearly a week in bed feeling dizzy and shite with a cold. I wouldn't expect to be completely wiped out on day 12 of 'just a cold'. The bloody thing's moved into my sinuses now, so in fact I do feel like I now have a cold - after having had Covid!

I don’t test for a sniffle but I do for a high temperature. Every time my temp has been over 39deg it’s been COVID and I’ve always needed a few days off and at least a week to fully recover. I think I’m on four times now since 2021 (didn’t get it in 2020). For me the symptoms are nothing like a cold. Much closer to flu and there’s no way I’d just carry on with flu.

So 'you'd hate to pass it on' because you knew you were positive - but you wouldn't spend £9 on a box of 5 tests in Boots to extend the exact same courtesy to people in the future?

You are in effect bragging that you don’t test. What is more attention seeking than that?

Speaking as someone confined to bed with long covid for a year your post makes me feel sick ( on top of LC nausea)

I've never tested, not once. I don't get why it's necessary.

If you're ill, stay away from people and don't spread your germs?

I've never tested, not once. I don't get why it's necessary

This thread is literally full of people explaining why!

If I feel a sore throat/shiver coming on, I test. If it's negative and just a bit of a cold, I'll largely carry on as normal at home... If it's COVID, I sleep in the spare room and try to stop DP catching it so we don't both have to miss out on a week's wages and he won't have ongoing respiratory problems for months afterwards.

I think if the tests were still free, more people would test.

This is an excellent point. I think there should definitely be availability of free Covid tests. I keep a box at home due to my youngest son (mentioned upthread) but appreciate that they are beyond the reach of some due to the cost, especially when 2 or 3 might be needed at £2 a time. And also, many people simply wouldn't prioritise them as an essential item. I mean, some people wouldn't bother their arses testing anyway because apparently they 'know' when they have or haven't got Covid, but at least some might show a bit of altruistic courtesy towards the less robust in society, if there were free tests.

Not in this house. It would be moot really, because I stay at home if too ill to go out, and wouldn't be doing tests if not unwell. I did still test when we had some free ones left, but that was out of curiosity. I'm lucky to have the privilege of being able to stay in when unwell, so it would be an active choice to go out and it's not one I would've made either way.

Agree with the posters who've talked about the cost, but the tests are only a small part of that. There are plenty of people who could spare a few quid for the tests but not afford to be on SSP.

I agree about free tests for the sake of LC and many other patients.

Given that there is a chance it may be a false negative or even a new variant of Covid that tests aren't picking up, reliance on testing in this way is fairly pointless.

And to point out, that for you that negative test "may just be a cold" but that cold could be much more severe in someone else. Ie you are happy doing what you are critising others for, when you deem "it's only a cold"