Thread for people to explain why they test for covid

[Daffntulip]

As some people seem completely flabbergasted as to why anyone would test for covid, thought I'd start a thread to help those posters. If you run short on intelligence or empathy or whatever other reason compels you to ask that question, this is for you.

NHS guidance will be aimed at the overall benefit of the organisation - someone somewhere has presumably decided that staff coming in with covid will keep things roughly functioning in the short-term and that's better than the alternative.

Organisationally it may be (at least in the very short term) the lesser of two evils, but it's a bit shit for the patients and colleagues who end up working with people who are infectious (and for staff working when they should be resting). Hospital-acquired covid has a higher death rate than covid acquired in the community, and then there's the blood clot issue with surgery. It's crazy that we have this really nasty disease being treated as nothing when it's really not.

It might not be quite as bad if the NHS had the resources to properly clean the air in hospitals - then staff with covid would be a bit less of a risk to each other and to patients, and a policy of pretending it doesn't exist wouldn't be quite as bad.

This.

Except those of us who are immuno-suppressed are still provided with new packs of tests every few months, by the NHS, presumably because they want us to test !

I look after my 83 year old vulnerable MIL. That's why I test if I have symptoms. I don't feel the need to explain it to anyone it's no one else's concern apart from ours. 🤷

I have tested today and am positive, I feel a bit rough but not awful.
The reason I did was that I am due to visit clients tomorrow and while they aren't vulnerable it wouldn't go down well if I gave it to them, purely from a making them ill point of view. I was hoping that it was negative so I could say that whenever I coughed.
So I tested for professional reasons, if I was just WFH all week I wouldnt have

How long do you stay home/isolate if you have Covid?

She deliberately turned towards you to cough? I'd have complained to the flight attendant that she was purposefully coughing on me and asked to have her moved to another seat. That's outrageous behaviour.
Some people get irrationally angry about seeing a masked person. I assume it's because it reminds them of how irresponsible and selfish they are, or because they can be counted among the ranks of Covid conspiracy theorists and deniers.

Exactly this. I have long covid it is totally debilitating I have lung issues, high blood pressure, constant fatigue. You don’t get that from a cold.

@dragonpen I disagree

You can buy them for flu. https://www.boots.com/flowflex-influenza-ab-rapid-test-10326322?srsltid=AfmBOopuCpOFwlWyYXshwMVMxzOI_sYptWILunPp412kxT1IIvA7MeaF

Flu can be asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic. There's a vast gulf of symptoms, just as with covid. The difference is we don't tend to be as aware of that. Because obviously by definition if you're asymptomatic you don't notice, and we've never as a society had a push to test with minimal or no symptoms as we did with covid for a while. Hence the old £50 note misnomer, I think.

Which isn't to disagree with you on testing, I am very much team MYOFB on that one. I don't test, but if someone else does then my default assumption is they're probably better qualified than I am to decide what's appropriate in their own lives.

Test if I think I have it and If it's positive I isolate til I'm clear. To protect other people-even if you aren't vulnerable it's nasty. Also test for a few group events with vulnerable pple where we have all agreed to.
Everyone I know socially follows broadly the same approach as far as I know. (Middle aged, largely hybrid work arrangements)

Well if I had a test, until it’s negative. If I have something where I actively would choose to avoid vulnerable people but don’t have a test for it, I stay away from anyone at all until I’m feeling better. Flu, cold, Covid, whatever.

This is before Covid too - why do people feel it’s acceptable to go about snivelling and coughing all over people? In many cases you know when you’re sick enough to be contagious but people just do it anyway for their own convenience.

this person avoids her elderly mum but there are healthy looking kids out there who are immunocompromised and you couldn’t tell just by looking at them.

I inject immunosuppressant drugs for rheumatoid arthritis weekly. I test the day I inject as taking my meds with an active infection is a total no-no. I've had covid 11 times (most recently last week), one of the joys of being immunosuppressed is I catch anything doing the rounds. Also, if I test positive I need to get the ball rolling to access antivirals ASAP, as to be effective you need to start the course within five days of symptoms starting. So any sign of symptoms, however mild, I test. I get free tests which is just as well as I get through about ten a month at least.

This is true. DD teaches in a SEND school - some of the children are incredibly vulnerable - yet staff have to come into work if they're well enough even if they're testing positive. Even if they're too ill to come in they're expected back after three days, and of course they're still positive at that point. And this is why I've had covid 11 times!

Good for you.

I hope none of your patients are immunosuppressed.

Sadly, I think the opposite has happened - people cough and sneeze with wild abandon, and justify their lack of consideration by referring to some stupid conspiracy theory or using the word "sheeple".

It's a point of pride for too many that they behave this way. In their silly little minds, they are heroically sticking it to The Man, or some such bullshit.

NHS guidelines are not fit for purpose and neither is the NHS, quite frankly, if this is its approach.

What's next for the chopping block so that money can be saved? Hand washing before operations?