Covid Roll Call

[FoxesDeb]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

When I said chained to a testing regime I meant expanding it to the whole population again, it didn't expectly do much when it was in play. Like I said I tried to caveat it with ''just my opinion'' and ''not trying to be ignorant'' but never mind. 

 

My overarching point is we can't wrap everyone in cotton wool. I understand risk mitigation, but there are plenty of other things out there alongside covid that can do damage. 

I don't think testing when people deem it necessary is wrapping everyone in cotton wool though is it? If we had readily available tests for other easily transmissible potentially killer diseases would we not make use of them either? 

 

And just because there are plenty of other things which are harmful is not a reason to ignore one which we can take very easy steps to try to prevent imo. 

[FLAN]

22 hours ago, Tommy G said:

How do people know they have it? Why are you testing, unless you have a vulnerable relative what is the point anymore.

I don’t know how vulnerable every person I may meet is. So when I feel like I have symptoms I will test. So far haven’t tested positive throughout which is quite odd as we’ve had it in the house a few times 

[grobyfox1990]

19 minutes ago, FLAN said:

I don’t know how vulnerable every person I may meet is. So when I feel like I have symptoms I will test. So far haven’t tested positive throughout which is quite odd as we’ve had it in the house a few times 

Not targeted at you personally but this is the other thing I hoped would change post-covid. if covid is going through your house, and you have symptoms, a sh1tty bit of cheap chinese plastic telling you you're negative is not carte blanche to go out. Stay at home. Even if you don't have symptoms and want to protect the vulnerable. Stay at home.

[FLAN]

39 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

Not targeted at you personally but this is the other thing I hoped would change post-covid. if covid is going through your house, and you have symptoms, a sh1tty bit of cheap chinese plastic telling you you're negative is not carte blanche to go out. Stay at home. Even if you don't have symptoms and want to protect the vulnerable. Stay at home.

No offence taken and I agree. I’m just saying I’m surprised I haven’t had it

We all missed last new year (into 2022)  as my daughter was positive and we didn’t want to risk passing it on 

[Babylon]

5 hours ago, Tommy G said:

I'm not trying to be ignorant here but are you prepared to live the rest of you life like that, testing for covid. What about testing for normal flu, how do you do that incase of passing it on? Surely the sensible thing to do is, if you are ill and able to keep away from people then do so. Chained to a testing regime is bonkers, so many other virus' or diseases out there that can affect people too. Just my opinion....

You realise it presents a variety of systems in different people, yes? What seems like a cold to me, could feel like it's knocking someone else for six. If I do just have a sniffle, then I don't much have to worry about it. If I have covid that presents to me as a sniffle, I'd rather know about it so that I can make that decision. I'd rather not have my child vomiting all over the place again, which is what happens every time they get covid. I'd rather not take it into work if I don't have to, and I'd rather avoid my elderly relatives. 

 

I have loads of tests, it costs me nothing but a minute of my time.

[Tommy G]

5 hours ago, Babylon said:

You realise it presents a variety of systems in different people, yes? What seems like a cold to me, could feel like it's knocking someone else for six. If I do just have a sniffle, then I don't much have to worry about it. If I have covid that presents to me as a sniffle, I'd rather know about it so that I can make that decision. I'd rather not have my child vomiting all over the place again, which is what happens every time they get covid. I'd rather not take it into work if I don't have to, and I'd rather avoid my elderly relatives. 

 

I have loads of tests, it costs me nothing but a minute of my time.

I didn’t realise it presents different symptoms thank goodness you’ve told me.

 

when you’ve got off your high horse it was just my opinion which is shared by probably 50% of the population, it isn’t some whacky extreme viewpoint. People have got super sensitive since the pandemic and forgot completely how to live their life. 

[OwnGoal]

30 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

I didn’t realise it presents different symptoms thank goodness you’ve told me.

 

when you’ve got off your high horse it was just my opinion which is shared by probably 50% of the population, it isn’t some whacky extreme viewpoint. People have got super sensitive since the pandemic and forgot completely how to live their life. 

Try about 90% pal.  I think you’ve walked into the covid freaks who still believe all the bull we’ve seen over the past three years or so. 

[leicsmac]

2 hours ago, Tommy G said:

I didn’t realise it presents different symptoms thank goodness you’ve told me.

 

when you’ve got off your high horse it was just my opinion which is shared by probably 50% of the population, it isn’t some whacky extreme viewpoint. People have got super sensitive since the pandemic and forgot completely how to live their life. 

This is fair enough.

 

That being said, a lot of people believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe at one point, and something that kills a lot of people (comparatively) tends to attract concern.

 

1 hour ago, OwnGoal said:

Try about 90% pal.  I think you’ve walked into the covid freaks who still believe all the bull we’ve seen over the past three years or so. 

If there's another version of scientific fact about all of this, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

[dsr-burnley]

14 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Absolutely. Though I'm not sure how many of those that both have left six million hats on the ground (possibly more) in two and a bit years and we can mitigate against more than we do so already (like cancer, heart conditions, accidents etc).

Loads of diseases have killed many more than covid.  Measles, polio, scarlet fever, malaria, flu, Asian flu, Spanish flu, any kind of flu, colds, pneumonia, tuberculosis, you name it.  but - just like covid - their severity has reduced over time and with the help of scientific invention/discovery, and so we are less worried about them.

 

There is no point looking back at what we did to mitigate against alpha variant in an unvaccinated society, because neither the disease nor the conditions are present any more.  We need to proportionately protect against what the disease is now, not what it used to be.

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, dsr-burnley said:

Loads of diseases have killed many more than covid.  Measles, polio, scarlet fever, malaria, flu, Asian flu, Spanish flu, any kind of flu, colds, pneumonia, tuberculosis, you name it.  but - just like covid - their severity has reduced over time and with the help of scientific invention/discovery, and so we are less worried about them.

 

There is no point looking back at what we did to mitigate against alpha variant in an unvaccinated society, because neither the disease nor the conditions are present any more.  We need to proportionately protect against what the disease is now, not what it used to be.

Yeah, and my point is that we mitigate against those with good reason resulting in them being less harmful, and we should do the same with Covid as it takes its place among them in terms of harm, rather than just dismissing it as unimportant and taking no measures against it at all in the way that some on here appear to advocate.

[Paninistickers]

On 06/01/2023 at 10:02, Alf Bentley said:

 

"Chained to a testing regime"? I've tested about 7 times in the past 9 months - only when visiting someone vulnerable, when I got potential symptoms or when required for an event.

Each test takes about 5 minutes and costs less than £2. Yep, I reckon that I can cope for life with being "chained to a testing regime" requiring less than 5 minutes and £2 per month!

Blimey, I hate to imagine how you'd cope if you faced a more arduous task like going to the shop for a pint of milk or walking to the football.  

 

As I only had mild symptoms (runny nose, tickly throat, slight achiness), without testing I wouldn't have known that I had Covid. I'd have thought that I just had a cold and would have gone about potentially infecting people.

 

Fair point about flu. Despite now being 60, I've never had flu to my knowledge - and don't even know if testing is possible outside hospitals. I've had a flu jab the last couple of years (never bothered before).

Otherwise, I'd probably just keep away from others if I got flu symptoms - but, as I understand it, you're not likely to be out and about if you get flu, anyway.

I remember attitudes changing at my workplace even before covid, a colleague walked into the office streaming with cold and playing the martyr 'look how hard I work and committed I am' routine.....and getting a.bollocking from the boss and sent home to avoid passing the infection on. 

 

If you have a virus of some sort and are unwell, stay off. Rest up. Get better. Regardless of it's COVID or not. Why give Covid such elevated status? Seems a bit virtue signally to me

[yorkie1999]

9 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Yeah, and my point is that we mitigate against those with good reason resulting in them being less harmful, and we should do the same with Covid as it takes its place among them in terms of harm, rather than just dismissing it as unimportant and taking no measures against it at all in the way that some on here appear to advocate.

We have taken measures against it, we've all been vaccinated, same as all the other viruses.

[yorkie1999]

14 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

I remember attitudes changing at my workplace even before covid, a colleague walked into the office streaming with cold and playing the martyr 'look how hard I work and committed I am' routine.....and getting a.bollocking from the boss and sent home to avoid passing the infection on. 

 

If you have a virus of some sort and are unwell, stay off. Rest up. Get better. Regardless of it's COVID or not. Why give Covid such elevated status? Seems a bit virtue signally to me

Unless you don't get paid to have time off, there's millions of people in that bracket, which could easily be solved by the government bringing in legislation to force employers to pay their workers for having time off through illness, which was probably caught in the workplace in the first place. 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

We have taken measures against it, we've all been vaccinated, same as all the other viruses.

Not everyone, but I do see the point.

 

For the record, I think we should now treat Covid in the same way we treat any communicable disease that has a statistically significant chance of killing someone, as per above. Again as above, my issue with people who don't consider it a threat at all, as that is empirically false and consequential.

[yorkie1999]

1 minute ago, leicsmac said:

Not everyone, but I do see the point.

 

For the record, I think we should now treat Covid in the same way we treat any communicable disease that has a statistically significant chance of killing someone, as per above. Again as above, my issue with people who don't consider it a threat at all, as that is empirically false and consequential.

Everyone in this country has been given the opportuneaty to get vaccinated, for free, but we all know the "i'm not having something i don't trust injected into my body, Mabel had it and dropped down dead from a heart attack" crowd, imo this is half the problem with covid's persistance, all of those other viruses have been conquered due to peoples willingness to accept vaccines. If you drop down dead from catching covid, tough shit.

[leicsmac]

11 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Everyone in this country has been given the opportuneaty to get vaccinated, for free, but we all know the "i'm not having something i don't trust injected into my body, Mabel had it and dropped down dead from a heart attack" crowd, imo this is half the problem with covid's persistance, all of those other viruses have been conquered due to peoples willingness to accept vaccines. If you drop down dead from catching covid, tough shit.

That's brutal, but I can certainly understand the stance.

[grobyfox1990]

1 hour ago, yorkie1999 said:

Everyone in this country has been given the opportuneaty to get vaccinated, for free, but we all know the "i'm not having something i don't trust injected into my body, Mabel had it and dropped down dead from a heart attack" crowd, imo this is half the problem with covid's persistance, all of those other viruses have been conquered due to peoples willingness to accept vaccines. If you drop down dead from catching covid, tough shit.

Completely agreed. As the old saying goes there’s 10 in a room, 3 completely believe you, 6 are on the fence and 1 will never be convinced. Do not under any circumstances put any effort into the 1 as they’re gonna die anyway, work the 6 to achieve results 

 

edit - the 1 Is also important as they’ll serve as a lesson to the 6 when they get Darwin’d off 

Edited 7 January 2023 by grobyfox1990

[Alf Bentley]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

I remember attitudes changing at my workplace even before covid, a colleague walked into the office streaming with cold and playing the martyr 'look how hard I work and committed I am' routine.....and getting a.bollocking from the boss and sent home to avoid passing the infection on. 

 

If you have a virus of some sort and are unwell, stay off. Rest up. Get better. Regardless of it's COVID or not. Why give Covid such elevated status? Seems a bit virtue signally to me

 

I give Covid a more elevated status because I know it has killed about 200,000 people in this country alone in the last 3 years, whereas colds kill very few. Granted a small number of particularly frail elderly people develop pneumonia from a cold - and there's certainly now a stronger point in comparing Covid to flu, but I've never had flu.

 

I've worked alone from home for 23 years, so your "stay off, rest up" advice doesn't apply to me as I've zero chance of infecting anyone at work.

 

That's unfortunate if my post came across as "virtue signalling". I was simply making the point - in response to someone challenging the value of testing - that testing allowed me to know that I had Covid and not a cold. I was therefore able to isolate and avoid infecting others, including my daughter's mate's Dad who nearly died of Covid and unknown passers-by in shops, pubs etc. I admitted that I'd been out and about for 2-3 days with "mild cold symptoms" before realising I had Covid, so wasn't trying to present myself as a vision of virtue.

 

I'm lucky in being able to carry on working from home even if I have a virus, without infecting anyone. I'm not sure how many employers would look kindly on an employee saying "Sorry I've been off for 2-3 weeks, boss, I was isolating with a cold!"

Still, hope you feel duly virtuous at having pointed out my "virtue signalling". 

[Paninistickers]

5 hours ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

I give Covid a more elevated status because I know it has killed about 200,000 people in this country alone in the last 3 years, whereas colds kill very few. Granted a small number of particularly frail elderly people develop pneumonia from a cold - and there's certainly now a stronger point in comparing Covid to flu, but I've never had flu.

 

I've worked alone from home for 23 years, so your "stay off, rest up" advice doesn't apply to me as I've zero chance of infecting anyone at work.

 

That's unfortunate if my post came across as "virtue signalling". I was simply making the point - in response to someone challenging the value of testing - that testing allowed me to know that I had Covid and not a cold. I was therefore able to isolate and avoid infecting others, including my daughter's mate's Dad who nearly died of Covid and unknown passers-by in shops, pubs etc. I admitted that I'd been out and about for 2-3 days with "mild cold symptoms" before realising I had Covid, so wasn't trying to present myself as a vision of virtue.

 

I'm lucky in being able to carry on working from home even if I have a virus, without infecting anyone. I'm not sure how many employers would look kindly on an employee saying "Sorry I've been off for 2-3 weeks, boss, I was isolating with a cold!"

Still, hope you feel duly virtuous at having pointed out my "virtue signalling". 

I'm not being facetious, but I wonder if any stats have ever been done of how many people die with colds? ....ie the same metric that COVID was measured by.....I suspect the results would be eye opening. 

 

Personally, I don't need a name or diagnosis for every mild illness i get..Is my bad throat tonsillitis? Bacterial infection? Viral infection? Early stage Oesophagal cancer?....either way it hurts. The original point another poster made to you is about being locked into an overly obsessive testing regime. Let it go. Let other people worry about themselves rather than you doing the worrying on their behalf. 

[Lionator]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

I'm not being facetious, but I wonder if any stats have ever been done of how many people die with colds? ....ie the same metric that COVID was measured by.....I suspect the results would be eye opening. 

 

Personally, I don't need a name or diagnosis for every mild illness i get..Is my bad throat tonsillitis? Bacterial infection? Viral infection? Early stage Oesophagal cancer?....either way it hurts. The original point another poster made to you is about being locked into an overly obsessive testing regime. Let it go. Let other people worry about themselves rather than you doing the worrying on their behalf. 

Pre vaccine covid was horrific, there’s no other way of putting it. People who are calling out BS haven’t lost people to it or haven’t worked in hospitals. The current status of covid means that thankfully it’s not a major issue for 99.9% of us but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t before.

[Alf Bentley]

1 hour ago, Paninistickers said:

I'm not being facetious, but I wonder if any stats have ever been done of how many people die with colds? ....ie the same metric that COVID was measured by.....I suspect the results would be eye opening. 

 

Personally, I don't need a name or diagnosis for every mild illness i get..Is my bad throat tonsillitis? Bacterial infection? Viral infection? Early stage Oesophagal cancer?....either way it hurts. The original point another poster made to you is about being locked into an overly obsessive testing regime. Let it go. Let other people worry about themselves rather than you doing the worrying on their behalf. 

 

I've no idea if any stats have been done about people dying "with colds". I do know that there were vast numbers of excess deaths during the Covid pandemic (most, though not all directly related to Covid).

Maybe for decades vast numbers have been needlessly dying "with colds" and we just haven't noticed.....but I doubt it.

 

Personally, I'd prefer to know whether my symptoms were caused by a viral infection or oesophageal cancer, but each to their own.

 

I replied to the poster who made the point about being "locked into an overly obsessive testing regime". I don't view voluntarily spending 5 minutes and £2 to do a test less than once a month as being "locked into" anything "overly obsessive".

Seems like an easy way of finding out what's wrong with me and potentially avoiding infecting others who might be highly vulnerable. I don't "worry about" it, though. I'm not a worrier by nature. But no reason why I should needlessly, if accidentally, cause risk to others.

 

I'm sure we'll never agree, so I'm out of this debate now.

[RobHawk]

Just wandered into this thread and it's interesting reading. 

 

I work in retail for a company who do not pay sick pay (like most in retail), so if I go off sick, I don't get paid. 

 

In my position I wouldn't do a COVID test even if I had symptoms, I'd crack on regardless best I could. In my mind, knowing if I have COVID makes no difference, if I'm up to it I'm still going to work. 

 

I had COVID pre vaccination, it was the only time I'm been off sick in my current job of 3.5 years (and I caught it off a colleague in work). It did floor me and obviously I couldn't go in if I wanted to, but there was support available for me to apply for to make up the financial loss. That has all gone now. 

 

Since the vaccination, COVID is much more like the flu in my eyes and as harsh as it may seem, why should I struggle financially because some people choose not to take what is available to them. 

 

I may come across as selfish, but with 3 young kids to feed it's on me to work my ass off for my family. In the last month alone I've worked when feeling rough, with an ear infection and I even strained a bollock which made life a bit harder but if I can get out of bed and work, I'm going regardless.

[RobHawk]

5 minutes ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

I've no idea if any stats have been done about people dying "with colds". I do know that there were vast numbers of excess deaths during the Covid pandemic (most, though not all directly related to Covid).

Maybe for decades vast numbers have been needlessly dying "with colds" and we just haven't noticed.....but I doubt it.

 

Personally, I'd prefer to know whether my symptoms were caused by a viral infection or oesophageal cancer, but each to their own.

 

I replied to the poster who made the point about being "locked into an overly obsessive testing regime". I don't view voluntarily spending 5 minutes and £2 to do a test less than once a month as being "locked into" anything "overly obsessive".

Seems like an easy way of finding out what's wrong with me and potentially avoiding infecting others who might be highly vulnerable. I don't "worry about" it, though. I'm not a worrier by nature. But no reason why I should needlessly, if accidentally, cause risk to others.

 

I'm sure we'll never agree, so I'm out of this debate now.

Having read this, after just posting my post, I think ultimately it comes down to an individual's circumstances. 

 

I don't disagree with what you are doing at all (or the reasoning) but the effect on you and your work, is slot different to mine. 

 

Likewise my old man who is retired but visits my gran slot in a care home, he tests alot when he's under the weather as the last thing he wants is to cause an outbreak where a lot of vulnerable, elderly people reside. Makes sense to me again but still doesn't change how I feel about my situation. 

 

Each to their own to some degree I suppose.

[dsr-burnley]

14 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Not everyone, but I do see the point.

 

For the record, I think we should now treat Covid in the same way we treat any communicable disease that has a statistically significant chance of killing someone, as per above. Again as above, my issue with people who don't consider it a threat at all, as that is empirically false and consequential.

This is what people are doing.  Treating it like flu - if you don't feel well enough to go to work, you don't, but if it's minor, you do. Whether it's correct to treat covid like we traditionally do flu, or whether we should treat flu more like we treated covid, is a different question.

[dsr-burnley]

12 hours ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

I give Covid a more elevated status because I know it has killed about 200,000 people in this country alone in the last 3 years, whereas colds kill very few. Granted a small number of particularly frail elderly people develop pneumonia from a cold - and there's certainly now a stronger point in comparing Covid to flu, but I've never had flu.

 

I've worked alone from home for 23 years, so your "stay off, rest up" advice doesn't apply to me as I've zero chance of infecting anyone at work.

 

That's unfortunate if my post came across as "virtue signalling". I was simply making the point - in response to someone challenging the value of testing - that testing allowed me to know that I had Covid and not a cold. I was therefore able to isolate and avoid infecting others, including my daughter's mate's Dad who nearly died of Covid and unknown passers-by in shops, pubs etc. I admitted that I'd been out and about for 2-3 days with "mild cold symptoms" before realising I had Covid, so wasn't trying to present myself as a vision of virtue.

 

I'm lucky in being able to carry on working from home even if I have a virus, without infecting anyone. I'm not sure how many employers would look kindly on an employee saying "Sorry I've been off for 2-3 weeks, boss, I was isolating with a cold!"

Still, hope you feel duly virtuous at having pointed out my "virtue signalling". 

How do you know you've never had flu?  Have you tested for flu like you tested for covid?  Don't believe any guff about "flu can't be mistaken for anything else because it's always horrible" - just like colds and covid, you can get a mild dose or you can get a severe one.

 

I'm afraid your precautions against spreading the disease would have done little good.  By the time you had had the disease symptomless for a few days and minor symptoms for 2-3 days, the highly infectious period would be over.  Remember that's how the virus spread so very very fast - people who had covid but didn't yet know it, were the biggest spreaders.