Are you testing for covid? I feel guilty but don't want to be the only one in London testing! Post Reply

[Bedazzled]

I am due to meet some girlfriends on Tuesday but have a hacking cough and wonder whether I should be testing for covid. My husband really doesn't want me to as he doesn't want his social life ruined if I am positive but I feel strangely guilty about not testing and just wondered if I am alone in this or has everyone moved on and isn't testing regardless of the circumstances?.

[Expatacular]

I'm still testing if I am ill. Everyone I know is also still testing if they are ill. I think you have two reasonable choices here: stay home if you have a hacking cough, or take a test. Putting one's head in the sand and pretending everything is fine isn't really alright- how would your friends feel if you gave them all COVID right before Christmas?

[Imovee]

Yes, still testing and so is everyone around me. I would be quite shocked if anyone I knew said something similar to your husband, I can’t imagine anyone I know willingly putting others at risk for the sake of their own social lives. Even if one wants to believe Covid isn’t dangerous health wise any more (not true), it seems wild to me that someone would willingly risk someone else’s Christmas plans so they get to have their own. Life is hard and we don’t make it easier with a sense of blind individualism.

[Imovee]

Just to add - it’s not strange that you feel guilty at all, that’s a normal human empathic response, appropriate to the situation! I would follow your instincts here and not your husbands xx

[Torcat]

Hi, rather selfish of your husband…whether you think you might have Covid or not, if you have a hacking cough maybe you should cancel? There are other illnesses around that people don’t want to catch for Christmas.

[Summer Mum]

I am not testing for Covid. All that plastic so that we can feel virtuous. Go back to some old fashioned common sense - if you have something nasty stay away from others. If it's mild, then we're all better off being exposed. Lockdowns were incredibly unhealthy for our immune systems. Covid testing - that isn't reliable and never was meant as a diagnostic test - is a huge con and an environmental disaster.

[Scottov]

You’re not meant to be testing anymore than you are meant to be testing for flu

If you feel sick stay home, if not crack on

[readysteadycook]

Nobody should be testing anymore. Covid will be with us for a long time to come and we need to get on with living.

if you don’t feel well, stay at home - simple surely ?

[hwb22]

I'm still testing if any symptoms mild or otherwise and when I plan to travel or to see vulnerable family members. I also wear masks on public transport not least because being coughed and sneezed on by others whether Covid or not is not pleasant.

[Cr8nberry]

I’m really shocked by some of these replies. It’s ignorant to assume that one person’s mild symptoms will result in nothing more than mild symptoms for another. I have experience in my own wider family of a household where the same infection caused symptoms that ranged from barely noticeable, to bedbound for several days, to one person requiring hospitalisation with severe illness (all were previously fit and healthy). Moreover, what about exposing the medically vulnerable or their carers to unnecessary risk? This isn’t about locking people up for months, it’s simply about being responsible and not selfishly valuing a few days of social activity above the health of others, just because they happen to be strangers. 

[Elsie19]

Well the government says you don’t have to test and in fact children are advised not to so their education isn’t disrupted. But I would feel disrespected by my friend if she came to dinner with a hacking cough and hadn’t tested for covid. I would feel that she didn’t care about me. I think we’re “living with covid” but still wise to minimise our risk of catching it where possible. I know too many people with long covid symptoms which are anything but fun.

[Hawthorne4]

I think if you feel poorly and you have a social engagement you should test.  I've just tested positive for Covid myself and was slated to see my elderly parents for Christmas but might not be able to.  I do realise I could have caught it from someone who was asymptomatic but if I did catch it from someone who felt "off" but didn't bother testing, well- it's potentially taken those few precious days with my parents away from me.