UK - Covid, Influenza and Respiratory Infection Symptoms Updated 1st April 2022

[BushInn1746]

Some will be aware of these already, but the UK has officially added more symptoms.

Published 1st April 2022

Symptoms of COVID-19, flu and common respiratory infections include:

continuous cough
high temperature, fever or chills
loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell
shortness of breath
unexplained tiredness, lack of energy
muscle aches or pains that are not due to exercise
not wanting to eat or not feeling hungry
headache that is unusual or longer lasting than usual
sore throat, stuffy or runny nose
diarrhoea, feeling sick or being sick

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/people-with-symptoms-of-a-respiratory-infection-including-covid-19

[Guy Etchells]

It should also be added many people are now getting covid with no symptoms at all and because free testing has been stopped these people will not know they have had covid and more alarmingly will not have the fact they have had it recorded.
You might think if they have not had symptoms why should it matter but it may matter if they then go on to infect vulnerable people who cannot survive even a mild infection.

Food for thought.
Cheers
Guy

[Roobarb]

I agree Guy, that is a matter of great concern. And how on earth can the government provide any meaningful data when the majority of the general public are unlikely to pay for a test? The only reliable statistics will be those related to hospital admissions and deaths.

Also, the symptoms that have been added to the list can be due to so many other illnesses that unless we test or it's proved to be something else we will have no way of knowing if it's a bad cold, tummy bug etc or Covid.

[mazi]

At the age of 81 I would count any day when I didn’t have one of those symptoms a good day

Totally symptomless people are in the majority of cases and have been since day 1, so I don’t see an answer to the problem.

Mike

[Viktoria]

I agree mazi, so many drugs, so many side effects ,which are attributable to your usual medication and which something else.?
Indigestion,headaches,aches and pains, extreme tiredness ,dry cough ,,sneezing and runny nose .
All can be attributable to regular daily drugs and eye drops ,which don’t just affect your eyes .
So either my prescribed medicines or I have had Covid for over two years.
However I still wear a mask wherever I go.Which is only hospital or a bit of shopping
Don’t go to any social events ,and generally am housebound.

We do the best we can ,deny ourselves family visits ,limit to the point of none our social life .
Hope it is to a good end.
Viktoria.

[trystan]

It seems that those people who catch Covid and didn't get too bad a time are liberated. The worry of catching it again is no great concern to them.

It would be good if they could develop a test to determine what likely outcome there would be for an individual if they caught Covid.

If such a test showed an individual that the likely outcome of catching Covid wasn't likely to be threatening then it would give them a feeling of liberation.

Trystan

[mazi]

It seems that those people who catch Covid and didn't get too bad a time are liberated. The worry of catching it again is no great concern to them.

It would be good if they could develop a test to determine what likely outcome there would be for an individual if they caught Covid.

If such a test showed an individual that the likely outcome of catching Covid wasn't likely to be threatening then it would give them a feeling of liberation.

Trystan

But what would you do if you were told that catching COVID would be fatal,  lock yourself away for ever, that’s a fate worse than death.

Or just be fatalistic, a short but happy life is best.

And who is going to pass on the news, you would need to be 100% certain to take on that responsibility.

Moral dilemmas everywhere.

Mike

[Roobarb]

Totally symptomless people are in the majority of cases and have been since day 1

Mike

How could you possibly know that Mike 

Trystan, I did have a bad time when I caught Covid last year, it took some time for me to recover but when I did I felt a bit safer having those extra antibodies. Unfortunately that didn't last long as hot on its heels came the new strain which I didn't have any extra protection against. The only slight comfort now is that many people don't suffer badly from this strain and I can only hope that if I were to catch it I'd be in that category. Still don't want to catch it though.

[Jomot]

You might think if they have not had symptoms why should it matter but it may matter if they then go on to infect vulnerable people who cannot survive even a mild infection.

If by vulnerable you mean those with existing conditions & the elderly, then most of them can survive Covid, and do!

My Dad's nursing home is now in week 5 of the latest lockdown (the 4th this year), yet not one single resident has been unwell.  They are all extremely lonely & depressed though. 

Several haven't seen a single person without mask, gown & gloves for over 2-years.  Its inhumane.

Dad has two competing 'high risk' illnesses & an almost permanent chest infection, yet he sailed through Covid in January - as have all the other residents.  There hasn't been a single Covid-related death for over a year, despite the fact that all of them by definition are 'vulnerable'.  The worst has been a couple of days of very mild flu-like symptoms (tiredness, aches & headaches), and then fine and testing negative by day 3 or 4. Despite this, they still have to fully isolate with their door closed 24/7 and minimal staff contact.

Few of us want to end our days in a care home, but I guarantee that none of us would want the sad & lonely existence we're still forcing on these residents 'for their own good'.  There's a lovely park less than 2-minutes walk from Dad's home, but I'm not allowed to take him so he just lies in bed all day, staring at the same four walls (he's completely immobile).

Even at the very beginning there was a higher chance of a vulnerable person surviving Covid than dying from it - they were just at much greater risk than the young & healthy - and now, thanks to the vaccine, the overwhelming majority have a positive outcome.

That said, we've long accepted that thousands of flu deaths happen every year, so why not Covid?  I suspect that in the long-term a high proportion of flu deaths will simply be replaced by Covid deaths, with the overall numbers staying broadly unchanged.

Staying away from others to avoid the risk of infection should be a personal choice now, not something we arbitrarily force on people.  The same goes for testing.