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nvoigt
nvoigt
06:12
@Voo Lets agree on the "we are both not doctors" and listen to the actual doctor who saw the actual patient: " I've been advised to do by a doctor to minimize contact at work". So there is a risk. If you look it up, it is mostly to unvaccinated, vulnerable, elderly or pregnant people. But all those groups exist at a workplace.
I have no problem with what the doctor prescribed for the patient to heal: anti-virals, maybe painkillers. I have a huge problem with the fact that that countires healthcare system does NOT do the optimal thing to cure the patient: Do what the doctor prescribed AT HOME WITH REST.
Instead, the healthcare system opted to put the patient in a stressful situation with extra pain, probably told them to just pop a few extra painkillers, so they can work. That part, the part that does nothing to cure the patient, the drugs that are only there to make them work harder, not to cure them or soothe inevitable pain, THAT is the problem.
Because it is counter-productive to the patients health AND even puts others at "low risk" that otherwise would have been at "zero risk".
Do you know how skilled you need to be to cover shingles? Seems easy, right? But it's only easy if you do your 8h shift at work without peeing once. Because then you will be butt naked, and the person next on the throne three minutes later will be butt naked, too. And what is almost impossible to spread from dressed adult to dressed healthy adult, becomes highly dangerous to someone who just wanted to pee while pregnant.
nvoigt
nvoigt
06:37
That is the reason why I referenced the opiod crisis above: if the doctor tells you to do something detrimental to your own healing (like working while sick), that is not a doctor, that is a pill-pusher for capitalism. And if there is a doctor in your system who actually puts the patient first and not second, after the employers priorities, then by all means drop the current one and switch to the one that puts their patient first.
 
7 hours later…
terdon
terdon
13:21
Wow, @nvoigt, I'm sorry but you are bringing a lot of your own baggage here and assuming things the OP never said. If, and there is nothing in this question to contradict this, the OP is at a relatively late stage of the infection, then the standard advice does indeed seem to be that they can go about their life as long as the rash can be covered. Why are you assuming the OP's rash hasn't scabbed over?
cdc.gov/chickenpox/outbreaks/manual.html
> School settings. Immunocompetent persons with HZ can remain at school as long as the lesions can be completely covered.
cks.nice.org.uk/topics/shingles/management/management
> Avoid work, school, or day care if the rash is weeping and cannot be covered. If the lesions have dried or the rash is covered, avoidance of these activities is not necessary.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/…
> The risk of acquiring infection from contact with an immunocompetent individual with nonexposed shingles lesions (for example thoraco-lumbar) is remote and therefore is not an indication for PEP.
(the OP has thoraco-lumbar shingles)
Neo
Neo
@nvoigt While some of the language you use in your most recent comments ("pill-pusher for capitalism" etc) is causing unncecessary friction, I could get behind some ideas presented here - about non-zero risk for others related to going to work and that probably that it wouldn't be any worse, health-wise, for OP to stay home.

However, what you're saying now is an entirely different take than your answer. Your answer is basically you giving OP a chewing out from the first sentence. In your answer you're putting blame mainly on OP, not his doctor or the healthcare system. If you expect OP to …
Also, while OP's supervisor reacted as if coming back to work was a wrong decision here, other employers could react negatively to what you're proposing (deciding to stay at home of your own accord, without medical leave). Your advice is not universal.

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