Like 18.8million others in the UK, I've had Covid - twice, in fact, despite being vaccinated to the max.
Like all those 18.8million cases, I found out it was definitely Covid through a free test .
So the news that free lateral flow and PCR tests will be scrapped from April 1 gave me the shivers so bad I almost thought I'd got Covid for a third time.
Scrapping free Covid tests for the vast majority is a bad government decision. It means more people getting ill and households facing higher bills - right in the middle of a cost of living crisis .
From April 1, all tests will be paid for unless you're in hospital, a care home or classed as vulnerable.
The government is doing this to save money, but there is still a need for tests - so all it really does is punt the cost on to hard-suffering households.
The government answer to that criticism is to scrap all legal restrictions around Covid , from today - meaning there is no legal 'need' to test.
But of course, there are practical and ethical ones.
Despite what the government apparently believes, we are still in a pandemic . Covid is highly contagious and is still killing around 160 Brits a day.
So if you've got Covid symptoms, you'll want to take a test so you know you're not passing a potentially deadly virus on.
Likewise if you're visiting someone in a hospital, or who is old or medically vulnerable.
That means shelling out for lateral flow tests from your own pocket.
While most shops haven't announced prices for these, Superdrug will sell a single test for £1.99 and a pack of five for £9.79.
Boots will charge £5.99 for one test (£2.50 from April) and a pack of four for £17.
Those costs soon add up, and Brits are in the middle of a cost of living crisis that is seeing prices rise from energy bills to petrol to groceries.
And of course, charging for tests hits the poorest the hardest.
As anyone who's had Covid knows, if you get it you'll need multiple tests, and using a box of lateral flow tests per person is pretty likely.
For many people, the price of a box of tests is the same as their weekly food bill. Asking hard-up Brits to pay for tests is about as realistic as asking them to walk on the moon.
Apparently it costs the government £4 per lateral flow test - God knows how, if Superdrug can sell them for half that price and still make a profit, but at this point nothing this government does surprises me.
But even £4 a test is a bargain compared to the wider cost of not providing free tests.
If people can't afford to test, they'll go around with Covid not knowing it, infecting others, taking time off work and, sadly, many will get sick and pass away. What is the economic (and human) cost of that?
Now, I'm not saying that lateral flow tests should be free forever. But they need to be free for the forseeable future.
Anything else has consequences too grim to even think about, and the fault for that lies squarely at the feet of this government.
