Anyone else not going to test children anymore

[Baileysforchristmas]

My daughter is 15, she said none of her friends are testing anymore. Why should I make her test twice a week now? All it will do is stop her going to school and us getting on with our lives, it will also stop her bubble going to school and she will get blamed. My daughter didn’t go to school for 3 months while flights were coming into the country from other parts of the world which could do as they please. Why should I take the risk of putting my daughter’s life on hold, also the more we test the more the numbers go up, Europe’s not testing secondary school children twice a week so obviously their numbers won’t be showing as high.

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

I am only going to test my DD if she shows symptoms. She’s 7 though. I’m a primary school teacher and will test twice a week when I’m back off mat leave.

[FindingMeno]

I forget tbh.
We do it when we remember though.

[Randominternetbitch]

Ooohh, I hope you’ve donned your flame proof suit and hard hat OP, the Covid police will be along to hand you your arse on a plate in a minute.

I’ve got popcorn and here for the fireworks

[Wakemeuuuup]

We're all still doing them twice a week. With cases rising it's very important

[CocoLady]

Absolutely traumatised my 6 year old had to do it twice never ever again

[RiskyReels]

Upping to almost daily here because of increasing cases. Bubbles bursting all over the place in our local secondary school unfortunately 😔 but the lateral flow tests seem to be working well to identify asymptomatic cases for isolation, to reduce onward transmission.

[Feenie]

Cases rising rapidly here - we will carry on testing.

[AliciaWhiskers]

Or you could wait until she starts coughing at school in front of her friends and gets sent home and really gives her mates something to talk about.

It's our collective responsibility to keep testing, picking up infections and stopping spread of infection. It's only for another month anyway until term ends. Just because her mates aren't doing it, doesn't mean they are right.

[Abraxan]

All it will do is stop her going to school and us getting on with our lives,

False positives are not very common and these days you can get a PCR the same day and results are back within 24 hours. So the isolation period if negative PCR is often a day at most.

If positive and PCR is positive then surely it is better for everyone that it is known and that she, and her close contacts, isolate rather than unknowingly spreading it.

also the more we test the more the numbers go up,

I hate this argument. It makes no sense.

Surely it is far better for us to know if people are covid positive, even if asymptomatic, so that the virus is spreading less.

Whilst the vaccines are working very well, please remember that some vulnerable people cannot have the vaccine and in some CEV/CV and elderly people the vaccines are less effective due to their health. So your DD could spread the virus unknowingly to these people and it will affect them far more.

[megletthesecond]

Still testing two or three times a week here.
It's a minor pain in the backside but may just catch a positive if we get it.

[Abraxan]

@CocoLady

Absolutely traumatised my 6 year old had to do it twice never ever again

You can choose not to test even if symptomatic.
The alternative to testing is to self isolate your child and the household for 10 days from when symptoms start.

[Leaveitonthefloordrobe]

@CocoLady

Absolutely traumatised my 6 year old had to do it twice never ever again

They haven't directed for primary school children to test anyway have they? I also traumatised my ds when I took him for testing because of a temperature. He's terrified if the tests now 🙈 My secondary school children mostly test twice a week but we do occasionally forget. We also all test before seeing family.

[Baileysforchristmas]

If my daughter has symptoms I will keep her at home and will test. She has been surrounded by Covid and has never caught it. I think I’ve decided I’m not going to get her to test anymore. People have been travelling in and out of this country the whole time this has been going on, bringing in different variants, I’m done now. Numbers are going up and they will carry on going up whether my daughter tests twice a week or not.

[Watapalava]

Never tested my kids and never will.

[Leaveitonthefloordrobe]

I do wish the tests weren't full of plastic. I understand the necessity of them, but I wince every time I throw all the paraphernalia in the bin. It feels like we took one step forward for covid and one step back for the environment.

[Baileysforchristmas]

@Watapalava I agree with you, I started doing it to be responsible but now I just think what’s the point. The government wasn’t worried about variants coming in from other countries so why should I risk putting my daughters life on hold.

[SpnBaby1967]

@Watapalava

Never tested my kids and never will.

I'll test if they're unwell.

[SuperSecretSquirrels]

I’m going to keep testing. I couldn’t forgive myself if they had it and spread it to someone vulnerable. I had 4 bereavements last year - I don’t want any more.

[Watapalava]

if unwell i'll keep them off like i do for cold and flu but i wont be testing and isolating. Vulnerable are vaccinated. Anyone left has minimal risk or has denied vaccine.

[Waxonwaxoff0]

I've never tested 7yo DS. Will only test him if he develops Covid symptoms.

[WhiteFlowerVase]

I’m going to keep testing dc. I have respect for their teachers - some of whom are unvaccinated - and the children at school who are vulnerable

[OrangeBananaFish]

We started testing back in March, but haven't for a while now. Even if we still were I'd be stopping now anyway. I've given up with it all now. One last heave apparently. Yeah right.

If any of us develops symptoms then yes we will isolate and test properly. If any of us get told to isolate for being a close contact then again yes we would, but LFT nah not anymore.

[Cookiecrisps]

We’ve had some asymptomatic cases picked up in school from the lateral flow tests so I think it’s important to keep taking them regularly. It’s a couple of minutes to do one but could stop cases from spreading further in the school community so worth it.

[kowari]

DS 15 did some at the start then chose not to continue except for a day he was home unwell (not three main symptoms).

[Buzzinwithbez]

We test if unwell. I'm aware from religiously using the Zoe covid symptom app that there are many more symptoms than just the 3 the govt class as covid symptoms. I also wonder if what they're referring to as asymptomatic is more the absence of the main 3, but otherwise not being completely well
The latest strain of concern seems to consists of headache and sneezing far more than cough, loss of small etc...
My kids were the illest I've ever known them to be with cold type symptoms and so they tested. They were -ve so I'm putting it down to lack of exposure to the usual winter bugs this year.