To be desperate for government to start charging for LFTs

[CautiousOptimist11]

I'm not sure I can take it any more. The absolute dependency on these tests, the fact that a positive or negative means that all critical thought and common sense fly out the window. Even as the omicron cases get milder, people are still clinging onto these tests and cite their results as a means of explaining their behaviour. A positive test is a dramatic thing to be waved around like you have the plague. A negative absolves you of keeping away from the vulnerable even if circumstances suggest you'd be better off doing so. It's like a religious cult of people who do not understand science medicine or statistics, but believe they have all the knowledge. Dangerous. Just get on with it now people, please. Get on with your lives.

Not even going to get into the hideous, hideous amount of plastic waste created in all of this ....

So, let's start charging and see whether the LFT dependents still shove a stick up their noses at every opportunity

[Lockheart]

YABI not to post this in the coronavirus section.

[DrSbaitso]

It's like a religious cult of people who do not understand science medicine or statistics, but believe they have all the knowledge.

Enlighten us with yours.

[AndAnotherNewOne]

And the poorest among us who can't afford to pay? What should they do?

[hugr]

My infant son is immunocompromised and it helps us feel more comfortable to have people visit him if they have taken an LFT and its negative. If he got covid he would probably be very unwell, he was in hospital for 3 weeks with a cold.

[Overthebow]

They have their uses though. I don’t think anyone should be relying on them but they do catch a lot of cases. Regardless, if isolation is scrapped in March as it has been said, free tests will stop too.

[UnmentionedElephantDildo]

Well,without the statistics, no-one's going to have the knowledge, are they?

Thos is the 'treating the public like mushrooms' approach - keep them in the dark and then you can feed them any old shit.

[Shiningpath]

Well we’ve seen from the very highest in the country to the lowest people can’t engage their brains so I’d rather have the blunt solution of LFTs to save me getting sick again, thanks. And by the way, omicron is much milder for many but not all. It was for me but it’s taking me months to recover. So it’s not as easy as “oh it’s just a cold” then back out in the world after five days.

[00100001]

@AndAnotherNewOne

And the poorest among us who can't afford to pay? What should they do?

People won't need to afford them. Will they?

They won't be an requirements of daily life on the most part. So they won't need a constant supply.


They'll either be provided by work/school if they require them. As they generally are now.

And if people have symptoms they'll get PCRs at test centres for free presumably.



Also, we can't be testing for covid for the rest of our lives. It's endemic now. It will be managed like the flu is.

[Appuskidu]

@AndAnotherNewOne

And the poorest among us who can't afford to pay? What should they do?

I think the OP would like everybody to just stop doing lateral flow tests-rich and poor.

I, for one, think they are a very useful tool and hope the government don’t start charging for them any time soon.

[00100001]

@hugr

My infant son is immunocompromised and it helps us feel more comfortable to have people visit him if they have taken an LFT and its negative. If he got covid he would probably be very unwell, he was in hospital for 3 weeks with a cold.

But you'd be taking precautions regardless, surely?

Covid isn't the only disease out there...

[TheSandgroper]

The Aussie government is leave the supply to free market forces. The prices some are charging are extortionate.

[3luckystars]

I’m in Ireland and we have to pay. We use them a lot here too.

[TulipsGarden]

What a brilliant idea, increase the risk profile for poorer people even more.

[AndAnotherNewOne]

It will be managed like the flu is.

So sick of seeing this. It's not flu. It's not like flu. It cannot be managed.

[GoodnightGrandma]

I test twice a week for work so I don’t want to have to pay for them.

[londonrach]

Awful idea. How can those that can't afford test. Yabu

[Cottagepieandpeas]

I agree about the plastic issue, but apart from that, YABU.
I’m concerned about the move away from restrictions,particularly as there could easily be another variant around the corner and we can’t be certain it won’t be a more serious one (and as others have said, Omicron isn’t ‘not serious’ for everyone.

[Cottagepieandpeas]

@TulipsGarden

What a brilliant idea, increase the risk profile for poorer people even more.

That’ll make it into the next Tory manifesto.

[Whatafustercluck]

2x dc here. School cases through the roof and both schools asking that our dc take am LFT every day for 7 days. That's 14 tests, we're doing it because we're being responsible to try to help stop the spread among school children. So we should be penalised for doing what we've been asked to do in order to keep school classrooms open?

Incidentally, dd tested positive last night. We now have 3 of us having to test every day, because that's what the rules require. In all likelihood, when 11yo ds catches it, a few days down the line, another 7 days of daily testing on top of what we've already been doing.

Most people are not testing because it's fun and they like shoving a stick up their nose and throat. They're doing it because that's what they're asked to do - by schools, by employers, by the government. Omicron may well be milder, but nobody can function with up to 50% of the workforce (including teachers and child carers) on sick leave.

[SafeMove]

I don't really understand this motivation to tell people to 'move on and get on with their lives now'. A) What does it matter to you how people live their life and B) Are you a public health authority with inside knowledge that the general public don't know? If not, why are you qualified to tell people what they should and shouldn't be doing? C) Why are you 'desperate' for this to happen? You may well have a motivator for the pandemic to be over but that is your agenda. Surely you can see others have a different agenda?

[Fundays12]

Thanks I have 3 kids and a household of 5. The kids frequently get letters home from school to tell us they need a LFT test. We both have to do it for work so it would cost us a lot. No I don't want to pay for a test we all hate that we are forced to take so the kids can go to school or we can go to work.

[OopsadayZ]

There is a breakout at my DCs school. We, understandably, have to test everyday for child to go to school. Why should I have to pay for tests for my child to attend school?!

[jelly79]

How much would you charge? Considering the current rules a family of 4 may have to test daily for 7 days or longer.

[borntobequiet]

The absolute dependency on these tests, the fact that a positive or negative means that all critical thought and common sense fly out the window.

Give over with the ridiculous (and meaningless) exaggeration.
People take LFTs to see if they have Covid or otherwise and act accordingly.

[merrymouse]

It's endemic now. It will be managed like the flu is.

It isn’t endemic and it isn’t flu.

Any argument you make is flawed if you are making these false assumptions.