Aibu to refuse this Covid test?

[Teacher12345]

Last weekend (not the one just gone) me and Dd woke feeling rough with sore throats. Felt like a cold but DH has been suffering from anxiety, (the worst of it, he only disclosed yesterday and has booked an appt with GP,) so the whole house got Covid tested for his peace of mind.
I'll point out that this is not a small thing as kids are 7 and 4 and it was not a pleasant experience for them.
Ds since then has caught this cold and has had a constant stream of snot running down his face since Tuesday.
DH has said today he wants us all to do the tests again and I have said no.
No one in the house has any symptoms at all so it would be purely for his piece of mind, but I don't think it is fair to keep asking them to do it, just to assure him. At this rate, we will be doing them weekly until Xmas and beyond!
Is it unreasonable of me to say no? I am not saying he cannot do it just that I won't, and I won't ask the kids to either. Our DS was really anxious whilst waiting for results and took a few days to be convinced he didn't have it, even when they came back negative.

[quote JinglingHellsBells]@InDeoEstMeaFiducia If a mother and daughter had symptoms [sore throat and feeling rough/ unwell ] and then another child has some symptoms that could be the virus, you think it's fine to ignore that and risk passing it around?

Seriously?

They ought to stay at home as family OR be tested.

The father's anxiety is a red herring.

Even if he wasn't at home, or had no anxiety, they ought to follow the guidance.[/quote]
Yes, yes I do, otherwise we will all be bloody isolating every 5 minutes for what is probably a sore throat or cold. Ridiculous, also completely unworkable with life and unenforceable (because it's ridiculous).

The NHS website says this:

You can get a test: for yourself, if you have coronavirus symptoms now (a high temperature, a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste).

I really don't understand those advocating wasting NHS resources unnecessarily by ordering tests which don't fit the criteria. The mind boggles. Yes, other symptoms can mean you have it but so does having NO symptoms. And we're not testing every inhabitant of the UK on a weekly basis.

@vodkaredbullgirl

But that is an American version, im in the UK

No matter, vodka, if it suits the poster's agenda.

[quote JinglingHellsBells]**@DumplingsAndStew* and @vodkaredbullgirl* Here you are - the link to taking swabs differently from the FDA. www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/fda-changes-coronavirus-testing-swabs/[/quote]
This is an American article based on American testing equipment and techniques. Who is going to ignore what the actual test instructions say and do something different based on what an American article on the internet says?

[quote JinglingHellsBells]**@DumplingsAndStew* and @vodkaredbullgirl* Here you are - the link to taking swabs differently from the FDA. www.statnews.com/2020/04/16/fda-changes-coronavirus-testing-swabs/[/quote]
Is that the kind of swab and instructions for all the people on here saying it was unpleasant to have to go right up the nose?

Are they no longer doing tests where it has to be fully inserted?

I think a lot of people have forgotten how many colds and coughs we get during the winter. We'd all have to have constant testing by some people's standards

How did you get your 4 year old tested? The tests aren’t for anyone under 6.

Dreading this winter the neurotic are going to be flooding the NHS for tests

@SnuggyBuggy

I think a lot of people have forgotten how many colds and coughs we get during the winter. We'd all have to have constant testing by some people's standards

Or isolating at home. Yeah, that so works when you have bills to pay, or live in an overcrowded flat with kids and can't afford to move out, need to get food and don't live in a place with deliveries or can't get one, no washing machine and need to clean everyone's clothes, don't get paid for time off or zero hours and can be dismissed at will, etc.

I hadn't read the full instructions as it's not something we've had to do yet.
Interestingly, the instructions I'm currently seeing on the UK Gov website (two pages, two videos and illustrated instructions so far), all suggest it only has to be inserted approx 2.5cm (1 inch)

@BoggledBudgie

How did you get your 4 year old tested? The tests aren’t for anyone under 6.

www.gov.scot/news/covid-19-testing-for-under-fives/

@SnuggyBuggy

I think a lot of people have forgotten how many colds and coughs we get during the winter. We'd all have to have constant testing by some people's standards

Absolutely. Not to mention the fact that you can have covid and be asymptomatic. Surely if some people are going to advocate testing for every snuffle and runny nose they should also be advocacting testing everyone on a weekly basis just incase they get it and have no symptoms.

Like I said earlier I think people need to use their common sense and think which is more likely the child with a runny nose having covid or the child with runny nose having a common cold.

health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/coronavirus/uc-davis-health-to-enroll-participants-for-major-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-trial/2020/08

sorry not the right one

@DumplingsAndStew

I hadn't read the full instructions as it's not something we've had to do yet. Interestingly, the instructions I'm currently seeing on the UK Gov website (two pages, two videos and illustrated instructions so far), all suggest it only has to be inserted approx 2.5cm (1 inch)

That is not “just inside the nostril” though @DumplingsAndStew. The key instruction is that you need to “feel resistance” (which you may do within less than 2.5 cm for a small child. It is the feeling of resistance that is uncomfortable for many.

I think those saying it isn't traumatic haven't had the tests done. It isn't just up the nose. It is nose AND throat. Right back on either side of your tonsils. Each side for 5 seconds and it makes you gag.

Good grief don't exaggerate, it's not for 5 seconds! Having said that - no, I wouldn't be having them tested again as I don't think there is a need in your situation. I would also be extremely worried that your DH's anxiety is having such a negative effect on your children.

@WhatamessIgotinto

I think those saying it isn't traumatic haven't had the tests done. It isn't just up the nose. It is nose AND throat. Right back on either side of your tonsils. Each side for 5 seconds and it makes you gag.

Good grief don't exaggerate, it's not for 5 seconds! Having said that - no, I wouldn't be having them tested again as I don't think there is a need in your situation. I would also be extremely worried that your DH's anxiety is having such a negative effect on your children.

Yes it is. The instructions are clear that it must be 10 seconds in total. It’s in bold and everything!

Yes you need to declare certain symptoms to order a test online from the UK government website. And runny nose is not one of them.

However, there are drive-in and walk-in testing centres where you can just turn up, get tested, no need to have or declare specific symptoms. No need to lie - just say you want a test.

Do people really think that this winter they will be able to turn up to work, or send kids to school, with runny noses and sniffles that they have self-diagnosed as "just a cold"?

here

@JinglingHellsBells
If it's all too traumatic to do the test, then do what you should do if there is any chance at all that any of you have the virus- self isolate for 14 days
Except nobody can really say that they DEFINITELY don't have the virus. Even a negative result delivered a day after a test was taken doesn't mean that the same test wouldn't deliver a positive test if taken today. When you account for incubation periods, false negatives etc, the thing we actually need to be most afraid of is false certainty.

And the people who can 'diagnose' by the internet and dismiss a runny nose etc as a cold, need to think again; the more we learn about this virus, the clearer i t is that the initial list of symptoms was wrong, that other people have far less obvious symptoms
A runny nose is a relatively uncommon symptom of Covid-19 and it is actually far more common for people to be completely asymptomatic than to have a runny nose as a solitary symptom. It's just so dangerous to build hysteria around relatively rare symptoms when in reality the social distancing we practice and the way we live our lives must be sufficiently vivid secure so that we can prevent the spreading of the virus amongst those that have no symptoms whatsoever.

Basically, whilst we are all living with ever present possibility that we are carriers of Coronavirus, we must (as far as possible) be taking measures to make the spread of the disease harder rather than becoming obsessed with testing people with random ailments that may have some link to the virus.

A runny streaming nose has somewhere been put as a symptom in children.

Similarly ages ago, loss of smell and taste was listed as symptoms in another country but not here.
If you feel that strongly perhaps don't put dc through it, but no harm in getting yourself done.

[quote JinglingHellsBells]@InDeoEstMeaFiducia If a mother and daughter had symptoms [sore throat and feeling rough/ unwell ] and then another child has some symptoms that could be the virus, you think it's fine to ignore that and risk passing it around?

Seriously?

They ought to stay at home as family OR be tested.

The father's anxiety is a red herring.

Even if he wasn't at home, or had no anxiety, they ought to follow the guidance.[/quote]
We did get tested!

@BoggledBudgie they say not for under 5s but we took her anyway as she is only 6 weeks from being 5 and they didn't question it. Her date of birth was in the confirmation but they didn't bother.

Apparently the only way out until a vaccine is very regular testing.

I'd be happier with that if it wasn't just throat swab. So much easier with blood test

Op what was it like? Was it awful