To think if you can stand in a queue for 5 hours, you’re not ill

[TheMurk]

Five hour queue for Covid testing in Bury yesterday, as pictured in various newspapers.

Now, when I’ve been ill before with various Illnesses and viruses (flu, noro, mumps, bronchitis etc, remember them?) I’ve been in no position to go anywhere but my bed.

When I say ill, I mean suffering the generally expected effects of whatever virus it is, to such an extent that it disrupts my daily routine and requires rest, fluids and medications. Not so Ill that I’m in any danger, or need to go to hospital. But ill that is noticeable to those around me. Needed time off work, that sort of thing.

It’s by the by that in none of these instances I required any sort of test to establish what was making me ill - it was plainly obvious by the symptoms.

But supposing I had a virus so unique and potentially deadly that required a test and subsequent isolation measures, let me tell you now I would have been in no shape to drive, walk or bus it anywhere, stand in any sort of queue for even a short period, attend a test that is uncomfortable and then get myself home.

Especially if the virus is SO CONTAGIOUS that in the rest of the public domain you must wear a mask, stay 2 m away from everyone else and you can’t even touch so much as a library book for fear of being overwhelmed and struck down by this virus.

I mean, who are these people getting tested?

And if they’re well enough to stand in a five hour queue, they are far from a hospital admission - so why are all our lives on hold for this?

Bonkers.

I agree it’s not on to be queuing like that and I really don’t know how sustainable our current protocol is going to be. I’ve had to have Ds tested in my first week back at work, he had a cough at nursery. He hasn’t/hadn’t coughed at home but had a snotty nose, I’m sure it’s just a cold and the rest was negative. I wouldn’t personally have chosen to get him tested as I’m not convinced the cough even counts as a continuous one. But if I hadn’t then he couldn’t go to nursery and me and my partner couldn’t go to work. But as we come into cough/cold season and with children mixing again after a long time for some of not really doing so, I am worried about how many calls from nursery I’m going to get for my DC and how often can I subject them to tests that are more than likely going to come back negative. I know three other parents at the same nursery who had children sent home and all tests have been negative and I’m sure there’s been more.
No doubt DD will be next as she’s been near him. Luckily I can work from home and get full pay for anything Covid related without it effecting my sickness record anyway, but I feel for parents who aren’t in that situation.

I’m not sure what the answer is, other then quicker testing/results and maybe clearer guidelines for schools/nurseries in particular around the coughing symptom.

To add though I didn’t have to queue for our testing, but I couldn’t get booked in till three days after he was sent home. Results were back in 48hrs. So it was a week of work of work for us both.

Well this just confirms the Press and 'Chinese Whispers'. The original article in the Bury Times says something along the lines of 'Key Worker condemns 3 Hour (NOT 5 hour!) Queue and no test result as farcical'. My initial thought yesterday was why on earth are all these people going for a test and surely this key worker realises that the results are not instant. However, Bury has one of the highest rates in the country and is subject to stringent measures. No meeting non household members at home or even in the garden.
It's possible that those waiting have been instructed to test by the track and trace. Plus I think the centre has only recently opened.

Is this thread real? Surely nobody can be this dense?

Most people suffer the symptoms fairly mildly. You’re getting tested to try to avoid passing it on unknowingly, not as a means to allieviating your symptoms. Have the basic facts of the pandemic just gone over your head?

It's all ridiculous. Only certain symptoms require you to have a test- the gastric symptoms ( which were the first indication of Covid for many in my area) don't give rise to testing, only temperature and cough( which were symptoms some people never got).
Some of us could barely make it to the loo, let alone the front door to go for testing, which is only recently available anyway.
My son has just had a test done by post- sent it off Tuesday, got the results this morning. Fortunately he's been working from home, so not been going out anyway.
I've had it but not been tested. So should I have isolated while waiting for the results of his test?
Meanwhile, I looked up the cost of the antibody test, it's now £139 per person, gone up from £99 in April.
Who can afford to take 4 or 5 days off waiting for results?

OP where have you been for the last 5 months?! The whole issue with covid is that it is mild or no symptoms in some and a killer in others, and highly contagious so of course people who seen well are being tested, they won't die but the elderly parents they care for might 🙄

In the entirety of 2020 if it was “super contagious” we would have epic spread through supermarket workers, warehouse workers, care professions, police, firefighters, ambulance, sex workers...

Two of our local police stations were closed, due to an outbreak. Meat factories have had outbreaks. Over twenty people died in a nursing home close to me. One of my friends was seriously ill in hospital with it and has been left with breathing difficulties. My daughter has a good chance of surviving a flu but will have a very good chance of dying from Covid and I got a phone call last night to say my friend that was taken into hospital on Wednesday has died. If I told you and the other tinfoil hat brigade what I really thought of your science denying, ageist and disablist attitudes I’d get banned.

DH works in a hospital.
On the cancer ward, one doctor showed symptoms, (way back in early lock down), so they tested all the doctors. Every single doctor had a positive result. None of the others ever showed symptoms. It’s scary. They were almost asymptotic carriers, dealing with some very vulnerable people.
It did affect some of the patients receiving treatment.

So it is going through care workers, but like the general population, they may not all show symptoms. They themselves may not be vulnerable but that doesn’t mean they didn’t catch it.

I don't think the point of the majority of testing is because someone is cripplingly ill.

Surely people, even with mild symptoms (remember you can even be asymptomatic and still have Covid), have a test done so that they can continue doing things like going to work or school or going about their daily lives if the test is negative.

You don't have to be unable to leave your bed to have a test. People don't want to be isolating for 2 weeks if they've just got a regular old sore throat.

@TheMurk

Why are asymptomatic people being made to queue for hours for a test under fear of their jobs or livelihoods?

They're not. People should only get tested if they are symptomatic, or have been asked to for a very specific reason.

[quote DumplingsAndStew]@TheMurk

Why are asymptomatic people being made to queue for hours for a test under fear of their jobs or livelihoods?

They're not. People should only get tested if they are symptomatic, or have been asked to for a very specific reason.[/quote]
In my area everyone who lived in 3 streets and everyone who attended a list of pubs published in the local paper were told to get tested.

For those with no symptoms they had to tick a box saying the local council had asked them to get a test.

@Comefromaway That's one of those "very specific reason(s)" isn't it?

OK OP, you have your agenda.
Let's spell it out for you.
Many people catch Covid-19 and have mild symptoms.
Many catch Covid-19 and have no symptoms at all! They test if told they have had contact with someone contagious and want to go back to work/school.
Some people get Covid-19 and struggle for months or end up in ICU.
Some people catch it and die.
It's contagious. You don't 100% know which of the above groups you'll be in. You don't know who'll be very ill or die as a result of you spreading it.

@FinnyStory
BashfulClam
My husband works in the covid track and trace and the majority of people with positive tests have no symptoms whatsoever and only got tested due to close contact YABU
But currently, close contact with no symptoms doesn't "qualify" you for a test. To book a test you have to confirm you have symptoms, so how can he know that the majority had no symptoms?

Because when he speaks to them the script from NHS Scotland asks what their symptoms are. They are trying to gather as much information as possible. Due to confidentiality I don’t know too much just that he says a lot of people have no or almost no symptoms. He’s calling people every day.