Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Retired DH doing weekly LFT for no reason …..

174 replies

GoodnightGrandma · 30/10/2021 10:53

…….. other than he wants to. No symptoms, no requirement to do it.

YANBU - It’s a waste of resources and it’s adding to landfill unnecessarily.

YABU - none of your business, he can do what he wants.

OP posts:
HesterShaw1 · 30/10/2021 11:52

Concern about single use plastic is so 2019.

BigFatLiar · 30/10/2021 11:52

Perhaps one of the reasons we have so many reported cases is we test so much.

Sounds ok to me though you can have it and be passing it around but not know, Doesn't affect everyone he same.

thenightsky · 30/10/2021 11:55

He sounds wasteful and paranoid

Certainly this ^^

BananaPB · 30/10/2021 11:55

Ds does them daily at secondary and I know his school isn't the only one.

When testing in schools started (summer term iirc?), parents of school children in England were advised that they could test twice a week if they wished too.

dementedpixie · 30/10/2021 11:56

@GoodnightGrandma I put a link to the nhs page that asks you to do them twice a week

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/regular-rapid-coronavirus-tests-if-you-do-not-have-symptoms/

Ds's school sends home a box of tests with him every few weeks.

Original poster
GoodnightGrandma · 30/10/2021 11:58

[quote dementedpixie]@GoodnightGrandma I put a link to the nhs page that asks you to do them twice a week

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/regular-rapid-coronavirus-tests-if-you-do-not-have-symptoms/

Ds's school sends home a box of tests with him every few weeks.[/quote]
Thanks for that. It probably hasn’t registered with me because I do them anyway for work.
And school definitely haven’t asked or sent tests home this year.

OP posts:
Mrsjayy · 30/10/2021 11:58

LFt are for no symptom testing Scottish government advise doing it twice a week thought all the UK had the same advice ? I don't think your husband is doing anything wrong a couple of cotton buds and.a few bits of plastic really isn't causing an increase in landfill!

SlugRose · 30/10/2021 11:59

No, he does do basic stuff in the house. He wears a mask if he goes to the shops, which is all he does. he's going out the house then so yeah I don't think 1 a week is excessive.

noblegreenk · 30/10/2021 12:00

YABU. The whole point of LFTs is that you're meant to use them twice a week without symptoms. If you have symptoms then you get a PCR test. LFTs are designed to test for covid before the onset of symptoms and then you can start isolation before you get symptoms and spread it about too much. I take LFT tests twice a week as my workplace won't let me into the building without me showing a confirmation email of a recent lateral flow test, e.g within the last 3 days. If I haven't got this, I get given a test to do there and then. If its negative then they'll let me in and if it's positive I have to stay at home until the isolation period is up.

MyOtherProfile · 30/10/2021 12:01

Odd that the school haven't asked for tests @GoodnightGrandma as all the secondary schools round here do and students are supposed to be testing regularly.

Your DH sounds sensible. Unless he never leaves the house or comes into contact with the rest of you who leave the house.

MaxNormal · 30/10/2021 12:01

I'm in Scotland and had no idea I was meant to be randomly testing myself, I thought it was just school children or something.

Quite frankly I think the only way the pandemic will end is if people stop testing themselves constantly to see which flavour of cold they have.

MrsSkylerWhite · 30/10/2021 12:02

If I understand your posts correctly, you have a son living with you who attends school?
There’s his valid reason for regularly testing.

icedcoffees · 30/10/2021 12:03

If you can live with killing people then go for it..

Why do people always say this?

Have you always isolated yourself and your entire family when you've had flu in the past? What about bad colds, chest infections or tonsillitis?

All those conditions can kill someone who is CEV yet it's only a COVID diagnosis that sends everyone into a massive panic.

ThePoisonousMushroom · 30/10/2021 12:03

I could weep for the environment.

muddyford · 30/10/2021 12:03

We are testing more than almost any other country so if course we pick up more positive tests. We have to live with Covid as we do 'flu and other infectious diseases so random testing should stop.

Sprostongreen21 · 30/10/2021 12:07

This pandemic is creating ridiculous waste world wide. It’s not great environmentally. I work in a hospital I can’t tell you how many aprons/masks/gloves I get through in a day. I don’t know what the answer is.

A lateral flow test is tiny in comparison to that.

He is actually doing the right thing. We are still in an active pandemic. If cases were low he maybe wouldn’t need to but we are continually pretending covid doesn’t exist in this country when cases are high and hospital cases increasing quickly now. Covid can be caught anywhere.I’m loving my life but I test if I go to visit people because I don’t want to give it to anyone I care for. So many people are walking around spreading it as ‘just a cold’ when actually delta and vaccinated symptoms can be just a cold.

Iggly · 30/10/2021 12:08

I dont think it’s a big deal - they are for catching cases just in case.

The worst ones are those who use LFTs to rule out covid when actually they need a PCR. A friend of mine is coughing, has a sore throat and is pretty ill but the LFTs are clear so she thinks she’s fine Hmm

ThePoisonousMushroom · 30/10/2021 12:08

A lateral flow test is tiny in comparison to that

50 million people doing 2 lateral flow tests a week is not tiny.

BogRollBOGOF · 30/10/2021 12:08

Would it be over zealous and wasteful if I did a pregnancy test every time before drinking alcohol/ strenuous exercise just in case? Not that I'm likely to be pregnant, but there is a chance I might have forgotten any dreams involving archangels...

I'm not going to quibble LFTs for people exposed to higher risk environments or visiting very vulnerable people, but it is incredibly wasteful for people with little chance of being exposed to the virus or passing it on.

Constantly testing for the sake of it is not a normal and healthy long term behaviour and the government will not be subsidising it indefinitely so the habit will have to be broken at some point and Covid will end up being treated as any other routine, inconvenient illness.

HolidayClubPhoto · 30/10/2021 12:10

I WFH so no need to do them as we're back to fulltime WFH but I still do them as my 7yo does them twice a week for school.

I don't mind, it's part of our routine now, and they're easy enough to do.

Iggly · 30/10/2021 12:10

I think that the LFTs have been issued to all and sundry to just get them used up. I think the government ordered loads of them and they were declared pretty useless for confirming cases, so they’ve now said “use them for just in case” testing.

So they need using up - otherwise they’d be landfill anyway.

ThePoisonousMushroom · 30/10/2021 12:13

@Iggly

I think that the LFTs have been issued to all and sundry to just get them used up. I think the government ordered loads of them and they were declared pretty useless for confirming cases, so they’ve now said “use them for just in case” testing.

So they need using up - otherwise they’d be landfill anyway.

Yes. And we’d all be wise to remember that when, after flying to and from COP26 (via Rome), Boris tells us all what steps we need to be taking to protect the environment.
HesterShaw1 · 30/10/2021 12:14

@icedcoffees

If you can live with killing people then go for it..

Why do people always say this?

Have you always isolated yourself and your entire family when you've had flu in the past? What about bad colds, chest infections or tonsillitis?

All those conditions can kill someone who is CEV yet it's only a COVID diagnosis that sends everyone into a massive panic.

It's just ridiculous judgemental hyperbole.
Practicebeingpatient · 30/10/2021 12:14

The govt here in England sends out free tests on request and asks that people without symptoms do two a tests a week so your husband is complying with current safety guidelines.

YABU.