To think Test and Trace is now utterly obscene?

[LiquidSodaCrystal]

I’ve not put this under Coronavirus topic, because it’s not. It’s politics. It’s a vast system designed by the government to siphon off money to make rich people richer.

The government has decided to allow Covid to be endemic. Fine. At that point, test and trace is irrelevant. What are they now doing every day that requires a continual workforce of consultants that is being paid an average daily rate of over £1,000?

Today, over 1,000 people will be paid over £1,000 a day to do the sun total of fuck all, as far as I can see. This is such a bonanza. I assume some MNers are among these people - or spouses - how can you justify this? Or is it a case of “I’ll have it if it’s available thanks.”

This is one of the biggest scandals of the pandemic and it’s continuing, and people don’t seem to care. AIBU to think this is utterly obscene?

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/21/england-covid-test-and-trace-spending-over-1m-a-day-on-consultants

Anyone else start getting lots of random calls from life insurance people once they had started getting track and trace calls

I’ll never forgive them for calling me on Christmas bloody morning last year. We were all ill, DH seriously so. I was called at 8am to check I was still isolating. I just burst into tears I was so stressed. I hate to think of the overtime that person was getting. Christmas Day for gods sake. They’d already called me every day for the previous 6 days

They aren’t consistent and can’t even follow the advice on the government website-we had total confusion over whether 10 days isolation is from the first day of symptoms, or the day of the PCR test. Same scenario but two different dates given. Pointless if they don’t know the guidelines themselves.

The whole industry around Covid is doing a good job of masking the true unemployment figures at the moment so I'm not surprised they've left it go on so long. Every test site employing a dozen people, drivers, lab techs,cleaners, T&T. The government have been quick to say how the hit on employment isn't as bad as feared but Covid in itself has kept people employed.

When DS tested positive, he had played a football match earlier that day - on a football field not attached to a club or anything - literally a field with some goals. T&T demanded the address and postcode of said field - not who he was playing with or anything. Just why??

DH was made redundant at the start of lockdown and ended up working for test & trace for a bit, I only wish he’d been paid £1k a day!

It was a bloody shambles, but he needed the work, we still have a load of their kit here (laptop, screen) cluttering up the place that they were supposed to send a courier for and never did, god knows how much all the abandoned kit is costing everyone.

@Suzi888

TTP staff get paid a grand a day?

It is the English system with it's privatisation and outsourcing that has been in the news.

TTP is the Welsh system which is public sector. There may be some consultants at the top earning that kind of amount, but not at the same kind of ratios that the English system has. The people at the bottom making the calls get nowhere near that amount (less than 1/10!).

@Claymorekick I was asked to provide the address and postcode of Alton Towers and Legoland

We lost count of the amount of calls, texts and emails we got. DH and I were so poorly and the first call was “this should take around 30-45 mins” Told them no way and to call back as we could barely speak.

It got more and more ludicrous as the isolation went on, one day we received 7 calls! 7! We were constantly asked if we were still isolating,
Yes we are,
because you really need to be,
Yes we know,
So you can’t go out ANYWHERE,
Yes,
Anywhere at all,
Yes we couldn’t if we tried, we’re literally moving from our bed to couch and back again!
Yes you need to stay home,
YES, we fucking know!

Good Lord, the whole process is a shit show.
We just stopped answering. Every call was asking the same questions the previous person asked. We’ve already told you! They also wouldn’t believe us that we hadn’t been many places, we don’t venture too much as the kids are autistic so we have a small circle of friends/family we see and places we visit. “Are you sure you haven’t been anywhere else?”

@Blueeyedgirl21

I blocked them and deleted the covid app

After they told a friend they had to legally speak with her 3 month old baby to tell him not to leave the house after testing positive to covid I couldn’t take them seriously

Bloody hell. Surely not?

My neighbour had this constant pestering when she was poorly

She's heard it was a nightmare so gave her work mobile number which was switched off

It's awful when people are very ill to keep hounding them /
Now nobody seems to care at all it's
Gone from one extreme to the other

@Blueeyedgirl21

I blocked them and deleted the covid app

After they told a friend they had to legally speak with her 3 month old baby to tell him not to leave the house after testing positive to covid I couldn’t take them seriously

I’m sorry but that made me laugh so much 😂😂

My husband had COVID we all got PCR tested. I was double jabbed and symptom free so went about my business as per the rules. My husband was too unwell and tired to speak. I got berated for neither of us having the T and T app. I told them about my friend who got pinged to isolate even though he'd been nowhere due to already being in isolation.
They also asked for the telephone numbees of thec200 + people who'd been at a party a few days before. Itopd them to ring back when they had something useful to add FFS