To be done with covid testing!!

[user1496146479]

I've had enough!
Three children! Numerous stints of positive tests, while supposed sick child is fine!
Huge chunks of school & missed each time.
DH & I barely keeping our heads above water both professionally & personally!
AIBU to say I'm done testing?
And that if I have a child that is unwell, I'll keep that child home to recover, but the rest of us with get on with things?

Anyone who wants to get vaccinated/boostered can, vulnerable will have to take precautions like they always do?

I’m not testing.

Dh and Dd have to test for work. Dd tested positive last week. She had a bit of a cold, that’s all. (She doesn’t live with us).

It’s time to start treating covid like any other nasty virus now.

@Comefromaway

I’m not testing.

Dh and Dd have to test for work. Dd tested positive last week. She had a bit of a cold, that’s all. (She doesn’t live with us).

It’s time to start treating covid like any other nasty virus now.

Like measles, chicken pox etc?

Yes and for those people are advised to stay at home.

I think that’s the reassurance we need. That the new guidance will be similar to other nasty viruses (and not the flu, this is not the flu!) based on scientific understanding of covid.

Over the last 2 years I have not tested at all but I don’t have school age children.
The one occasion I felt sick i did ring for a test but none available unless I drove 30 miles to a test centre which I didn’t feel well enough to do so I went to bed until I felt better a week later.

Im supposed to test twice a week for work. WTF for i have no idea. Local government, 5 of us in the office, see no other staff in w office as they work from home.

Think i last tested in October. I had absolutely zero intention of testing twice a week.

I'm not doing any more testing. DD has just tested out of isolation today, second time in less than 8 weeks. She has been off school all week, perfectly well and school have completely abandoned any sort of online learning/support, so she's spent a week gaming.

We all had it at Christmas, DH, DS and I all max jabbed, DS had an important swimming gala on Thursday and has a county level rugby tournament tomorrow, he's perfectly well so I've quite deliberately not tested him. He also has a residential school trip coming up in a couple of weeks, he missed his Y6 and Y7 trips, I'm not risking him missing this one as well, so won't be testing him before that either.

@MrsDThomas

Im supposed to test twice a week for work. WTF for i have no idea. Local government, 5 of us in the office, see no other staff in w office as they work from home.

Think i last tested in October. I had absolutely zero intention of testing twice a week.

That seems a bit much! We test regularly because we have dcs at school and they’re constantly surrounded by covid cases.

I also test just before social events as I don’t want to be that person. I know people who’ve knowingly gone along and ended up spreading covid and others have actually ended up pretty ill as a result of their selfishness. I know a few people who were fit and health (running marathons types) who’ve been ravaged by covid.

We all test twice a week as the school have advised us to.

My daughter is immunosuppressed so I hope her class mates are being tested but reading this thread the chances are people may not be bothering - although one of her classmates is off with Covid at the moment so hopefully people are being careful.

Dreading the point when people are allowed to send in kids who are positive as it will put her even more at risk.

So users have to pay for the tests in the Netherlands? In the U.K. they’re free but I don’t think they will be for much longer. I suspect people’s attitudes to testing will change substantially if/when the tests are no longer free.

We pay for home tests, yes, but the official test-centre ones are all free. I don't really understand the UK terminology like lateral flow, so I'm sorry if I bungled the explanation!

@TulipsGarden

I always think these threads are the government checking where the population is at (and possibly adding a few replies to push things in the direction they want).

This made me laugh! No government here!

I don't have a problem with the person who is sick staying home.

But here when one child is positive the other children have to miss 14 days before returning to school!
14 days and not even sick! And if a second child tests positive, the 14 days resets back to zero again!

It's not sustainable!

I have never done a covid test nor (to my knowledge) had covid but my youngest children are university stage now so not at the age of picking up loads of colds etc at school so my situation is not comparable.

(For the person asking above from Holland lateral flow tests are ones people pick up free in the UK from chemists' shops and you shove a stick up your nose and get the result right away - I think they often give false positive and false negatives but are better than nothing. PCRs are where you send your sample off to a laboratory where is checked in a way that is more thorough. That is free too.

However if you go on holiday from the UK you have to pay for all tests even if you have never had a single free UK test in your life.

To the avid testers, when will you stop? When Covid goes away? Sadly that isn’t going to happen, so when will you stop testing? I suspect the real answer is when it stops being free. It’s nothing to do with safety, you do it just because you can. When you need to start paying for it upfront, perhaps it won’t be so important then.

@sst1234

To the avid testers, when will you stop? When Covid goes away? Sadly that isn’t going to happen, so when will you stop testing? I suspect the real answer is when it stops being free. It’s nothing to do with safety, you do it just because you can. When you need to start paying for it upfront, perhaps it won’t be so important then.

I will stop when I feel confident that the risk of my FIL catching it is tiny. I am fortunate to be able to pay for tests

I don't do it (occasionally) just because I can. I do it when it seems sensible. I'm not an avid tester.

I shall continue occasional testing when we have to pay. I imagine as a self employed person I'll set the cost against my tax.

Dh is in a right mood with me over it. He says I’m selfish.

I am asthmatic myself and every cold etc gies straight to my chest but I think we have to get on with things his. Our kids need to live their lives.

@sst1234

To the avid testers, when will you stop? When Covid goes away? Sadly that isn’t going to happen, so when will you stop testing? I suspect the real answer is when it stops being free. It’s nothing to do with safety, you do it just because you can. When you need to start paying for it upfront, perhaps it won’t be so important then.

I don't live in the UK. Where I live, we've always had to pay for LFTs, but not PCRs. They cost about £25-30 for 5. Due to this, we use them very sparingly - only if we are visiting someone vulnerable or if we have strong suspicions suspect we are ill. They are a difficult resource to find occasionally here too, so that contributes too to our reluctance to use them.

As for stopping forever, that would be when Covid cases in my area fall to a trickle over a long space of time.

@sst1234

To the avid testers, when will you stop? When Covid goes away? Sadly that isn’t going to happen, so when will you stop testing? I suspect the real answer is when it stops being free. It’s nothing to do with safety, you do it just because you can. When you need to start paying for it upfront, perhaps it won’t be so important then.

Who are you asking?

I’m testing as per government advice.

Same here but @sst1234 obviously thinks she's able to make confident assertions regarding everyone's reasons for testing.

So don't test then ,all restrictions will be removed in a couple weeks in England anyway ,most people are pretty much getting on with their lives now ,my DH is classed as CEV ,but he works in a warehouse and has had to pretty much get on with it .

@x2boys

So don't test then ,all restrictions will be removed in a couple weeks in England anyway ,most people are pretty much getting on with their lives now ,my DH is classed as CEV ,but he works in a warehouse and has had to pretty much get on with it .

That doesn’t make it right.

No it doesn't make it right.

@KimchiWithMe

People are still testing?

Sadly some of us still have to....

@sst1234

Are people still testing? Get on with your lives people and stop with the hysteria now.

Lots of us still have to! NHS, medical, air crew, care homes, teaching are just a few

We stopped after Christmas. We were done with trying to work with kids at home, and done with well children sitting at home.

@sst1234 we will stop when we feel the risk of our immunosuppressed 13 year old daughter catching and possibly dying of Covid goes away.

We have a PCR test ready to go if she shows symptoms and she would be assessed for anti viral treatment if she is positive.

All of this is government guidance. We're not doing it for fun. If they start charging then I guess we'll have to pay. Seems a bit unfair but there you go.

I'm also bloody sick of all the testing if I'm honest but we have to protect our daughter.