So U.K. is now stopping testing people unless hospitalised.

[VivaLeBeaver]

So surely our figures will drop? Boris will be able to say he’s made the right course of action and be smug?

Nobody will have a clue about the real picture which means we are less likely to move to the banning mass events/closing schools stage which Means it will just spread even more?

Am I missing something?

I could understand stopping testing the less serious if hospitals were overwhelmed but didn’t think we were at that stage yet?

Boris is listening to behavioural scientists. Which is quite worrying when you think we are tackling a new virus here.

And the problem is because the Tories have gutted the NHS and public health, they are having to take a gamble.

Behavioural science is flawed.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, when a government looks to over react and it all turns out fine then the initial reaction was right.

Look at the response to the millennium bug. And other outbreaks eg swine flu.

The fact that the PM is saying people will die is in itself awful as it’s a tacit admission that the NHS cannot cope with what is to come.

The labs just can't handle the amount of testing there would be if they tested everyone who wanted it. From what I understand they are testing everyone admitted to ITU or anyone with resp symptoms in hospital, but that's more to do with infection control I think.

Resources need to be focused on caring for the sick. The system simply cannot cope with testing everyone with concerns they might have it. People will have to take responsibility for themselves and act on advice rather than ignoring it. I'm sure anyone turning up to work or gatherings displaying symptoms will be shunned and strongly criticised and shamed by those around them.

We will not know the true numbers whether we test people or not. Modelling can effectively tell us what is going on when we have information from so many other sources.

Will 999 still operste though.
My kid had a fever 10 days ago and has moved to a cough now.
The value of testing would be
Keeping away from elderly
Being able to tell emergency services that it's that if things worsen.
Could have told nursery/school

Everyone criticised Wuhan handling of it at the beginning but we are now being far worse make no mistake.

We are fiddling the figures by not testing. They are not being published on the likes of worldometer like Italy is.

I honestly believe it won’t be until we are overwhelmed with death they will say or do something.

I think the number of test kits are limited and so they need to keep them for hospital to allow them to then work out who has CV and needs to be kept in side rooms ASAP.
The NHS won't cope if the numbers are like Italy. It can't cope at the moment with CV

I'd be wary of relying on modelled data only, we just don't know enough about this virus to be extremely accurate. I'd prefer to ramp up our testing like Korea. And to release all the data that is being used to drive policy decisions to the scientific community.

"Because then there's no log of how many people have actually had it!"

There never will be - as they said at the press conference yesterday, we have no test to see if those with v mild (or possibly even no) symptoms have had it. we're only testing to see if you've got it at the time of the test.

Epidemiologists will know how to use the data, and will understand its limitations when modelling.

You can rebuild an economy.

You can revive a life.

They could have announced a relaxing of school fines or enforced wfh for those with pre-existing conditions.

They didn't. Theres no attempt to mitigate the harm to either individuals or NHS.

They are denying our human rights by lying and hiding things and going agaibst the science.
And pretending nhs is ok
And that they will take actions

I doubt i will see another conservative gov in my lifetime - though i am unlikely to survive this.
Having voted for them i am deeply disgusted!!!
And will be ensuring the kids know why and that they were the cause (not the virus) of deaths in our family.
I predict a new party.
And a prison term for some country leaders

There was someone on the radio the other day saying that they do a lot of tracking and population sampling through a network of GP s etc for seasonal flu and this is operating for Corona so they will get an idea of what is happening in the country as a whole.

It’s hardly a fucking surprise that the Tories are acting this way 🤷🏻‍♀️

There are apparently antibody tests used in other countries using blood. We are just not using them. For now obvious reasons.
However with usig antibody tests if yiu dont want to get it you cant know whether you had it already so can stsrt going back out

So I got lung disease which could be critical even without Coronavirus.
If I get ill, what do I do?
Just sit home and die?
I really need to know as I don’t get the new rules.

Do you really think this was a decision Boris made by himself? Of course he will have been advised by senior medical officers but just you use this as another Boris bashing excuse.

Do you really think this was a decision Boris made by himself? Of course he will have been advised by senior medical officers but just you use this as another Boris bashing excuse

He’s not just listening to medics. He’s also listening to behavioural “scientists” which is the worry.

I can’t believe people on here are saying they are impressed with how they are handling it. They are doing the direct opposite of the who recommendations

Do you really think this was a decision Boris made by himself? Of course he will have been advised by senior medical officers but just you use this as another Boris bashing excuse.

Why are the experts he’s listening to giving such different advice to nearly every other country’s experts?

I am surprised though this is more like we describe other countrIes.
Deeply disgusted that so many thought there would be a little help from nhs.
No we'll be left at home to die in bed in front of our children.
I honestly think they should consider their behaviour carefully.
They are accountable in all senses

They should at least test health and care workers. That way if they don't have it they can keep going to work. And if they do a longer quarantine might be appropriate.

Exactly. We are diffierent to all other countries. It really does look like they actually want it to spread

There was someone on the radio the other day saying that they do a lot of tracking and population sampling through a network of GP s etc for seasonal flu and this is operating for Corona so they will get an idea of what is happening in the country as a whole

Yes, these are the sentinel GP practices, where all patients with respiratory symptoms are being tested.

I think there is also testing of all hospital admission.

The aim in changing the guidelines on when to test is to ensure that lab time (which is finite) is used first for the cases which matter most (in terms of the result making a difference to case management - eg so an infectious inpatient isn't put on a general ward)

If you develop or have lung disease you would see your GP. It’s a long term condition that can become critical if not managed. If you do develop critical symptoms then call 999 or 111 as normal. Then you will be tested and screened to make sure you get the right treatment.

I assume the thought is if it's to happen it has to be quick. So the most people are infected by the time the deaths rise and so even if they get scared and refuse to go out, a family member will already have it so they get it anyway.

1. The evidence from other countries is that each patient only infects between 2 and 3 other people. Therefore there’s no need to ban large outdoor gatherings - one undiagnosed patient is not going to infect the whole crowd.
2. Once the virus has breached containment, testing in the community is a waste of resources. Thousands of people will have it, many of them too mildly to even know they’re infected. It will be like the 1960’s, when we had winter flu epidemics - we weren’t testing then, we just estimated numbers from the clinical cases.
3. Closing schools means a childcare problem. Either all their parents (some of them NHS staff) will have to stay off work to mind them, or they will infect their at risk grandparents.
4. Focusing testing on hospital admissions lets us target the isolation precautions to the right patients.
5. Im surprised and impressed that the government is actually listening to the scientific advice and not making silly public relations gestures like shutting schools, purely to look like they are “doing something”.