AIBU to think home testing for COVID-19 is crazy?

[PulcinoPio]

I keep reading threads and news articles comparing covid stats for the UK with other countries (usually France and Spain at the moment). The UK case numbers look good compared to these countries, but do people realise that it's only in the UK that tests are sent out in the post for people to do at home?

France is only just now in the process of authorising professionals with training, such as pharmacists and paramedics to take covid samples.

Surely home testing massively increases the chances of a false negative? Perhaps this explains why, although UK case numbers are looking much better, the death rate is still stubbornly high.

I’ve done 3 myself. First time I made myself vomit in the car- yay! They need to sort of the spit test for children ASAP as there will be lots of dodgy and inaccurate testing. I think I’ll be able to bribe my 4 year old but it’s hard enough doing my 1yesr olds teeth. It’ll be fun when we have to do them both...

A doctor did mine and I was genuinely shocked at how deep into the nose she went (she also skirted round a bit internally that i broke 30 years ago). No way would I have dared to go so deep (nor would I have twisted and turned quite so much whilst inside). And even if I’d managed to go that deep myself I wouldn’t have had the guts to do the same to my kids.

We had to do one at a drive through for DS 8 who has autism. There is no way we did it right. Because they won't let you out of the car it's impossible to hold down a flipping out child and not hurt them. There's no way we did it right.

I also had to do a swab on my 10 yo DC in a tiny car at a self-testing centre where you can't open the car doors. In fact, I couldn't get anywhere near her tonsils so she had to do it on herself. She did a pretty good job but I'm certain it wasn't enough for an accurate test. A friend had her DC tested at the hospital and she said the swab went so far up his nose that his eyes watered. It's really hard to do that on yourself or your child. Let's hope they get somewhere with saliva tests.

I found it perfectly straightforward.

I can’t drive due to a disability and don’t live near any testing centres so couldn’t have got tested otherwise without risking infecting someone else by getting in a car with them.

I'm terrified of having the test, I'll be honest. It's the nose bit bleurgh.

But anyway, it is shite it's being done at home, bloody underfunded everything in this country.

Half our problems with covid are because we've got crap services.

Also because they only give you one swab you can’t redo it if you do it wrong.

9 year old DS - my attempt at the throat swab came out with some brown - turned out he and his brother had just stolen some chocolate. I did expect his result to come back negative for Covid but positive for chocolate!

I had to do my own and my dc's at a drive in. It wasn't rocket science and a waste of resources to make nurses and doctors do it.

Rocket science I can do. Shoving something far enough down the throat and far enough up the nose of an uncooperative child, when you have to get it right first time, I find rather more difficult.

I didn't find it that difficult. Not easy but perfectly manageable.
I don't think you need to go in quite as hard when you do it yourself as opposed to someone else doing it. You can easily tell when you have reached your target, someone else has to push harder to sense that they are in the right place.

All 4 in my household managed ok. Yes it caused a bit of gagging and a few tears to the eyes but it's over pretty quickly.

I wouldn't want to do it in the car - a mirror really helped.

Everyone saying it was ok and not that bad and got a negative result.
Cant be 100% positive they didn't have it
They may of not done it far enough up / down

The drive thru thing puzzles me as you have to be well enough to drive. I have some symptoms but unsure whether to test and have such a severe headache that not really feeling up to driving to the nearest centre. How long does the home test take to arrive and then get results back?

Home test arrived the next day. Posted it in a certain letter box that afternoon. Results say 48 hours but ours was less than that as text at 6am in the morning (about 36 hours)

Hope you feel better soon lifeafter50

We had to do our 5 year old yesterday. Not convinced they'll have enough to give us a result. We weren't given an option for anything other than a self administered test and it's nigh on impossible to get a sample from a small child without them clamping their mouth shut or pulling at the swab. They need to look at other options for testing as most people will be very reluctant to repeat the experience - especially given the number of times small children have a cough or temperature in an average year.