Too many people getting tested who aren't eligible

[JorisBonson]

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-health-secretary-blames-people-with-no-symptoms-getting-tests-on-system-strain-12067065

There's a lot of theads on here where people are getting tested with just cold symptoms. Wonder if this is a trend nationally?

Just as an interesting point. Dh and I tested. He has symptoms I did not. So by what is being said now I shouldn't have tested. His result was negative, mine positive. I am assuming his test was a false negative. Had I not tested we would have gone back to our lives assuming everything was fine, ds would have been to holiday club, dh to work, we would have gone off on holiday the week after and probably infected dozens of people. From my experience I remained completely asymptomatic throughout and it has really made me wonder how many people are walking about having no idea they have the virus.Therefore testing only people with symptoms seems short sighted.

There is also the argument that the issue isn’t with testing capacity but with the labs. The govt had increased test centres and home tests but hasn’t expanded the lab capacity to cope with this.

It seems pretty odd for the blame to be put on people having the test ‘unnecessarily’ given that we have been told that many people are asymptomatic and also that the list of symptoms deemed appropriate for UK covid tests is narrow compared to some other countries. This seems to be a case of blaming the general public for a flawed system. To have a true handle on how widespread it is and for safe travel/ getting back to the workplace/uni, school, college, etc it would be more beneficial to increase lab capacity to allow for wider testing rather than deter people.

Well at the test centre yesterday (DS has a cough and requires a negative test to go back to school). I booked in sat in the back of the car (the instructions said to have another adult to do so in order to easily do the test) and DH drove.

Got there to be told all 3 of us were required to test as we were in the car. THerefore increasing the number of tests to go through the lab 3 fold. And also cause issues as we only had 1 QR code so I had to ring the others through 119.

Who were bemused that all 3 of us were tested.

And its really difficult to gauge whether his cough is covered!

My two DDs have just both been sent home from nursery with a runny nose and told they cannot return until their test results come back.

There are no tests available.

We get tested every week at work, have been for 2 months (care home)

Maybe a controversial thought here but..... do you think they are saying this to avoid picking up asymptomatic or very very mild cases so that the official case figures drop and we can continue with keeping the economy going? Effectively Turning a blind eye to asymptomatic transmission and treating the very very mild cases as the normal cold viruses that we see at this time of year 🤔

I don't know anyone who is just getting tested with just a runny nose After all its not very pleasant.

My nephew had a cold and had to get tested, but he had a cough and a temperature with it. It meant he only missed two days of school not 10.

My son has a slight cold but as his temp is normal and he had no cough we will not get him tested.

@Concerned7777

Maybe a controversial thought here but..... do you think they are saying this to avoid picking up asymptomatic or very very mild cases so that the official case figures drop and we can continue with keeping the economy going? Effectively Turning a blind eye to asymptomatic transmission and treating the very very mild cases as the normal cold viruses that we see at this time of year 🤔

I don’t think this is purposeful but I can certainly see the logic in preferring milder cases to just isolate for 14 days over using the resources to test. As a country there is no goal to completely eradicate covid so its accepted that does need to pass through the population as quietly as possible in case there’s any chance immunity will eventually dampen the outbreaks without a vaccine.

It’s believable but unlikely that tests are in short supply deliberately though. That’s just down to shit government and public advisory bodies.

As long as we are clear that none of it is the government's fault, we'll be fine.

@Concerned7777

Maybe a controversial thought here but..... do you think they are saying this to avoid picking up asymptomatic or very very mild cases so that the official case figures drop and we can continue with keeping the economy going? Effectively Turning a blind eye to asymptomatic transmission and treating the very very mild cases as the normal cold viruses that we see at this time of year 🤔

I think you are crediting the government with a greater intellect and organisational powers then they have.

@Cornettoninja I dont know anymore to be honest but the less they test the less cases they find the less restrictions to society we need. Im probably way off the mark but something doesn't quite add up right 🤔

“Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence”

I think almost all governments are at their heart egotistical by the nature of the kind of person who doesn’t balk at that sense of the much responsibility for so many other people. I don’t believe they would put themselves in a position of looking quite so incompetent deliberately - they manage it enough unintentionally.

@Cornettoninja

“Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence”

I think almost all governments are at their heart egotistical by the nature of the kind of person who doesn’t balk at that sense of the much responsibility for so many other people. I don’t believe they would put themselves in a position of looking quite so incompetent deliberately - they manage it enough unintentionally.

Is that a polite way of saying this government are: The most thick, utterly stupid and incompetent we've had in generations

combined with

Some of the most monumental arrogrance and precious egos we've seen in generations

Compounded with

The most self serving and ignorant upper class blindness and entitlement

Which renders it physically incapable of either telling the truth or admitting error ?

I think at times it can verge into maliciousness if you are constantly blaming the public for your own failings as a result tbh. The whole 'undeserving poor' mentality certainly springs from this.

Its looking around consciousnessly for the next easy scapegoat for your own faults.

my neighbor has just had a coronavirus test kit delivered after managing to order one at the weekend. It came in an Amazon packet?! Are Amazon doing delivery for the government? They've kept that one quiet!

Perhaps they should ask them to pay for another round of furlough for lockdown 2.0 in lieu of back taxes.

@ChanceChanceChance

I feel really sorry for our government. They are clearly first-rate minds, hampered by a useless population.

It's funny how not one single thing, all the way through, has been a poor government decision, everything is our fault.

Lmfao

The government messaging on everything has been a complete load of shite.

I've never known such a bunch of arrogant, lying, patronising twats.

Their latest tactic is to just blame the public for all of their failings. Surprise, surprise.

They terrified everyone half to death earlier in the year, shortly after saying everything was fine and we should all shake hands.

They urged everyone to get a test if they had symptoms, that there was a plentiful supply, schools have been banning children with colds, we are told people can carry the virus without symptoms or without the main symptoms. I know people who've been told by their GP to get tested for other symptoms.

It was fairly obvious people were going to start getting tested for colds and other minor ailments.

The government need to sort their arses from their elbows and stop lying and treating us all with contempt.

We've been told to use common sense, you know like Dominic Cummings did.

*I feel really sorry for our government. They are clearly first-rate minds, hampered by a useless population.

It's funny how not one single thing, all the way through, has been a poor government decision, everything is our fault.*

Or just this really 🤣

When I read Matt Hancock’s comment this morning I just thought- ahhh of course The lack of testing is the public’s fault not the government’s, glad that got cleared up.
Seriously if more people are requesting tests how is that a bad thing? We need to know who has it, where hotspots are and how widespread it is etc... The government just need to be able to meet the demand not blame people requesting tests? Didn’t hunt just say v recently that thr only way we can get back to normal is widespread regular testing? How exactly if tests are already so constrained in the first week of people returning to schools and offices? Shouldn’t they have been ramping up supply every week to cater for a necessary uptick in test availability?

@RedToothBrush - pretty much yes

I have no love for this government (or any of the opposition sadly), and although I can recognise the things they have got right (and credit where it’s due they did find that magic money tree when they needed to) I can’t ignore the glaring failures. I appreciate that this is a tough one to manage and there are a lot of unknowns and a pissed off public to manage but they still manage to just be plain incompetent when circumstances are completely in their control.

It’s interesting that they’re damaging their own core electorate because they’re too wishy washy with their leadership. It’s constant advisories when we need clear leadership and set boundaries otherwise people interpret everything to suit themselves.

Imho, in a world of limitless resources, testing should be frequent and widespread symptoms or no symptoms. It’s the only way to truly get to grips with it

Oh and they’ve dropped a bollock blaming the public. It might have an element of truth but it goes down like a cup of cold sick. They should have picked on a specific group for us all to hate on together (from a PR perspective).

You can’t win with the testing situation. I got a shitty arse comment on here for sending my dd into school with a cough but if I’d kept her off and tested based on that, it’d have been a waste. And now when she actually has symptoms, we can’t get a home test at all. I get the same message on the website that it’s currently very busy again and again and again.

I was tested with cold symptoms cos the Zoe app asked me too.

This was why I deleted the Zoe app. I have bad hayfever from March to at least September so I'd permanently be telling it I had a cough, runny nose etc. I also have headaches, upset stomach and tiredness when I have my period so again it would probably want me to go for a test.

I did have a test when my cough got worse but I don't intend to keep testing when I know what's caused the symptoms

@Cornettoninja

Oh and they’ve dropped a bollock blaming the public. It might have an element of truth but it goes down like a cup of cold sick. They should have picked on a specific group for us all to hate on together (from a PR perspective).

Absolutely. Jizzing away even more of the massively depleted public goodwill reserves.

@Nestme Amazon are delivering the tests. Lots of news coverage when it was first announced.