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Original poster

It’s your fault there is a shortage of tests.

34 replies

Redcups64 · 12/09/2020 15:30

Anyone else sick to the back teeth of hearing how the U.K. public is responsible for the lack of tests available in the first week the children have gone back to school?

Obviously some don’t need tests who get them. Some are distributed unnecessarily....but do you believe the numbers of this are so large that it’s OUR fault and not the fault of the governments lack of planning?

AIBU?

OP posts:
Paperdove87 · 12/09/2020 15:41

Yep! I agree that a few people might be getting tested when they don't need to, but I'm really angry that the government are using this as an excuse for the shambles of the testing and track and trace system.

Last week we were being told off for relaxing too much and socialising when that seemed to be the government's message all through August.

It seems to me that they are hoping that if they turn the blame around onto us, we'll forget who's in charge of the decisions...

StatisticalSense · 12/09/2020 16:10

I think there is at least an element of truth in it. Every single day without fail there are multiple threads where people are asking about getting tested for reasons that don't fit with the official rules. For example at the minute there is a thread ongoing where the OP has tested herself because of (what was at the time of testing) being in contact with someone who had been in contact with someone who tested positive.

ListeningQuietly · 12/09/2020 16:14

Maybe the Tory government should not have got rid of the Pandemic Response team two years ago.

Maybe the Tory government should have put testing under the control of local public health teams
rather than bunging cash to their mates

Maybe the Tory government should have let Public Health experts run the test track and trace system and manage local lockdowns
rather than paying Cummings' friends to mess it up

StatisticalSense · 12/09/2020 16:16

@ListeningQuietly
You can't blame the Tory government for the shortage of tests in SNP led Scotland or Labour led Wales, so clearly it's not as simple as blaming one particular political party when multiple parties are facing the exact same issue...

ListeningQuietly · 12/09/2020 16:21

You can't blame the Tory government for the shortage of tests in SNP led Scotland or Labour led Wales
So austerity and lack of pandemic planning have had no effect over the last 10 years in Scotland and Wales?
get real

LemonTT · 12/09/2020 16:24

I’m aware of a few rl examples of people getting tested because they have returned from Spain. To prove they don’t need to quarantine under their own self defined rules.

NotAKaren · 12/09/2020 16:25

@ListeningQuietly

Maybe the Tory government should not have got rid of the Pandemic Response team two years ago.

Maybe the Tory government should have put testing under the control of local public health teams
rather than bunging cash to their mates

Maybe the Tory government should have let Public Health experts run the test track and trace system and manage local lockdowns
rather than paying Cummings' friends to mess it up

^ This
HottubbubblesX · 12/09/2020 16:25

Yep my kid can't get a test so is stuck home for two weeks. She's got a cold!

MinnieMousse · 12/09/2020 16:30

It's our fault we can't get tested, it's young people socialising that are going to kill Granny, the public didn't adhere to Boris's sloppy and unclear "guidelines" in early so it's our fault they needed a proper lockdown and most heinous of all: care workers weren't being careful enough which was why the virus ran rife in care homes. I'm sick of the blame game because they don't want to plan, pay, or enforce properly.

IceCreamAndCandyfloss · 12/09/2020 16:31

No they should have seen this coming when they sent mass gatherings back into schools.

It’s better to have people test than not if they are ill. They need to not make people feel guilty or wrong for testing or people won’t and then it spreads and we have no idea of actual case numbers.

I’d imagine very few people are using tests to get round quarantine as it doesn’t stop the need to do it anyway.

Khara · 12/09/2020 16:39

I'm not a medically professional, so I don't know if my dd's sore throat is Covid or not. (Yes, I know a sore throat isn't on the UK symptoms list but it has recently been reported as one of the main symptoms in children.) So, forgive me if I want to make sure she's not going to spread Covid around her school, potentially making her vulnerable TA very ill.

This is a hypothetical situation. Touch wood my daughter is fine so far. If anything, I'm the TA in this situation, because a sore throat virus is ripping through the kids in my class/bubble and we are in the third worst place for infections in the country at the moment. But our parents can't even access tests - we're in NW England and one mum was offered Glasgow this week.

There should be enough tests/lab capacity for everyone. Period. If there's not then that's solely on the government, not the public.

Ethelfleda · 12/09/2020 17:04

Well of course it’s not the public’s FAULT. But that doesn’t mean people can start getting tested for the sake of it.
No matter who’s fault it is, this doesn’t change the fact that there aren’t enough tests. So people shouldn’t abuse them. It is what it is.

ListeningQuietly · 12/09/2020 18:04

No matter who’s fault it is, this doesn’t change the fact that there aren’t enough tests.
Because the Tory Government handed the testing system to rich incompetent donors rather than letting local experts run it ...

Dotinthecity · 12/09/2020 18:09

I know several people who’ve been tested and re-tested for no reason other than that they’re feeling a bit under the weather. It’s the government’s fault for scaring a large sector of the population into a hysterical mess.

halcyondays · 12/09/2020 18:13

Coughs and temperatures on the rise as we go into autumn and kids go back to school, who’d have ever thought we’d need more tests?

Other countries ask people to get tested for sore throats, runny noses etc. Lots of cases must be missed because they only focus on three symptoms.

MrsStefani · 12/09/2020 18:25

If anything, we need more testing, not less. Schools don't stand a chance if there aren't enough tests for winter. Children need their education and having enough tests for them and for teachers is essential.

What's strange is that sore throats and stomach upsets are very well-known symptoms around the world in children, so I'm not sure why our Government is ignoring this fact and chastising people for testing... It's a very strange and worrying situation.

Nellodee · 12/09/2020 18:45

@MrsStefani

If anything, we need more testing, not less. Schools don't stand a chance if there aren't enough tests for winter. Children need their education and having enough tests for them and for teachers is essential.

What's strange is that sore throats and stomach upsets are very well-known symptoms around the world in children, so I'm not sure why our Government is ignoring this fact and chastising people for testing... It's a very strange and worrying situation.

It's a repeat of the whole "You haven't been to China, so you can't possibly have it" - a failure to act on the most up to date information.

I think fighting Covid is like playing Space Invaders. Our government keeps aiming at where it sees it being right now. But the snapshot we have is never of where Covid is now, it's always of where it was a bunch of days ago. We need to aim for where it is, not where it was, or we'll never beat it.

x2boys · 12/09/2020 18:48

They were giving out test in my local Asda today but I'm in Bolton so..

SaltyAndFresh · 12/09/2020 18:48

I think the government want children to go into school with coughs because lots will just be run-of-the-mill, but they can't say so, so they just make people trying to do the right thing according to the 'rules' feel like neurotics.

SaltyAndFresh · 12/09/2020 18:50

@MrsStefani

If anything, we need more testing, not less. Schools don't stand a chance if there aren't enough tests for winter. Children need their education and having enough tests for them and for teachers is essential.

What's strange is that sore throats and stomach upsets are very well-known symptoms around the world in children, so I'm not sure why our Government is ignoring this fact and chastising people for testing... It's a very strange and worrying situation.

They always need a scapegoat to distract from their own incompetence.
mrshoho · 12/09/2020 19:08

Yes more distraction yet again. We sent millions of children back to school and part of this plan working was the assurance that fast testing would be available to all who needed it. The UK does not have capacity for the numbers of tests required and our government is fooling us. That dickhead Hancock had the cheek to say testing was going well and that no one should need to travel further than 65 miles to get a test!! ffs who the hell wants to travel that far? It is more if a shambles than even I was expecting.

Bupkis · 12/09/2020 19:17

@MrsStefani

If anything, we need more testing, not less. Schools don't stand a chance if there aren't enough tests for winter. Children need their education and having enough tests for them and for teachers is essential.

What's strange is that sore throats and stomach upsets are very well-known symptoms around the world in children, so I'm not sure why our Government is ignoring this fact and chastising people for testing... It's a very strange and worrying situation.

This
Heatherjayne1972 · 12/09/2020 19:24

Yeah but when school/ college/work says an ill person can’t return unless there’s a negative test even though the person is sure it’s just a cold or asthma or something
What are any of us meant to do?

CaptainMerica · 12/09/2020 19:25

Yep, they need to acknowledge that a cough is a very common symptom of a cold and multiple other viruses, and stop implying that people who develop a cough without having the CV19 are letting the side down.

roses2 · 12/09/2020 19:27

@HottubbubblesX

Yep my kid can't get a test so is stuck home for two weeks. She's got a cold!
Who has told you to get your daughter a test? A cold doesn't warrant a test.
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