When the death rate is so low why are people so desperate to get tested?

[Barearseloverofthigh]

Why is everyone so stressed about covid when its hardly killing anyone anymore? Just over 700 deaths were attributed to it in the last 9 weeks. We'd expect 80,000+ deaths in this same period pre covid so it's a tiny percentage of people who are dying from this. I don't understand this panic or motivation to get tested. What am i missing?

If your child (or you) have symptoms you are not allowed to be in work or school unless you have a negative test. If you don't get one, you have to isolate for 2 weeks. That's why people are getting tested, because it's what they've been told they have to do!

As above, if you want schooling or work

Also, lots of people like low death rates and by getting tested and contributing to trace, they help keep them low

To get back to school and work.. My son has a temp. Had to get him tested because my other son has had to stay off when he only started reception yesterday and my DP has had to come home from work. We want to know so they can get back

Cases are rising fairly rapidly which will most likely mean death rates will start to rise too.
All sorts of illnesses and bugs circulate during the autumn and winter months and ideally (if testing facilities are functional) you would want to test to check your cold/cough/temp is another winter bug in which case only need to stay in while feeling unwell, or covid when it is necessary for the household to isolate.

There should be limits on who can get tested. Eg key workers should be allowed them, and school aged children.

People are getting tests because they "want" them. No. No. No. No. No. if you have symptoms, what is a test going to do? It won't give you medicine to cure it.

Presenting a negative test to your school / employer is silly too. It might show a negative result, but you could catch it hours after taking the test , giving misleading information to your school / employer.

To keep the death rate low! Though it will be coming up soon.
Also the alternative is 10 days self isolating / 14 days for household members and most of us have to work.

We are currently self-isolating. DD2 has had a cough since Saturday night. That means that she (Y9), her older sister (Y10 at special school) and her younger sister (Y7 and loves school) can't attend school. DH can't attend work at the four schools he works at. That's 4 schools with no site manager. I can't go to my parents and provide them with the support they need.

DD2 can't have a test because there are no tests. Luckily, DH has managed to get a test from one of the schools he works at (DD2's school couldn't give us one).

If DD2 didn't have a test, the children would miss two full weeks of school and DH would miss 2 weeks of work. That's a huge amount of school to miss for what is (I am almost certain) a cold.

I don't understand this panic or motivation to get tested. What am i missing?

Motivation - to not have to isolate an entire family inside for 14 days, so that everyone misses school and work, even if they're well.

No test = stay inside for 14 days.

Doesn't that motivate you, OP?

It’s so hard to get a test at the moment. I doubt many people will try for them unless they need them to get back to school or work or be able to stop isolating.

As stated above, so my kids can go to nursery and school.

However, I've seen people stare that one person in the household has tested positive and now someone else in the household has symptoms and they are angry as they can't get a test. I really don't see the point in testing in those cases. Surely you would just assume that the whole household has it and get on with things. A positive test in that case isn't going to make any difference surely?

@kittenpeak

There should be limits on who can get tested. Eg key workers should be allowed them, and school aged children.

People are getting tests because they "want" them. No. No. No. No. No. if you have symptoms, what is a test going to do? It won't give you medicine to cure it.

Presenting a negative test to your school / employer is silly too. It might show a negative result, but you could catch it hours after taking the test , giving misleading information to your school / employer.

Where is the evidence people are getting tests because they want them?

I don’t believe that people are putting themselves through that unless they have one of the symptoms.

It’s far more likely that people with symptoms aren’t getting tested or self isolating because it is too difficult.

How did i miss that! Yes that makes total sense. Thanks everyone. Lets hope the tests are accurate and aren't giving out lots of false positives It must be very worrying for all the parents who have to work.

I suppose my question should now be - When the death rate is so low, why is the Gov so desperate to f*ck with all our lives?

There should be limits on who can get tested. Eg key workers should be allowed them, and school aged children.
There should be limits on how often the PM , home secretary and health minister can bullshit that testing is working adequately.
Why shouldn't other people be able to access tests if they have symptoms? Most people IRL cant afford to take 2 weeks off work for every cough/temp they have.

Lets hope the tests are accurate and aren't giving out lots of false positives

What?

Do you think you’d benefit from ingesting some news OP? Plenty out there.

The death rate is low for now If cases are rising drastically the gov want to stop a repeat of what happened in March and April

@Barearseloverofthigh

How did i miss that! Yes that makes total sense. Thanks everyone. Lets hope the tests are accurate and aren't giving out lots of false positives It must be very worrying for all the parents who have to work.

I suppose my question should now be - When the death rate is so low, why is the Gov so desperate to f*ck with all our lives?

Because hospitalisations and deaths follow the rise in infections by a few weeks. Here in the North West, we're already seeing hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy start to slowly rise, and the hospitals have stopped visiting again to try to keep it out of hospitals.

AnneLovesGilbert it's ok, i do at least know that the tests are wildly inaccurate. That's why i added the 'side eyes'!

You should tell someone that. Maybe write a strongly worded letter. I’m sure important people would appreciate your expert knowledge.

🤣

People are getting tests because they "want" them. No. No. No. No. No. if you have symptoms, what is a test going to do? It won't give you medicine to cure it.

Amongst other things, it will:

Confirm that those symptoms are a result of Covid and not a cold or other minor illness.
Enable you to know that you need to self isolate in order to avoid spreading it to others including more vulnerable people.
Enable identification of where cases are rising and the nationwide case prevalence.
Assist contact tracers in identifying close contacts in case they need to get a test and if positive, self isolate in order to avoid infecting others.

@NoSquirrels

I don't understand this panic or motivation to get tested. What am i missing?

Motivation - to not have to isolate an entire family inside for 14 days, so that everyone misses school and work, even if they're well.

No test = stay inside for 14 days.

Doesn't that motivate you, OP?

There should be limits on who can have a test. School children, yes. People who can't work from home unless pay is docked, yes. Key workers, yes. I appreciate organising that is hard, which is probably why they've gone for a free for all.

Too many people just want tests because they "want to know if they have it". Pathetic.

It's also pointless, because you could catch it as soon as you've taken the test, so you can never know if a negative result is a negative result.

Because those at risk, those who were elderly or shielding are still being cautious and sensible people don’t want to make their parents and vulnerable children ill and be responsible for killing them.

@Barearseloverofthigh

How did i miss that! Yes that makes total sense. Thanks everyone. Lets hope the tests are accurate and aren't giving out lots of false positives It must be very worrying for all the parents who have to work.

I suppose my question should now be - When the death rate is so low, why is the Gov so desperate to f*ck with all our lives?

A small percentage of a very high number is still a very high number.

If we let covid spread widely, then the amount of sickness and hospitalisation needed nationally will be huge again. That will affect all sorts of other things including non-covid medical treatment that won't be able to go ahead (hospitals full, or too dangerous for some patients to have treatment when there's a lot of covid about).

Testing and isolation are to keep the infection numbers as low as possible, to make up for the fact that we're all mixing more generally.

It's a bit like asking "why do I need to keep pedalling when my bike is going at a good speed already?". If you stop pedalling you'll keep moving at first, but eventually you'll stop. Here "pedalling" = "trying to keep the numbers of infected people down by testing, social distancing, isolation, everything...". We can't stop just because numbers are currently low because they won't stay that way if we do.

@CoffeeandCroissant

People are getting tests because they "want" them. No. No. No. No. No. if you have symptoms, what is a test going to do? It won't give you medicine to cure it.

Amongst other things, it will:

Confirm that those symptoms are a result of Covid and not a cold or other minor illness.
Enable you to know that you need to self isolate in order to avoid spreading it to others including more vulnerable people.
Enable identification of where cases are rising and the nationwide case prevalence.
Assist contact tracers in identifying close contacts in case they need to get a test and if positive, self isolate in order to avoid infecting others.

But if you have symptoms you should be self isolating anyway. People get tests to allow them to go on holiday. It's ridiculous and takes the tests away from those who need them. I don't disagree that there is an issue with testing, but people who do not need them are taking them.

If you are able to work from home, self isolate and let school children and key workers take a test.

Too many people just want tests because they "want to know if they have it". Pathetic.

Hmm. Don't believe the hype. I don't think this is the case at all, despite what the government would have us believe.