Do you think Matt Hancok has planned enough testing capacity for the run up to and over Christmas?

[lonelyplanet]

My prediction is as soon as the schools have broken up everyone is going to want one. Although many people would take the risk with their work colleagues or children's class mates, they won't take a risk with elderly family members.

Do you think Matt has factored this in? I can only imagine by Christmas there will be an enormous backlog of tests again and then over Christmas the labs will be short staffed due to holiday leave. Just imagine the disappointment if there aren't enough to go around and it is like at the beginning of September all over again when no one could get hold of a test.

I don't think you can calculate for the number of people who feel entitled enough to swamp the testing facilities made available to those with symptoms so that they can meet up with their family with less caution than the rest of the population.

I've seen posters declare intentions to do this without any shame at all so, no doubt, it is an inevitable shit show in the making.

Hopefully the mass testing which will be made available to those in tier three will mitigate this problem to some extent if this is in place before Christmas.

Hopefully the mass testing which will be made available to those in tier three will mitigate this problem to some extent if this is in place before Christmas.

They've alre said it won't be available in all Tier 3 areas. Added to which, lots of T2 areas have higher rates than those in T3, and won't have access. They need to target testing where the transmission rates are highest, not according to tiers.

I don't think you can calculate for the number of people who feel entitled enough to swamp the testing facilities made available to those with symptoms so that they can meet up with their family with less caution than the rest of the population.

That's what behavioural scientists are for. There are plenty of them around government.

People aren't particularly forthcoming about their intentions to behave like shits. I'm not sure how you would go about working that out regardless of your job title or how many letters you have after your name.

"That's what behavioural scientists are for. There are plenty of them around government."

Well they weren't much good with their predictions when schools went back in September.

People are going to feel a lot of pressure to see family when their children have been mixing in large groups only days before. The Christmas rules are ridiculous.

"Hopefully the mass testing which will be made available to those in tier three will mitigate this problem to some extent if this is in place before Christmas."

Do you believe that there will be enough tests to carry out mass testing in all tier 3 areas as well, as all the uni students next week?

No, which is why I used the words mitigate to some extent. Fuck me, I thought I'd end my post on something a little more hopeful than just doom and gloom. I never thought that it could piss people off, fyi- I'm not Matt Hancock.

That's what behavioural scientists are for. There are plenty of them around government.

Well it very much depends on what the behavioural scientists were hired to do, doesn't it. The Machiavellian shit this crowd of scumbags pulls, I wouldn't be surprised if the brief was, "cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war".

Maybe if some of the areas which are most vulnerable due to a) fewer hospital beds or b) higher infection rates, and hence in tier 3, has access to lateral flow mass testing then maybe at least people who are sick will still easily have access to a regular test for those with symptoms if they are in place hence reducing the problem a little bit?

It's clearly, a statement of hope and not one of faith hence all the qualifiers, which can also be seen in my first post.

You are correct. The run up to Christmas will be an absolute shit show. Waiting for Dido ‘Crystal Ball’ Harding to tell us that no one could have foreseen a rise in demand for testing at this time.

Maybe who are sick...in those particular places...

No!