Twice weekly lateral flow tests for households of school pupils

[SingANewSongChickenTikka]

This seems a brilliant step forward, twice weekly lateral flow tests for households and bubbles of school staff and school pupils. Posted or ‘click and collect’. Yes the lateral flow tests have their limitations, but it still should help I think.

www.gov.uk/guidance/rapid-lateral-flow-testing-for-households-and-bubbles-of-school-pupils-and-staff

@WrongKindOfFace
to clarify these are the ones that anyone can access - there are others set up for specific employers I think

I’m not being thick (honestly!). Clearly there there just aren’t any in my area. Although there is definitely a council run one locally which doesn’t appear on the map. No other council ones exist that I can fine.

The nearest on on the map is about an hour away, closes at 5, and isn’t open weekends. Helpful.

Actually, I probably was being thick, I just needed to zoom out a very long way.

Or zoom in.

perhaps the council run one is only open to certain people. Your best bet is going to be ordering a batch online. I'll be doing the same but I wouldn't be surprised if it falls over 5 minutes after going live.

For gods sake, reading this thread is depressing. People just seem to be able to find the bad in everything don’t they. All the nit picking and excuses and moaning as to why this won’t work or how it could have been done better drive me mad. It’s a great idea, it’s the best way to keep the kids in school and can’t we all just fucking do it instead of coming up with twenty reasons why not.

If people think this will 'help' they are kidding themselves. These tests are famously unreliable.

Looking forward to the September spike already fucking hell.

Well it’s better than nothing, if it picks up 60% of the cases that’s better than nothing isn’t it?

@ChameleonClara

If people think this will 'help' they are kidding themselves. These tests are famously unreliable.

Looking forward to the September spike already fucking hell.

As these are for those without symptoms and false negatives are rare can you explain why you think it won't work?

Maybe expand on how it will lead to fewer cases being detected. You may have a point that a false positive would lead to unnecessary isolation but could you explain how it will lead to a September spike please

Our local test centre is full of sick people. I have to walk past it every day and always give it a wide berth. No way I’m actually going in it to pick these tests up.

You can get the tests sent by post, no need to even leave your house.

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair

If you miss 60% of asymptomatic cases, but people begin to behave in a more risky way due to feeling reassured, it will increase transmission.

They are also not sure how well they will work on asymptomatic children/young people with a lower viral load.

The BMJ have covered the problems extensively.

These tests are being pushed to make parents feel better.

@Dustyboots

Our local test centre is full of sick people. I have to walk past it every day and always give it a wide berth. No way I’m actually going in it to pick these tests up.

I have no reason to think that all the posters above who say you order them online are lying, have you RTFT, there doesn't appear to be abe need to visit a test centre.

Not sure why yours would be full of sick people, the current positivity rate is about 1% I think, is there something very odd going on where you live?

[quote MrsHerculePoirot]@MarshaBradyo no training for us!

As a staff we collect our kits, they have instructions and we have also been emailed updated instructions on a pdf. We do them on set days at home twice a week. If positive you then have to book a PCR to check and isolate.

Students will do them three times in school, supervised by those staff that are currently carrying out the testing in school then they will be expected to test twice a week on two set days also. If they receive a positive result they do the same, isolate and book a PCR test.

If a student starts with symptoms in school, same as in Autumn term, we will send them home and ask parents to book them a test. Nothing really has changed, it is just to try and catch a few completely asymptomatic cases and to catch people who are going to show symptoms in 2-3 days time to stop them spreading in those days before symptoms show.

A negative on a LFT does not mean you do not have covid (unlike the PCR tests) it simply means it didn't find evidence you do have it. Someone described it like a pregnancy test where you can get lots of false negatives if you test too early etc. but it is nearly impossible to get false positives so if LFT shows positive then the PCR will confirm that nearly all the time (I think over 97% or something). Does that make sense?[/quote]
It’s unfortunately not nearly impossible to get a false positive, the quoted figure is 3 false positives in 1000 tests. Our school have said you have to do 10 days of isolation whatever the PCR result which puts me off doing them if circulating levels of covid are really low. That’s potentially a lot of disruption for the entire family as you would still have to isolate despite being vaccinated

Also false positives are rare - false negatives are very very high. These tests miss more cases than they find.

False positives are 3 in 1000, that’s not actually that rare

[quote ChameleonClara]@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair

If you miss 60% of asymptomatic cases, but people begin to behave in a more risky way due to feeling reassured, it will increase transmission.

They are also not sure how well they will work on asymptomatic children/young people with a lower viral load.

The BMJ have covered the problems extensively.

These tests are being pushed to make parents feel better.[/quote]
If you don't test any asymptomatic cases you miss 100% of those cases and we're talking about the tests for household members of school age children, this isn't anything to do with the children themselves.

I agree that lockdown fatigue will lead to slipping of adherence to the guidance but that will inevitably happen as we go into summer and restrictions are eased, imo extra testing of some adults won't have a significant impact on that.

I don't think we'll be able to isolate the effect solely attributable to parents being offered the opportunity to have a LFT and having a false negative then behaving irresponsibly but combined with the vaccine rollout I'm happy to conclude that the number of extra cases from this new option will be very few and less than the number prevented.

What is the reason why they are optional? I would have thought that for the greater good and the school community as a whole it would be better for them to be a requirement of attending school in-person. If not done, then there's always Oak Academy....

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair

These tests were bought against all expert advice by politicians.

They are not a good idea and medical experts and behavioural experts are extremely concerned.

I don't agree with your optimism but there's little point us arguing about it because it's happening anyway!

I'm sure Johnson can be trusted to take utmost care of us all

@MGMidget

What is the reason why they are optional? I would have thought that for the greater good and the school community as a whole it would be better for them to be a requirement of attending school in-person. If not done, then there's always Oak Academy....

You can't make education dependent on a test that doesn't work as they'll get challenged in court!

Lots of scientists support LFTs

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-55751874

@BungleandGeorge

Our school have said you have to do 10 days of isolation whatever the PCR result which puts me off doing them if circulating levels of covid are really low. That’s potentially a lot of disruption for the entire family as you would still have to isolate despite being vaccinated

I agree with the principle but having to isolate if you then get a negative pcr puts me right off. Is that government or school policy?

Many of our parents won’t do this.

We couldn’t always get them to book proper testing after their child showed symptoms.

The fact many of them wouldn’t get paid for the isolation time off work, prevents many parents from actually ‘wanting’ to know.

They’d refuse to test; say they called the doctor and was told it’s just a normal cough and then we’d have to accept the child back into school. I really hope things are a bit stricter this time.

@Frazzled2207 I don’t know perhaps one of the teachers will know? We also have to isolate for the 10 days if PCR comes back negative anyway. Which is not in line with government guidance.

We have been testing school staff at our school for some time using the LFD's. The devices didn't pick up any of the 12 members of our staff who subsequently went on to test positive using a PCR test - some of us the same day.

Also, people shouldn't take a LFD test for 90 days after having tested positive.