Parents of primary aged children - are you doing regular LFT’s?

[Shibees]

I’m a little unsure on what we are supposed to be doing as parents of a primary aged child.

School sent a letter regarding return to school with the usual info on drop off times, mask wearing etc and just a short sentence at the bottom saying that we are able to order LFT’s online.

No guidance or information on whether we have to do these. Other mums at the school are not doing them so I just wondered if others are?

From the way our school worded the email I got the impression you could get some tests to just have in the house in case you needed one Family of 4 here with 2 kids under 6, none of us have had to have a test yet and ideally will avoid that forever. I didn't think we were meant to be doing them regularly.

@PolarnOPirate

From the way our school worded the email I got the impression you could get some tests to just have in the house in case you needed one Family of 4 here with 2 kids under 6, none of us have had to have a test yet and ideally will avoid that forever. I didn't think we were meant to be doing them regularly.

My understanding is that the LFT’s are done twice a week to pick up those that are asymptomatic and not for use if you have symptoms.

But this is a perfect example of why I posted about this - it seems so unclear & schools have worded it very casually in correspondence with families.

We have 2 adults and 3 kids. DS will not be being tested, it's hugely traumatic for him. The others are babies. DH goes nowhere without me so there's only me testing

Me and my husband are. Unless people have a good reason not to do them I think it’s really selfish not to. In the absence of being able to test primary age children, it’s the only thing we have and if it helps reduce infection rates and keep people safe I fail to understand why people wouldn’t do them. For those where it isn’t practical to collect them others have provided the link you can use to order online. I hate that so many people aren’t bothering simply because it’s optional, it amazes me how selfish so many people actually are. Testing myself and my husband is of no benefit to us, as if we pick it up it’ll be via my daughter however if we can help to keep her classmates and teachers safe and well we’ll do it. I also completely fail to understand people refusing to do them because they aren’t that accurate. False positives are very rare and if tested at home a negative PCR test over rules it. False negatives are fairly common but they do also pick up positive cases that will otherwise be missed which could literally save lives. The only result that means anything is a positive, don’t assume a negative means you are negative and ensure you get a PCR test if you are showing symptoms. The more people who take some personal responsibility and test themselves the more chance we have of schools staying open and cases reducing and simply less people will die. There are still many clinically extremely vulnerable parents being forced to send their children to school, who still only have partial protection from one vaccination or who have conditions where the vaccinations don’t provide much protection. Please all of you who simply can’t be bothered please think about these parents, we all need to play our part. Once you’ve done it a few times it becomes much quicker and easier.

@PolarnOPirate the communication has been really unclear hasn’t it. The lateral flow home kits are designed to pick up asymptomatic cases through twice weekly home testing. They aren’t as sensitive as the PCR tests and miss lots of positive cases so must not be used if you have symptoms but they are useful to pick up cases that would otherwise be missed. If you have symptoms you must book a more sensitive PCR test designed for people with symptoms. I hope that helps. The communication around the whole thing has been so unclear and confusing.

Yes we are.
Mainly because I work in one school, DS1 is at secondary and DS1 at primary. Between us, we come across over 3000 people a week, and we live in an area with stubbornly high covid rates.
So, DH - who literally goes nowhere - will do a test along with DS1 and 1 to try and stop our family becoming a spreading point over 3 different schools.

My DS in secondary school is doing them x2 per week. School are supplying these. Both his school and my DD's primary have recommended that the whole family do x2 weekly LFTs but these are not supplied. Our nearest pick-up centre for them is half an hour's drive away and it seems madness to do that drive every couple of weeks when the message is still to stay at home. You can get the LFTs delivered by post but this service is only really for people who aren't able to leave home.

The information on family LFTs is vague from the government. I suspect there wouldn't be enough tests if everyone was doing them? And too many positive results making their figures look dodgy...

We would do them if we could pick them up more locally or if they were supplied by schools.

@Rainbowsandstorms

Me and my husband are. Unless people have a good reason not to do them I think it’s really selfish not to. In the absence of being able to test primary age children, it’s the only thing we have and if it helps reduce infection rates and keep people safe I fail to understand why people wouldn’t do them. For those where it isn’t practical to collect them others have provided the link you can use to order online. I hate that so many people aren’t bothering simply because it’s optional, it amazes me how selfish so many people actually are. Testing myself and my husband is of no benefit to us, as if we pick it up it’ll be via my daughter however if we can help to keep her classmates and teachers safe and well we’ll do it. I also completely fail to understand people refusing to do them because they aren’t that accurate. False positives are very rare and if tested at home a negative PCR test over rules it. False negatives are fairly common but they do also pick up positive cases that will otherwise be missed which could literally save lives. The only result that means anything is a positive, don’t assume a negative means you are negative and ensure you get a PCR test if you are showing symptoms. The more people who take some personal responsibility and test themselves the more chance we have of schools staying open and cases reducing and simply less people will die. There are still many clinically extremely vulnerable parents being forced to send their children to school, who still only have partial protection from one vaccination or who have conditions where the vaccinations don’t provide much protection. Please all of you who simply can’t be bothered please think about these parents, we all need to play our part. Once you’ve done it a few times it becomes much quicker and easier.

Completely agree.

Not that your other points don’t stand rainbows but false positives aren’t rare. This article in the BMJ estimates it’s best case 1 in 3 and that the numbers of false positives may even exceed the true positives.

I understand that the trade off may be worth it, but it’s not black or white if prevalence is low in one's area.

@Rainbowsandstorms do you consider my situation 'a good reason'?

We cannot get tests at home. So to test twice a week means at least 90 minutes, twice a week, to go to a test centre. I genuinely do not have that time as working long hours.

I would obviously get tested if any of us come into contact with anyone who has it, have symptoms etc. But it's a lot of time if no symptoms and the test might not even work properly.

Yes we are, DH is a secondary teacher and I would hate for him to bring something back, we be asymptoatic and close the bubble. THE kids are 9 and fine with it.

[quote dreamingbohemian]@Rainbowsandstorms do you consider my situation 'a good reason'?

We cannot get tests at home. So to test twice a week means at least 90 minutes, twice a week, to go to a test centre. I genuinely do not have that time as working long hours.

I would obviously get tested if any of us come into contact with anyone who has it, have symptoms etc. But it's a lot of time if no symptoms and the test might not even work properly.[/quote]
Why can't you get tests at home. Just order them online and they arrive in 24 hours.

@BlackInk

My DS in secondary school is doing them x2 per week. School are supplying these. Both his school and my DD's primary have recommended that the whole family do x2 weekly LFTs but these are not supplied. Our nearest pick-up centre for them is half an hour's drive away and it seems madness to do that drive every couple of weeks when the message is still to stay at home. You can get the LFTs delivered by post but this service is only really for people who aren't able to leave home.

The information on family LFTs is vague from the government. I suspect there wouldn't be enough tests if everyone was doing them? And too many positive results making their figures look dodgy...

We would do them if we could pick them up more locally or if they were supplied by schools.

That's misinformation. Just order the tests.

We are, twice a week. I don’t go anywhere, but I have one child in primary and one in nursery. My primary age child’s teacher is vulnerable. The nursery has had to close twice because of cases so far, and I want to do everything I can to prevent me unwittingly spreading it from one setting to another.

Tests can be ordered online.

If you go to pick up the tests you can collect a box of 7 so it isn’t a twice weekly trip needed.

@Rainbowsandstorms

Me and my husband are. Unless people have a good reason not to do them I think it’s really selfish not to. In the absence of being able to test primary age children, it’s the only thing we have and if it helps reduce infection rates and keep people safe I fail to understand why people wouldn’t do them. For those where it isn’t practical to collect them others have provided the link you can use to order online. I hate that so many people aren’t bothering simply because it’s optional, it amazes me how selfish so many people actually are. Testing myself and my husband is of no benefit to us, as if we pick it up it’ll be via my daughter however if we can help to keep her classmates and teachers safe and well we’ll do it. I also completely fail to understand people refusing to do them because they aren’t that accurate. False positives are very rare and if tested at home a negative PCR test over rules it. False negatives are fairly common but they do also pick up positive cases that will otherwise be missed which could literally save lives. The only result that means anything is a positive, don’t assume a negative means you are negative and ensure you get a PCR test if you are showing symptoms. The more people who take some personal responsibility and test themselves the more chance we have of schools staying open and cases reducing and simply less people will die. There are still many clinically extremely vulnerable parents being forced to send their children to school, who still only have partial protection from one vaccination or who have conditions where the vaccinations don’t provide much protection. Please all of you who simply can’t be bothered please think about these parents, we all need to play our part. Once you’ve done it a few times it becomes much quicker and easier.

Nothing to do with being selfish. its about being educated. Do you think its right my nephew is now on his 5th period of missing school for 10 days? Thats 5-0 days lost because he sat in a room (not next to) someone who tested positive on a lateral flow....and in those 5 periods has he ever tested positive? No. Theyre unreliable, we have no evidence to know whether or not symptomless people can transmit it (and theyre all having to wear masks). 7 out of 10 could be false positive! People seriously need to stop using Boris' left overs from his project moonshot! The vulnerable have been vaccinated (nearly).

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/12/seven-10-positive-covid-cases-school-children-likely-wrong/

I am in Scotland so it is different. 2 DC in primaries, we’re not being LFT at home but have a very close by test centre we can access for a test there. Have done it once since schools went back.

If you order by post you get 7, but if you collect here you get 14. Twice a week tests even if you just did the one adult going out most would last you 7 weeks.

[quote dreamingbohemian]@Rainbowsandstorms do you consider my situation 'a good reason'?

We cannot get tests at home. So to test twice a week means at least 90 minutes, twice a week, to go to a test centre. I genuinely do not have that time as working long hours.

I would obviously get tested if any of us come into contact with anyone who has it, have symptoms etc. But it's a lot of time if no symptoms and the test might not even work properly.[/quote]
Where are you that they won't post?

Ok to reiterate for everyone saying I can get tests at home.

There is nowhere to pick up tests anywhere near me (according to the gov.uk website)

If I go to the official website to get tests sent to me at home, the instructions say I am not eligible to request them because I work at a university. But my university says I am not eligible to get them because I am working from home.

So again: for me to test twice a week means going to the actual test site which is at least 30 minutes away.

I don't think it's selfish and lazy to not spend hours a week doing that in the absence of any symptoms or contacts. It also increases the likelihood of coming into contact with someone who does have covid (we would have to take public transport as well).

@palacegirl77

Neither of mine are doing them. Until the over 70s have to do them to go to garden centre my children arent.

They're not for children, they're for the parents in the family.

The thing is, there also seems to be some confusion about the availability of LTFs. At my school, they communicated about them and their availability as soon as gov.uk was up and running with info on how to get the tests. But a friend who has DCs in a school a mile away has had no info from the school as of yesterday, and had no idea he could go and pick them up (they live a 5 min walk away from a centre where you can get boxes of the LTFs) or order them online.

Just use your common sense, answer the questions in the form differently and get them posted.

To all those saying that bubbles are closing because of false positives, that’s true, but not for a week at a time, and not in most cases. One closed yesterday in our school due to a false positive LFT in one of the teachers, but because they are all being done at home now, it was followed up by a PCR, which was negative, and they are all back in today. They missed one day. Had it been a parent who had had that LFT result (and that’s what we’re talking about, parents testing, not kids), only their child would have stayed at home, not the whole class. And had that positive LFT result been correct, what it might have done is stop a whole bunch of people in the class getting coronavirus, and taking it home to their families, some of whom might have got very sick indeed.

Dh gets his through work
The dds get theirs from school
I've ordered online.
Ds is year 6 so doesn't have to do them (and isn't back in school until after Easter as shielding)

I don't understand people saying they can't get them delivered - if you can't get to a test site and don't get them through work then you can fill out the form and get them delivered.

There also seems to be confusion over primary children doing them (they don't have to)

..and they are not to be used if you/kids have symptoms - that's when you need a pcr test.

@Gunpowder thank you, I’ll have a look at the article.

@dreamingbohemian I’d order online, if you can’t get them via your university then just don’t tick that box no one will be checking and you’re entitled if you can’t access them via work.

@palacegirl77 the lateral flow tests only started being used in schools a few weeks ago so it’ll only be this period of isolation that’ll be related to a positive on a lateral flow test. Usually a positive will need to be confirmed via a PCR test. I completely agree that it’s crazy to rely solely on a lateral flow test though and I think the decision to do so for tests done in schools is ill thought through. I’m sorry your nephew has missed so much school but surely if these mean that more cases are caught longer term that means less spread and less disruption to education.