Lateral flow testing - confusion

[Rainbowsandstorms]

I keep seeing lots of confusion about the home lateral flow tests as the government messaging around these has been really unclear.

To clarify:

These are designed to be used twice a week at home and to pick up asymptomatic cases that would otherwise be missed and to avoid the onward spread.

If anyone in the family has symptoms you must book a more sensitive PCR test, as the lateral flow tests are far from perfect and miss a significant number of positives and so must not be used if you have symptoms.

For the same reason, don’t assume that a negative lateral flow test means you are negative and safe to mix. The only result that really has any meaning is a positive.

Lateral flow tests are still well worth doing despite them missing positive cases, as they are designed to find cases that would otherwise be missed.

False positives are rare and providing the tests are done at home the need to isolate is overridden by a negative PCR test.

Primary aged children are not expected to be tested. The tests are for secondary aged children and adults living in a household with a school aged child.

It is still worth testing the adults in your household even if you don’t go anywhere, as they can pick up cases that have been brought home via your children.

If it’s not practical to collect the lateral flow tests they can be ordered online www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

Finally they aren’t compulsory and some people will have very good reasons for not doing them but for anyone who can’t be bothered or isn’t doing them simply because the aren’t compulsory remember there are still lots of clinically extremely vulnerable parents who are having to send their child to school while they are protected by just one dose of the vaccination and there are many people in this category for whom the vaccinations don’t work particularly well. The more parents who get involved the safer our schools and communities will be as anyone can be badly effected by covid.

Great post. Thank you

@SonnetForSpring you’re very welcome. The information or lack of has been so confusing.

Thanks. Ordered.

@Rainbowsandstorms

I keep seeing lots of confusion about the home lateral flow tests as the government messaging around these has been really unclear.

To clarify:

These are designed to be used twice a week at home and to pick up asymptomatic cases that would otherwise be missed and to avoid the onward spread.

If anyone in the family has symptoms you must book a more sensitive PCR test, as the lateral flow tests are far from perfect and miss a significant number of positives and so must not be used if you have symptoms.

For the same reason, don’t assume that a negative lateral flow test means you are negative and safe to mix. The only result that really has any meaning is a positive.

Lateral flow tests are still well worth doing despite them missing positive cases, as they are designed to find cases that would otherwise be missed.

False positives are rare and providing the tests are done at home the need to isolate is overridden by a negative PCR test.

Primary aged children are not expected to be tested. The tests are for secondary aged children and adults living in a household with a school aged child.

It is still worth testing the adults in your household even if you don’t go anywhere, as they can pick up cases that have been brought home via your children.

If it’s not practical to collect the lateral flow tests they can be ordered online www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests

Finally they aren’t compulsory and some people will have very good reasons for not doing them but for anyone who can’t be bothered or isn’t doing them simply because the aren’t compulsory remember there are still lots of clinically extremely vulnerable parents who are having to send their child to school while they are protected by just one dose of the vaccination and there are many people in this category for whom the vaccinations don’t work particularly well. The more parents who get involved the safer our schools and communities will be as anyone can be badly effected by covid.

See you say there is confusion then you state this:

"False positives are rare"

But in actual fact when prevalence of covid is low up to 7/10 positives could be false positive.

The "confusion" is people just stating things as fact the suit their narrative.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/12/seven-10-positive-covid-cases-school-children-likely-wrong/

False positives are rare and providing the tests are done at home the need to isolate is overridden by a negative PCR test.

Apart from a lot of schools where negative PCR test doesn't over ride the positive lateral flow and the pupil and their close contacts are still made to isolate for 10 days!

@Bunnybigears absolutely, that’s why I said providing they are done at home. I believe secondary school students will now be doing their tests at home now they’ve done the first three in school so hopefully it’ll no longer be an issue. Which is good news as it seemed like a really poor decision to not allow a negative PCR test to override a positive lateral flow test.

@Bunnybigears

False positives are rare and providing the tests are done at home the need to isolate is overridden by a negative PCR test.

Apart from a lot of schools where negative PCR test doesn't over ride the positive lateral flow and the pupil and their close contacts are still made to isolate for 10 days!

This is a big issue locally. Because the school tests are supervised they trump a PCR test that the school cant control. Effectively they are suggesting parents may obtain a negative test to falsely get their kids back to school

@DinosaurDiana brilliant.

@palacegirl77 thank you for the clarification. I had read that false positives are far less of an issue than false negatives but will have a closer look at this. The lateral flows are far from perfect but if they help to identify cases that would otherwise be missed that has huge benefits for schools, individuals and the wider community.

@Rainbowsandstorms so if a child has a positive result on a home test their close contacts only have to isolate until they take a PCR in which case if negative they can go back to school? My DS has only managed 2.5 days at schools since they returned due to a positive in school lateral flow test for one of his class mates so I'm really hoping this is the case otherwise I can see him.spending the majority of the rest of the year in isolation.

@palacegirl77 there seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there regarding false positives. This recent bbc article

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56349116

flags the issue in secondary schools of them not being over ridden by a negative PCR test, which will no longer be an issue once the tests are carried out at home as of next week but then goes on to say the false positive rate is just 0.1 percent.

My key aim of the post was to ensure parents of primary aged children are aware of the tests, how to access them, the purpose of them, that they shouldn’t be used for symptomatic people and maybe most importantly that a negative lateral flow test doesn’t mean you are virus free.

@Bunnybigears yes a negative PCR test will override the positive lateral flow test as soon as they are done at home. I’ve also just double checked the government website and it is only household contacts who need to isolate if someone gets a positive lateral flow test while you’re waiting for the PCR test providing the lateral flow test was done at home. Wider school contacts etc will only be asked to isolate if the PCR test is positive so hopefully that’ll reduce disruption in schools.

[quote Rainbowsandstorms]@Bunnybigears yes a negative PCR test will override the positive lateral flow test as soon as they are done at home. I’ve also just double checked the government website and it is only household contacts who need to isolate if someone gets a positive lateral flow test while you’re waiting for the PCR test providing the lateral flow test was done at home. Wider school contacts etc will only be asked to isolate if the PCR test is positive so hopefully that’ll reduce disruption in schools.[/quote]
Sorry can you just clarify this.
Someone in my son's class tested positive yesterday (at school I'm sure by the way it's worded).
They've isolated the whole class +2 other kids for 10 days.

Is that correct?

@Layladylay234 if they are at secondary school and the lateral flow test was done at school that’s correct. Once the lateral flow tests are being done at home a positive lateral flow will require that the whole household isolate until the person has the results of a PCR test but it is only if the PCR test is then positive that school contacts would need to isolate.

@Rainbowsandstorms thanks for this. I picked mine up as soon as they were available and am doing them. I have dutifully logged onto the NHS site and recorded my last few negative results, but am wondering if there is any real point to this really (and any obligation to do so?), as it is a bit of a faff? Obviously I would log on a positive result so that I could arrange my PCR test.

The government want all test results logged as then they have proper data about infection rates.

@Arcadia I guess logging the negatives gives them a better sense of the case positivity rate for the lateral flow tests and an indication of how many are actually being carried out which gives a better sense of that is actually going on. I agree though it’s very tempting to skip that bit.

Thanks, really useful info. We have a baby in nursery so relieved to read that we test ourselves and not her, as we can’t imagine her tolerating these on a regular basis

Sorry I have a question. I have had one dose of my vaccine. I presume the tests will still work on me and are worth doing? Thanks

@ohcarolina2001 glad you found it helpful. The tests will still work even though you’ve had one dose of the vaccination. It’s different to testing after you’ve had covid, as the vaccination doesn’t give you Covid but instead teaches your body how to respond to Covid. Definitely still worth doing the tests, as the vaccination won’t necessarily protect you from contracting or passing on Covid but should protect you from serious illness. I’ve just had my first vaccination and will carry on testing.

To clarify your post even further, you are talking about the procedure for England, aren't you?

@DumplingsAndStew yes that’s right, for England.

Excellent thank you @Rainbowsandstorms