Cheating & Home Tests to get us out of lockdowns

[MustStayStrong01]

Just read BJ is possibly going to roll out LFTs to every home in England... Surely if you didn't want to play fair you'd run it under tap water to ensure a negative result? I'm not condoning this AT ALL and I would play fair and do it properly.... But trusting the general public to is a bit...

I was a bit at the woman on Sky News this morning ectastic about this and saying that this was the ONLY way to get out of the pandemic.

No, many countries have been largely free of the pandemic for over a year now.

This is not the only way out of a pandemic.

What is the psychology word for people who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again without ever learning or changing their behaviour? That is the UK.

@punkingscissors you wouldn’t get a void result. I know as I accidentally got water in mine whilst washing my hands ready to open and do the swab. The water alone made a line next to the “C” appear. I had to open a fresh one. (I was expecting a void so was a bit surprised!)

Surely doing a quick test is a small price to pay

It's more money poured down the bottomless pit of the test and trace system.

I keep hearing it's a small price to Pay, all these small prices we keep having to pay are adding up to a lot.

@wevs

I was a bit at the woman on Sky News this morning ectastic about this and saying that this was the ONLY way to get out of the pandemic.

No, many countries have been largely free of the pandemic for over a year now.

This is not the only way out of a pandemic.

What is the psychology word for people who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again without ever learning or changing their behaviour? That is the UK.

Please enlighten us?

If people are going to lie there is absolutely no point in getting them ordered and going to all the effort in doing the test just don’t bother doing them .
For people that are keen to test they will do them and it will reduce the spread .
I’ve been saying for months we should all have access so of course I’ll use them . I have been for a few weeks anyway and my dd and dh both tested positive with no symptoms so they work .
I think some people want to find flaws in everything so lockdown continues I really do . Of course nothing is perfect but we can’t very well stand over people and make them do the tests and report in the same way we can’t actually police people not mixing households but many will do the tests and isolate if necessary and that’s what counts .

No, many countries have been largely free of the pandemic for over a year now

‘Many’ countries? Which ones?

What is the psychology word for people who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again without ever learning or changing their behaviour? That is the UK.
I don't think there is a "psychology word" for this. Nonetheless, we aren't doing the same thing over and over. We haven't had lateral flow tests before. We haven't had vaccines before. So what part of this is doing the same thing and not learning from mistakes.

The countries who are largely free of the pandemic caught it very early and/or were able to effectively isolate from the rest of the world e.g. Australia had compulsory quarantine and testing early on. We now have this too. What would be your plan for how to do it better? (And if your plan is a China-style police state lockdown, you can get in the sea)

But trusting the general public to is a bit...

The whole thing is based on trust already - if people wanted to be selfish they could go out shopping with covid symptoms and could go to hospital appointments and say they haven't had symptoms/haven't been told to self-isolate when they have, etc.

There's enough additional bureaucracy for the NHS to deal with on the vaccine front - you can't expect the government to be checking up on every individual to verify they are definitely telling the truth every few days.

What is the psychology word for people who keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again without ever learning or changing their behaviour?

Madness? 😂

At some point we just need to stop the testing, cases are right down, vaccinations are increasing, so we need to just be carefully getting on with things. We can't live life with a great fear of the 'what if's'

@AfternoonToffee I suspect testing will be one of the last things to go for surveillance and planning purposes. Whilst there is still nervousness about current vaccines efficacy against variants it’s prudent to continue to keep an eye on outbreaks and have an awareness of where it’s moving in the population. The government (quite literally) can’t afford to be caught off guard again and backed into a corner where lockdowns/heavy restrictions are their only option never mind trying to get the public to cooperate again if they give the impression it’s all over.

I agree that on an individual level that we need to start getting back to normal but living with covid doesn’t mean just ignoring it completely just yet.

I was always quite reassured when getting a PCR that there was some kind of quality check built in that would alert you if there wasn't sufficient 'genetic material' or something. I may have misunderstood that, and can't remember where I read it, but it's what I understood. So I felt that even if I was worried about swabbing correctly, I could trust the result.

I don't think this is true of the LFT tests, you just need a certain amount of liquid for the control line to appear. Which possibly makes them easier to fake, although hopefully people won't do that.

At the moment, both my area and for miles around us are white on the map, i.e. suppressed, 0-2 cases. You have to get right into the city centres to get any cases. I really hope this is accurate and not just people not testing or not reporting.

[quote MustStayStrong01]@ClafoutisSurprise voluntary yes but as part of the covid passport scheme to gain entry into places so idiots would just get them, run them under the tap photograph the false negative and voila they get into the pub or footy match...[/quote]
There has been no suggestion whatsoever that these test will be used as part of the passport scheme. Stop making shit up.

@Welliesandpyjamas mine did too. I'm not sure why though as it meant nothing to me!

I find it weird how I log on and tell the website my test was negative and then get an email telling me my test was negative!

@Nappyvalley15

I wonder who has the contract to supply these tests. They will be making a mint.

Dominic Cummings was in charge of the Operation Moonshot lateral flow test project, wasn’t he? I’m sure he will be making more than a few quid.

I just can't see many people doing them. I work in school and in theory staff have been testing twice a week for a while now, the first week or so we had about 50% of staff register results and it's declined ever since. And these are people who will be on full pay if they have to isolate as a result of a positive test...

I've done them because DH is in a hospice and I need to show a negative result to visit, but even then it has struck me that if I was tight for time, it would be very easy to register a negative test without actually doing it. I wouldn't because of the risk to DH and other vulnerable people, but if it was to get into a pub or sporting event? (You register your own result using the barcode on the test).

I think anywhere you need to prove a negative test it has to either be a PCR test, or the lateral flow is done on-site .

DH does LFT 2x week he would always do it properly as it would be a risk to others if he did not (NHS) . It would need positive RT-PCR to confirm. I would hope others would do it to the best of their ability if around vulnerable (eg hospitalised people).They could easily be faked (eg water).

@Cornettoninja

No, many countries have been largely free of the pandemic for over a year now

‘Many’ countries? Which ones?

Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, many African countries, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, The Isle of Man, the Channel Islands.

Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, many African countries, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, The Isle of Man, the Channel Islands

Yes, and at least five of those countries jump out at me without needing to check further (Australia, NZ, S. Korea, Taiwan and Japan) as nations that have used testing, tracing and tracking along with border controls to keep covid at bay. The others have generally all implemented pretty hardcore border controls and internal lockdowns.

My point to @wevs was that the women they were deriding for voicing confidence in testing as a way of controlling covid was wrong if they’re using other countries as an example. Covid testing and symptom surveillance (mandatory temperature testing for example) have been used widely and intensively in countries with a handle on it.

Ah I see. Sorry I misunderstood.

This is going to cost a fortune...would be better spent on cancer care or education catch up..what a nonsense.

@Tealightsandd

Ah I see. Sorry I misunderstood.

No sorry needed, I completely see where you are coming from

I would have made my point clearer had that poster come back.

It's absolutely mental.

So I am a rabid covid denier who refuses a vaccine but needs a test to go on holiday/to theatre/football match.

I take the test. It says positive. I lodge a negative result. Off I go. I will be sitting next to you on a plane/in a cinema etc. Never mind if you die eh?

@lockdownalli my point exactly... I'm not a covid denier though and guessing you mean it hypothetically?