All adults (in England)* to be offered twice-weekly tests

[MiaMc]

How do we think this is going to work?

Reportedly only 20% of people with symptoms are referring themselves for formal testing. So unfortunately I can’t imagine take up of this being high unless it becomes mandatory to show evidence of the result in certain situations.

Sadly, too many people seem to take the view that if something isn’t going to benefit them directly they can’t see why they should do it.

Then there will be those people who come up with excuses as to why they should be exempt. If take up isn’t high enough and people don’t do the test correctly it’s going to seem like an expensive pointless exercise.

• [Title edited by MNHQ to make it clear this relates to England only, and that tests are being offered but are not mandatory. Original title said: All adults to test themselves twice per week]

It's worked in football. Whole squads get tested twice a week and Covid has only really hit when the bubble has been breached.

With vaccines on top Covid should be minimal anyway now, as long as we don't go.mad until the rest are vaccinated.

Yes, I agree I would rather see the government address the fact that so may people still can’t afford to self isolate or have terms of employment that make it very difficult.

Diligent responsible people will take up the test, ignorant wankers won’t bother

Fuck me fhats aggressive 😂

I won’t be testing. Why would I. I work from home. I’m vaccinated. I am not seeing anyone, neither is my husband. Why would I test at all never mind twice weekly,

@MiaMc

If you’re vaccinated you hopefully won’t become ill yourself, but I understand you might still unknowingly catch and spread the virus.

Yeah, and I’ll spread it either to another old person who has also been vaccinated or a young person who won’t get ill anyway!

I’m surprised they have suggested we FaceTime a govt Covid inspector while doing it.

@User133847

It's worked in football. Whole squads get tested twice a week and Covid has only really hit when the bubble has been breached.

With vaccines on top Covid should be minimal anyway now, as long as we don't go.mad until the rest are vaccinated.

That’s because footballers weren’t vaccinated

@Namechangeforspring2021

I can see places of work requiring this, where was this reported?

I can’t see too many wanting this. I work in transport and a recent “positive” rapid test led to someone who wasn’t ill logging a “positive” test with the NHS which then set off the isolate thing on the app of couple of dozen other staff

As you can imagine it was chaos for 10 days, now scale this up to everyone dong it, nothings going to move for a long time.

Been testing for a while. DC in primary school so we test twice a week. Log results on the test and trace.

The box comes in the post, it’s so simple.

Guess I'm an ignorant wanker then, because I won't be doing these regularly.

Have you seen the false positive rate? My children's lives have been disrupted enough without them needing to self isolate because a test has thrown up a random false positive.

I know you have to get them confirmed by PCR (because the government and scientists don't trust the tests either) but there is still far to much disruption.

It’s still going to be a few months before everyone is fully vaccinated and we don’t really know how long the immunity lasts.

Sorry, what I mean by “ignorant wanker” is someone who doesn’t take up the testing but actually needs to use public transport and be out and about.

@MiaMc

It’s frustrating up that the typical irresponsible anti-lockdown Covid denier is also the kind of person not to take up this testing. Fancy denying a measure that could prevent the situation they are so opposed to...there’s no logic to it at all.

I guess that you are probably in a comfortable position of wfh/paid sick leave and reasonably off moneywise, not someone that would have to go 2 weeks without pay and not be able to to pay your bills

@MiaMc

Yes, I agree I would rather see the government address the fact that so may people still can’t afford to self isolate or have terms of employment that make it very difficult.

@EffOrf I did post about this!

Isn’t the problem with these (much like pregnancy tests), the issue of false negatives rather than false positives?

I guess the point is not that it will be a cure-all but that it will increase capture of early cases.

It's going to start really showing the difference between workplaces where you can work from home or get paid sick leave and places where you don't. I wouldn't feel that I was prepared to take a test if it meant I was risking not getting paid for 10 days.

I will order myself a batch on the grounds I can't want things to open up and then not take the precautions required to do that without risking hospitalisations increasing. I figure the risk at an individual level is low but when you multiply that up by millions of interactions you'll increase risk levels significantly without some other measures in place.

Cant see the point myself, they might not cost us anything but the government is paying a fortune. Everyone at my work is vaccinated and we socially distance., mask etc.

Kids in my school have been refusing tests, on closer discussion it appears that if their family have to go into isolation, their parents are worried that they wont get paid. Thats the reality.

I don't believe it will work. I'm currently working on a major community project and my team have all been offered twice weekly tests. Out of 15 people only 9 have consented to take the tests. Of the other 6, 3 have been vaccinated and so 'don't need to worry' and 3 'don't believe in Covid or the vaccine'.

[quote MiaMc]It’s all over the news this morning

www.bbc.com/news/uk-56632084[/quote]
Ah that’s England, not everyone loves in England.

*lives that should be but loves also applies 😄

I won't be doing this. I don't really go anywhere anyway and DH gets his poor nose swabbed quite enough when he works.

Their parents are not "ignorant wankers"!!!

Surely mass testing was needed at the start of the pandemic? Or at any one of the peaks? Now, not so much. Its another huge cost we are going to have to suck up for what?

It is a pointless measure and an approach which is all about perception. If we are aiming at zero transmission which now seems to be the aim then a phoebe track app would be most effective. It is interesting how the government seems to be changing its policy - and why if this is the new policy is there ineffective border control. It is the inconsistency in policy which shows the lack of a coherent strategy

Weve been doing the tests twice a week and everyone except DH has got used to them and foes without fuss. They are a bit of a faffy to report - although I normally do it on my way to work the next morning, and my phone saves most of the info.
As a complete aside, i know they have to be 100% sterile but the amount of packaging offends me every time.

Diligent responsible people will take up the test, ignorant wankers won’t bother.
They need to encourage the ignorant wankers to do them too!

I have covid antibodies, I’ve had the first dose of vaccine and will shortly have had the second.

I have zero intention of taking any tests

That doesn’t make me ignorant
It makes me someone with a basic understanding of how vaccines work