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]

@ConnieCaterpillar70

It's all getting a bit batshit now, let's be honest.

Glad people are starting to see how nuts it all is.

I didn't see the practical point in this announcement. If people want a test it's not hard to get tested currently. Maybe this makes it a bit easier, but I can't help thinking it's more of a political gesture than a practical one.

The tests are already held by the government and were ordered and purchased long ago before they knew they were not accurate. The money is already spent so we may as well use them.

So they spent 800 million on the tests between Setember and December of 2020, how many tests did that buy ? Does anyone know ?

@ConnieCaterpillar70

It's all getting a bit batshit now, let's be honest.

Too right.

I think our government should have argued for better break clauses when they ordered a load of inaccurate tests they now seem to have no idea what to do with.

Agree with the pp who says the focus of spending now should be teens and young people and their mental health.

They have probably got lots coming up to their BBE date that would have to be binned otherwise, paid for by the taxpayer.

@JudgeRindersMinder because the goal posts keep shifting. It's gone from just stay at home and exercise once per week in order to save the NHS to get 2 (3, maybe 4) vaccines, test twice per week, still stay at home, don't mix in your house with others, get a vaccine passport and still there might be another lockdown in Autumn. In fact the better the situation gets, the more restrictions and obligations and threats we have to put up with.

sorry, once per day

I wonder if they will still be around for our summer holiday or will we have to pay for 3 tests each x 10 people - I don't fancy paying for 30 tests at £100 each out of my own pocket to take us on a 7 day holiday abroad! So this free testing stuff could be useful. I wonder if you can order them now and then only use them just before your holiday in July?

@Xenia

I wonder if they will still be around for our summer holiday or will we have to pay for 3 tests each x 10 people - I don't fancy paying for 30 tests at £100 each out of my own pocket to take us on a 7 day holiday abroad! So this free testing stuff could be useful. I wonder if you can order them now and then only use them just before your holiday in July?

@Xenia As it stands most countries including the UK are insisting on the paid for PCR test except for one or two exceptions we probably won't meet. I considered stocking up on these free LFTS for that reason but of course they have already thought that through.

@Bagamoyo1 surely your school can't go against what goverment say though

[quote Jo99996]@epcot15 in that case I’m happy to report that personally in the efforts to help the government in times of austerity, I shall be saving the tax layer £10 per week by not having the tests.[/quote]
In that vein I would like to support you in helping out the government by joining you in not testing, and raising you with "cut all parliamentary salaries to the average wage and with only statutory terms" - that would save shed loads of money, and concentrate their minds on how the majority of people live.

Another nice lucrative contract for one of Boris’ mates.

I don't care anymore that I'm a granny killing ignorant wanker. The more that's pushed onto us the more I'm being a stubborn bitch and saying no.

And before I'm shouted at that I woudn't say that if CEV, ICU, intubation and the rest. You would be making a fool out of yourself.

@Moondust001 👍 good ideas there.

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/12/covid-19-government-must-urgently-rethink-lateral-flow-test-roll-out/

I'm in another country where we get 5 "free" home COVID testing kits per week.
We also have to have tests no older than 48 hours to go to hairdressers, nail studios etc. Once restaurants and bars open we will have to have these tests to enter those too. At the moment being vaccinated does not mean you are exempt from testing! The government tried to introduce mandatory testing to enter shops but that got (temporarily) knocked on the head.
The home testing kits are not valid for any of these purposes.
So much money is being poured out on the official tests and testing centres and on these home testing kits which don't get you entry anywhere anyway!

The more tests are carried out the more our cases are going up and therefore we are constantly being subjected to tightening up of other restrictions.
I do not know whether more cases are appearing because more people are being tested (the government claims this is not the case) or whether people are being more lax because they've done a home test and then think they can have friends round although that is not allowed yet. Certainly various families in the street seem to be doing what the fuck they like as are some friends of mine, saying "Oh we've all done home tests so it's fine"

Something is not working with this testing regime here. Since the testing before you can do anything started, more and more people are infected.

Complete waste of money. I just thought FFS when I saw that the UK were wanting people to test themselves twice a week.

5 free tests a MONTH that should say!

Well the UK (actually England) may want it but doesn't mean the majority will do it. Me included, if only for a stand against the terrible environmental impact of all the plastic waste.

@icdtap that is my greatest worry with this system. That it won't actually help the situation but will be used to justify further lock downs as case numbers (but not necessarily real cases) inevitably rise. The government don't seem to care about the impact on the economy or the people and seem to want to use any excuse to bring in more restrictions.

We all know these will suffer mission creep the way masks etc did.

They’ll be available and recommended.
Then there’ll be little uptake so they enforce them for certain places
Then they’ll be a push for more places
Then it’ll be one to leave home.

[quote fruitpastille]@islockdownoveryet Of course anyone can follow the instructions correctly to administer but it is widely known that the tests are not accurate and often give false negatives.[/quote]
They reckon 1 in every 1000 May be wrong.
It’s picked up positive on 2 out of 4 people in my household followed up by pcr test . It’s possible the 2 negative were wrong and actually were positive but as we have all isolated and the tests that followed have all been negative I would say it’s fairly accurate . Nothing is 100% but for me at least I know and I’d feel a little safer.
But you say if they aren’t accurate or that as someone else said because I’m not doing it right only 50% accurate .
A trained nurse won’t do it any differently to me the result will still be the same .
Again I have no issue with people who choose not to for various reasons from can’t afford to isolate to just don’t want to but please stop with the well it’s pointless because they are not accurate because it’s not true .

Do you have any links that shows the tests are accurate all the time? Because so far everything that has been posted says differently

Did I dream last year that these would have been rolled out before the schools reopened in September, then doh that plan was scrapped because of the lack of accuracy?

@icdtap which country are you in?

Where is this mountain of single use plastic going to end up?

I thought we were meant to be getting rid of plastic waste, hence the banning of plastic straws. I'm more concerned about the environmental impact than appeasing lockdown fanatics.